Our recommendations for the best restaurants near Opéra and the Grands Boulevards Related Opéra Garnier: An insider's guide The Opéra Garnier is a mini-city unto itself, with a museum, gourmet restaurant, one of the world's lovliest theatres and even an underground lake (the inspiration for Gaston Leroux's 'Phantom of the Opera') now used for specialised underwater fireman training. Its location between department stores Galeries Lafayette and Printemps, the Louvre and the Japanese quarter by rue St-Anne, makes it one of the city's most visited monuments, so if you want to escape the tourists, you have to be inventive. We recommend heading ten-minutes eastwards on foot towards Grands Boulevards, or northwards into the heart of the 9th arrondissement where young crowds of Parisians are setting up shop, bringing with them a trail of cool boutiques, bars, cafés and attractions. Here's our pick of the bunch.... For more information on the Palais Garnier, click on the following links: the Musée de l'Opéra - programme and reservations - the Restaurant de l'Opéra - the Palais Garnier Around Opéra Garnier... Attractions: Les Passages Couverts In 18th and 19th century Paris, the areas around today’s Grands Boulevards donned themselves with glass-roofed shopping galleries known as les passages couverts (covered passages). These forerunners to modern-day malls simultaneously allowed you to take a shortcut through the city, shelter from the rain, shop, dine, and (for many men) spend a debaucherous hour in the arms of a lady. Who knows, Paris’s reputation for its ubiquitous merde may even have roots in this era, as most passages were equipped with a salon de décrottage – literally a de-pooping room, in which punters had their shoes scraped clean! Nowadays these passages are real architectural gems – olde-worlde galleries perfect for tantric browsing. Galerie Vivienne (4 rue des Petits Champs, 5 rue de la Banque, 6 rue Vivienne, 2nd) is one of the prettiest with ochre paintwork and mythology-themed mosaics. It also has a tearoom. While Passage des Panoramas (11–13 bd. Montmartre, 151 rue Montmartre, 2nd) built in 1800, takes the credit for being the first public area in Paris to be lit by gas in 1817. Best for a mooch though, are Passage Jouffroy (10–12 bd. Montmartre and 9 rue de la Grange Batelière, 9th) and its continuation, Passage Verdeau (6 rue de la Grange Batelière and 31bis rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 9th) both built around 1847. Here you’ll find the Musée Grévin waxwork museum and dinky boutiques that flaunt everything from precious stones, stamps and jewellery to antique cameras and furniture. Tea Room: Zenzoo Between 2.30pm and 7pm this tiny Taiwanese restaurant doubles as a 'tea bar', the only place in Paris that serves China's famous tapioca cocktails - sometimes known as 'bubble tea', they are served with an extra-wide straw to suck up the little tapioca balls at the bottom. The sensation may seem strange at first, but the tastes are great; among the flavours are mango, coconut and kumquat. Up the road at No.2, a spin-off boutique sells excellent oolong flower teas. Restaurant: Chez Miki There are plenty of Japanese restaurants to choose from along nearby rue Ste-Anne, but none is as original - nor as friendly - as this tiny bistro run entirely by women, next to the square Louvois. The speciality here is bento boxes, which you compose yourself from a scribbled blackboard list (in Japanese and French). For €15 you can choose two small dishes - marinated sardines and fried chicken wings are especially popular - and a larger dish, such as grilled pork with ginger. Don't miss the inventive desserts, which might include lime jelly spiked with alcohol. Restaurant: Les Fils à Maman In the up-and-coming neighbourhood near the Folies Bergère a band of five ‘mothers’ boys’ has created a restaurant evoking their mums’ home cooking. Even the mums themselves get into the kitchen on the first Tuesday of the month to turn out blanquette de veau, chicken cordon bleu with beaufort cheese and Nutella-flavoured puddings. Whether or not you think Babybel has a place in Gallic cuisine, it’s a chance to relive the school French exchange or 1980s après-ski in the company of an ebullient crowd. Restaurant: Supernature Who said eating healthily was boring? Certainly not the many regulars who flock each afternoon (and on Sunday for brunch) to this tiny canteen in the 9th arrondissement. There’s no overriding organic or vegetarian concept, just well-cooked, daily-changing healthy