13 Best Cheap And Affordable Restaurants In Paris

Since Parisians live to eat (and drink), there are plenty of fantastic places to eat in Paris. Finding an inexpensive meal, however, isn’t always easy, especially if you don’t want to settle for substandard food. That’s why we put up this list of cheap and affordable restaurants in Paris.

This guide includes a diverse selection of restaurants, ranging from traditional French bistro classics and crepes to Asian and Italian.

RELATED READ: Is Paris Expensive? What You Need To Know (2023)

Most of the restaurants on our list have main courses priced between €7 and €15, so you should be able to grab a delicious meal and a drink for less than €10-€20.

13 Best Cheap And Affordable Restaurants In Paris

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Here’s the list of the best cheap and affordable restaurants in Paris where you can eat on a budget.

1. Frenchie To Go (FTG)

Address: 9 Rue du Nil, 2nd Arrondissement

Average Price: €15-€20 / per person

Chef Gregory Marchard’s restaurant Frenchie in the Sentier, Paris’s historic garment district, is one of the hardest to book and out of reach for budget customers.

However, you can still appreciate his skills at this laid-back takeaway or eat-in eatery. Frenchie features a delightful menu that includes top-notch Reuben and pulled pork sandwiches, fish & chips, cheesecake, doughnuts, and homemade ginger beer. Breakfast is also served throughout the day.

2. Bistrot Victoires

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Address: 6 rue La Vrillière, 1st arrondissement

 Average Price: €20-€25 / per person

This lively bistro is a neighbourhood favourite for great Gallic fare, with a vintage decor (globe lights, frosted glass windows) worthy of a Parisian postcard. 

Stop by this nearby restaurant for steak fries (shown served with a burning sprig of thyme), confit de canard (grilled preserved duck), or roast chicken if you’re visiting the Louvre.

Skip the appetizer and opt for a dessert like Tarte Tatin or profiteroles with a hot chocolate sauce drizzle.

3. Bouillon Chartier

Address: 7 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 9th Arrondissement & 59 Boulevard du Montparnasse, 7th Arrondissement

Average Price: €15-€20 / per person

The lavish brass lighting and dual-level design of Chartier’s 120-year-old restaurant will make you forget you’re eating on a budget.

Expect to be seated with strangers (community dining is encouraged here) as hurrying servers in formalwear scrawl your order on the paper tablecloth topper and plop down platters of escargot, veal chops, steak-frites, and other delicacies.

The main courses are all under 12 euros and well portioned, but it is recommended to save room for the cheese.

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4. Breizh Café

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Address: 109 Rue Vieille du Temple, 3rd Arrondissement

Average Price: €15-€20 / per person

This is an outstanding Parisian crêperie that started from the seaside Breton village of Cancale. Breizh Café provides buckwheat galettes and crêpes made with premium ingredients. 

At the Marais location, freshly shucked oysters are a worthy splurge, or you can order one of their crisp-edged and neatly folded savoury galettes, such as the Cancalaise, which is filled with smoked herring, crème fraîche, and herring roe.

Try also the complet, which comes with an egg, ham, and cheese and can be dressed up with extras like mushrooms or artichoke hearts.

Dessert is a salted caramel and vanilla ice-cream crêpe, which goes well with the regulars. Wash it all down with one of the 15 artisanal ciders on offer.

5. Bouillon Pigalle

Address: 22 Boulevard de Clichy, 9th Arrondissement

Average Price: €10-€20 / per person

This classic French eatery is both beautiful and budget-friendly. A tiny line of patrons usually forms outside Bouillon Pigalle, a two-story restaurant with plants and eye-catching graphic art.

Business people and tourists alike cluster around tables to enjoy boeuf bourguignon, boiling heaps of lamb stew, duck confit, and other fresh and savoury big-batch favourites. The majority of the meals are under 15 euros, while the wine list starts at 3.3 euros.

6. Kodawari Ramen

Address: 29 Rue Mazarine, 6th Arrondissement

Average Price: €10-€15 / per person

If you ask any well-informed Parisian where to get the best noodle soup in France, they’ll likely refer you to Kodawari — or, more likely, to the line outside the restaurant’s door.