dishes. There’s at least one delicious vegetarian dish each day, and they often have an ‘Assiette vitalité’ which brings together fresh vegetables goat’s cheese and organic galettes in a wondrous combination. Burger Bar: Big Fernand A brilliant little burger joint, which takes the traditional American burger and gives it the French terroir treatment. Nowhere’s been left out, with regional specialities from all over France wedged between delicious sesame seed buns from the bakery next door. There’s fourme cheese from Ambert, tomme cheese from Savoie, Saint-Nectaire cheese, Charolais and Blonde d’Aquitaine beef and more.The menu lists five house burgers, but you can also build your own. Choose from beef, chicken, lamb and veal and then add cheese, grilled vegetables, streaky bacon, sauces, herbs or spices. You order at the counter and then try and find a seat, which isn’t always easy – but if all else fails you can get it to go. Chips (known here as ‘fernandines’) come with, and the concept even extends to the drinks and desserts, with homemade soda, organic lemonade, and traditional puddings.Quick and friendly service comes from moustachioed men in checked shirts, all part of why Big Fernand has shot to the top of Paris’s burger ranks. The only slight quibble is the price – about €15 without dessert. The quality of the ingredients is high, but the portions aren’t huge and it feels a little much to pay for what is still fast food. Bar: Les 36 Corneil Note the address well, because there’s no other sign to indicate the whereabouts of this tapas bar, opened at the end of 2010 by a chap called Cornélius (whence the name). But once you do find your way inside, to the room with its big windows and warm atmosphere, it’s easy to settle in. No pretentious clientele here, but rather the neighbourhood regulars drinking a glass of wine or a bottle à la ficelle (you only pay for what you drink) chosen with the wise counsel of the proprietor. You can also eat very well here, snacking on canailles [‘rogues’], a sort of French tapas, from a regularly changing menu. At three top quality canailles for €12, or five for €15, the prices are really very good for what you get. Beneath the gaze of the enormous scarecrow installed behind the bar, you can also spend your weekends dancing to disco and rock. Overall, a great find in the 9th arrondissement. Club: Rex Club The Rex's new sound system puts over 40 different sound configurations at the DJ's fingertips, and has proved to be a magnet for top turntable stars. Once associated with iconic techno pioneer Laurent Garnier, the Rex has stayed at the top of the Paris techno scene, and occupies an unassailable position as the city's serious club music venue. Club: Le Social Club Set right in the hub of the city's club activity around Grands Boulevards, this electro venue has some of the hippest acts from the French and international scene, thanks to its owner's multidisciplinary career as a producer and founder of the record label Uncivilized World. Recent refurbishment should make it even better. Shop: Gabrielle Geppert If Didier Ludot is too intimidating, visit Gabrielle Geppert's shop, where much fun can be had rummaging in the back room or trying on the outrageous collection of '70s sunglasses (about €380 a pop, but they will get you into any party worth going to). A new exclusive room dedicated to accessories by the likes of Hermès and Manolo Blahnik can be opened on request, and she also carries a range of original costume jewellery by Elisabeth Ramuz. The best hotel rooms in Paris Luxurious, avant-garde and eccentric hotel rooms in the French capital For more hotel reviews and information, click here. More hotel selections... Luxury hotels Romantic hotels Boutique hotels Budget hotels B&Bs Apartments Explore Paris by area Butte-aux-Cailles & Bercy Saint-Germain-des-Prés & Saint-Michel Marais & Beaubourg Opéra & Grands Boulevards Bastille & Oberkampf Canal Saint-Martin, Ourcq & Villette Belleville & Ménilmontant Montmartre & Pigalle Area guide: Opéra & Grands Boulevards The livliest quarters of the Right Bank (2nd, 8th, 9th and 10th) Night owls know this part of the Right Bank well: Grands Boulevards and Opéra are the quartiers where clubs, theatres and bars have reeled in pleasure-seekers for centuries. The area got its look when Baron Haussmann carved his iconic boulevards through Paris’ old centre during the Second Empire. Charles Garnier’s wedding cake (Palais Garnier) is there as a gilded centre-piece, but this is also where you’ll find the Rex Club (temple to electronica), David Lynch’s much talked about Silencio club, numerous Irish pubs and comedy theatres. History-wise the district’s got a lot going for it too - it was near today’s Hôtel Scribe that the Lumière brothers held the world’s first public film screening in 1895. Further down the boulevard towards Place de la Madeleine, the Olympia concert hall was the a legendary venue for Piaf, the Beatles and anyone in chanson. And just opposite at N° 35, pioneering portrait photographer Nadar opened a studio in the 1860s, frequented by Offenbach and Doré. In 1874 it even hosted the very first Impressionist exhibition. While you’re in the area, don’t miss the Opéra Garnier’s ceiling, painted by Chagall in 1964 and don’t forget to free your inner shopaholic in the Grands Magasins (department stores) Galeries Lafayette and Printemps, which line boulevard Haussmann just behind. At Christmas the crowds line up to admire the sparking window displays, so sharpen your elbows. Restaurants in Opéra & Grands Boulevards Les Noces de Jeannette Fun, friendly and value for money, Les Noces de Jeannette’s is a buzzy, sociable place popular with groups of friends and wonderfully French. Stood opposite Opera Comique and near the Grands Boulevards, it’s very central andeasy to find. Five rooms over two floors begin with a cosy entrance bistro adjoining a 30 to 50s cinema-themed dining room, both serving seasonal, brasserie-style daily specials and plenty of atmosphere. Upstairs Les Noces de Jeannette houses three attractive private event spaces, biggest of which is Haussman-inspired Salon Imperial for 80 guests. With the a la carte comes a generous choice of cheaper fixed price menus and a big drinks list. Happy Days Happy Days restaurant and cabaret in Paris is living proof that the music and telly of the sixties, seventies and eighties never died. In fact, we've found the exact location in Paris where you can hear nightly renditions of the great sounds of the era -- soul, blues, r'n'b, rock, disco -- and view scenes from classic tv shows in an atmosphere that's warm and welcoming and most of all fun. This place will take you back, and if you didn't get to be there the first time around, you will discover some of the best sounds on earth. The menu is modern French. Choose your main course and a constellation of starters and desserts arrive as well. The show will get you jumping, so carry on getting down until 2 in the morning. Happy Days, happy nights too. L'Ami Georges L'Ami Georges is known for its traditional French food. It fits the image of a classic Parisian bistro too, with its wicker chairs grouped outside beneath a burgundy awning on the corner of Rue Quatre Septembre across the river from Ile de la Cite. Inside is all softly-lit cosiness. Confit de canard, cassoulet, cheese burger, terrines, mussels in white wine, steak frites – everything is fresh and homemade or bought that day, with specialties being Normandy oysters, snails and silken foie gras. L'Ami Georges is open every day and has a non-stop service, so there’s no fear of being shown the door because you turned up at the wrong time. Hotels in Opéra & Grands Boulevards Hotel Icône Ideally located in Paris’ stylish 2nd district, Hotel Icône is just a 10-minute walk from Opera Garnier and 200 metres from Richelieu-Drouot Metro Station. It features stylish, air-conditioned rooms.Each soundproofed room is individually decorated and pays tribute to different cinema icons. A flat-screen TV with satellite channels and a minibar are provided in each room.Every morning, breakfast can be delivered to guests’ rooms or selected from the buffet. The dining room features black and white decor and an open fireplace. Room service is available throughout the day.The front desk is open 24-hour and the staffare able to help organise car and bicycle rental. A ticket service for local shows and excursions is provided on site. Airport shuttles can also be arranged from the hotel.The famous Galeries Lafayette department store is 650 metres from Hotel Icone. The Louvre Museum is a 15-minute walk away. Lautrec Opera Housed in the former home of the painter Toulouse Lautrec, this hotel is a 3-minute walk from Richelieu Drouot Metro Station, which leads directly to the Opera Garnier. It offers free Wi-Fi in the entire building.All the air-conditioned rooms at Lautrec Opera include a flat-screen TV with cable channels and a bathroom with a hairdryer and a bath or shower. A desk and a safe are also featured.Guests can enjoy a buffet breakfast every