This ramen-ya owned by a retired French Air Force pilot (he immersed himself in Japanese food while on the job) is the place to share a round of appetisers (3 euros and above), sip yuzu martinis, and slurp face-sized bowls of rich, slow-simmered shio, shoyu, and seasonal ramens.

7. Jixiao’s Buns

Address: 21 Quai des Grands Augustins, 75006 Paris

Average Price: €15-€20 / per person

Finding excellent Asian food in Paris might be difficult at times, but Jixiao’s Buns serves you one of the most delicious and wonderful Asian dinners around.  

The restaurant’s most visible and distinctive dish is the crunchy pan-fried buns loaded with meat and sauce.  

They offer a small straw for you to slurp up the soup if you buy four of these buns for €6. Noodles, which start at €7, are also available.

Only a few seats are available outside to enjoy your burns when they are still hot and fresh from the pan. If you wish to order takeaway, Jixiao’s also has a window joint.

8. L’As du Fallafel

Address: 32-34 Rue des Rosiers, 3rd Arrondissement

Average Price: €10-€20 / per person

If you or someone you know studied abroad in Paris, it’s probable they told you, “You must eat falafel in Le Marais, especially at L’As du Fallafel.”

They’re not wrong, but don’t come starving. A line usually forms outside the door of this kosher Middle Eastern restaurant.

Here, you can get a falafel wrap loaded with hummus, spicy harissa, and eggplant — and, if you’re feeling extra, fries — for 6.50 euros.

9. La Cantine de la Cigale

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Address: 124 boulevard Rochechouart, 18th Arrondissement

Average Price: €15-€20 / per person

Right in the heart of honky-tonk Pigalle, talented bistro chef Christian Etchebest’s recently-opened restaurant offers excellent eats from southwest France at surprisingly affordable prices.

Portions at this friendly place serving non-stop from 8am-2am are generous, so share a slice of the excellent pâté, then go for the sausage with white beans or cod in sauce vierge, and finish up with some Ossau-Iraty cheese from the Pyrenees with black-6cherry jam or maybe a slice of mirabelle tart with almond cream.

10. La Pointe du Groin

Address: 8 rue de Belzunce, 10th Arrondissement

Average Price: €15-€20 / per person

Get away from the fast-food crowd near the Gare du Nord for a cheap and great dinner at chef Thierry Breton’s third restaurant; his Chez Michel and Chez Casimir, a few doors down, are among the best bistros in Paris, and you get the same quality here for a lot less money.

Sandwiches here, including a few vegetarian options, are created using Breton’s baked-on-the-premises bread.

Meanwhile, Breton desserts such as a wonderful chocolate kouign amann and far Breton, a thick flan with prunes, are not to be missed.

11. Polidor

Address: 41 Rue Monsieur le Prince, 6th arrondissement- Luxembourg (Line B)

Average Price: €15-€20 / per person

Polidor began operations in the mid-nineteenth century. It is regarded as a legendary Paris cafe where luminaries such as Andre Gide and Ernest Hemingway once dined.

This is one of the few eateries in the pricey Odeon neighborhood where you can find a classic concrete menu that isn’t overly flamboyant.

Lunch meals range from $12 to $24 (about €9 to €18). Polidor’s homemade pumpkin soup, cake, and tarts are a must-try.

12. The Hood Paris

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Address: 80 Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Paris, France

Average Price: €15-€20 / per person

This place is well-known for serving delicious food and the best coffee in the area. Khanh- Ly Huynh, a skilled French- Vietnamese chef who won MasterChef France in 2015, created the menu.

The baristas behind the counter are always cheerful and helpful, their music selection is excellent, and their iced lattes are among the best in Paris.

The Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches with egg, pork, chicken, or tofu on their menu are all €7. The Hood’s vegetables are pickled in-house, and the handmade sriracha sauce is delicious.

13. Le Troisième

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Address: 16 Rue de Beauce, 3rd Arrondissement

Average Price: €15-€20 / per person

One of Paris’ best-kept secrets is Le Troisième, a community-run café in the city’s 3rd Arrondissement. This little cafe, just steps from the covered market, the Marché des Enfants Rouges. It brings the community together through food and a cultural exchange of flavors.   

The menu changes everyday, but you can get meat and vegetarian meals for a few euros. It’s an added bonus if you can converse in French and make some new local friends. Only cash is accepted.