morning at Lautrec Opera. Restaurants and cafés can be found within 300 metres of the hotel.The property is a 15-minute walk from the Louvre Museum and Galeries Lafayette department store is just an 8-minute walk away. Public parking is available nearby at an additional cost. Mercure Paris Opera Cusset Located in central Paris, near the Grands Boulevards and the famous department stores, Mercure Paris Opera Cusset features stylish air-conditioned rooms and free Wi-Fi access.Each room is equipped with a flat-screen TV with satellite channels, tea and coffee making facilities and a private bathroom. All rooms are accessible by a lift.A buffet breakfast and traditional French cuisine is served in the 18th-century dining room. Enjoy a selection of snacks and drinks in the comfort of your own room using the room service, available 23 hours a day.Mercure Paris Opera Cusset is within walking distance to the Opera, the Louvre and Jardin de Tuileries. Metro station Richelieu - Drouot is 150 metres from the hotel, which gives direct access to the Eiffel Tower and the Invalides. Shopping in Opéra & Grands Boulevards Village Joué Club This is one of Time Out's 100 best shops in Paris. Click here to see the full list.Village Joué Club, the largest toy store in Paris, is spread out in and around passage des Princes. The rabbit warren kiddie complex totals nearly 22,000 square feet with fifteen individual storefronts. Parents could lose days being dragged from the Playmobil section to the costume room via shelves laden with dolls, wooden toys and action figures. There's even a children's hairdresser and room for birthday parties. Les Passages Couverts In 18th and 19th century Paris, the areas around today’s Grands Boulevards donned themselves with glass-roofed shopping galleries known as les passages couverts (covered passages). These forerunners to modern-day malls simultaneously allowed you to take a shortcut through the city, shelter from the rain, shop, dine, and (for many men) spend a debaucherous hour in the arms of a lady. Who knows, Paris’s reputation for its ubiquitous merde may even have roots in this era, as most passages were equipped with a salon de décrottage – literally a de-pooping room, in which punters had their shoes scraped clean! Nowadays these passages are real architectural gems – olde-worlde galleries perfect for tantric browsing. Galerie Vivienne (4 rue des Petits Champs, 5 rue de la Banque, 6 rue Vivienne, 2nd) is one of the prettiest with ochre paintwork and mythology-themed mosaics. It also has a tearoom. While Passage des Panoramas (11–13 bd. Montmartre, 151 rue Montmartre, 2nd) built in 1800, takes the credit for being the first public area in Paris to be lit by gas in 1817. Best for a mooch though, are Passage Jouffroy (10–12 bd. Montmartre and 9 rue de la Grange Batelière, 9th) and its continuation, Passage Verdeau (6 rue de la Grange Batelière and 31bis rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 9th) both built around 1847. Here you’ll find the Musée Grévin waxwork museum and dinky boutiques that flaunt everything from precious stones, stamps and jewellery to antique cameras and furniture. Hôtel Drouot This is one of Time Out's 100 best shops in Paris. Click here to see the full list. A spiky aluminium-and-marble concoction is the unlikely location for France's second largest art market - though it is now rivalled by Sotheby's and Christie's. Inside, escalators take you up to a number of small salerooms, where everything from medieval manuscripts and antique furniture to oriental arts, modern paintings, posters, jewellery and fine wines might be up for sale. Details of forthcoming auctions are published in the weekly Gazette de l'Hôtel Drouot, sold at various newsstands around the city. Music & Nightlife in Opéra & Grands Boulevards Cafés & Bars in Opéra & Grands Boulevards Le Truskel The formula is quite simple at this pub-cum-club: an excellent selection of beers slakes your thirst, while an extensive repertoire of Britpop - sometimes live (ex-Pulp man and Paris resident Jarvis Cocker has been known to splice the night here, as has Pete Doherty and Franz Ferdinand) - assaults your ears. As a cheeky touch, a bar bell rings for no reason whatsoever, causing first-time visitors from the UK to down their drinks in one and dive for the bar. Racines The 19th-century passage des Panoramas contains an eclectic collection of shops and restaurants - among them this wildly popular wine bar opened by the former owners of La Crèmerie in St-Germain. The menu is limited to superb-quality cheese and charcuterie plates, plus a couple of hot dishes, perhaps pork cheeks stewed in red wine or braised lamb, and a few comforting desserts. Many of the intense-tasting wines are biodynamic, and despite the rather hectic atmosphere lingering over an extra glass or two is cheerfully tolerated. Dédé la Frite Suits from the nearby Bourse flock here for after-work cocktails (€7) and beers (€4), before giving in to the tempting aromas emanating from the kitchen: Dédé's frites at just €3 a tray are legendary and the rest of the food, reminiscent of an American diner (burgers, fries, ketchup on the bar), is an absolute bargain too. The place looks cool as well, with distressed walls, long bar, bright colours. After hours, when the alcohol flows and the munchies have been satisfied, the music is cranked up and the party really starts. Things to see & do in Opéra & Grands Boulevards Le Grand Rex La Bourse - Palais Brongniart Eglise de la Madeleine Bibliothèque Nationale de France - Richelieu & Musée du Cabinet des Médailles Paris's best food shops Whether you're tasting cheeses for a dinner party, looking for wine for your cellar, in need of a chocolate fix, or just feeling joyfully indulgent, Paris' gourmet food shops are a sensual pleasure based around quality. Give your taste buds a treat at some of these places. Fromagerie Quatrehomme Marie Quatrehomme runs this fromagerie. Justly famous for her beaufort and st-marcellin, she also sells specialities such as goat's cheese with pesto. Pierre Hermé Pastry superstar Pierre Hermé attracts connoisseurs from St-Germain and afar with his seasonal collections. His vanilla slice (mille-feuille) is legendary, as are his macaroons - easily the best in Paris, if not France. Prices are high but your taste buds will thank you. Ladurée Decadence permeates this elegant tearoom, from the 19th century-style interior and service to the labyrinthine corridors that lead to the toilets. While you bask in the warm glow of bygone wealth, indulge in tea, pastries (the pistachio pain au chocolat is heavenly) and, above all, the hot chocolate. It's a rich, bitter, velvety tar that will leave you in the requisite stupor for any lazy afternoon. La Tête dans les Olives Tête dans les Olives on place St-Marthe (just north of Canal St-Martin) entices foodies with the promise of fruity olive oil fit for the finest of restaurants. Sicilian owner Cédric knows his oils like a sommelier knows his wines and can recommend types to match what you’re cooking. You’ll also find delicacies like sun-dried tomatoes made from beefy “patataro” Italian tomatoes, top-grade pasta, herbs and deliciously tangy capers. For an all out treat book the table d’hôtes (lunchtime or evening) and dine inside the shop on fresh sun-kissed products. Only six people are permitted at a time, making the experience feel like a well-kept Parisian secret. You only get details of what the menu will include when you book, which is part of the fun too. Christian Constant A master chocolate-maker and traiteur, Constant scours the globe for new ideas. His ganaches are subtly flavoured with verbena, jasmine or cardamom. Poilâne Apollonia Poilâne runs the family shop, where locals queue for fresh country miches, flaky-crusted apple tarts and buttery shortbread biscuits. Saxe-Breteuil Saxe-Breteuil has an unrivalled setting facing the Eiffel Tower, as well as the city's most chic produce. Look for farmer's goat's cheese, rare apple varieties, Armenian specialities, abundant oysters and a handful of dedicated small producers. Ryst Dupeyron The Dupeyrons have been selling armagnac for four generations, and still have bottles from 1868. Treasures here include 200 fine Bordeaux wines and an extensive range of vintage port. Maison de la Truffe Sliced, grated, chopped up in a sauce or in a crème-brûlée, the diamond of French gastronomy has taken pride of place in this chic eatery on Place de la Madeleine since 1932. Eighty years on, tubers of all kinds (Black truffles, White Alba truffles, Summer, Winter and Burgundy truffles) are still so adulated here that they’ve influenced the décor, which comes in shades of truffle brown, cream and beige. Not that the diners notice: Aficionados are far more interested in what’s on their plates, which is understandable once tasted the delicacies leaving the kitchen. Start with lip-smacking dishes like chestnut cream with black truffle and smoked bacon, followed by succulent Rossini beef in creamy truffle sauce, and a dessert of chocolate fondant with vanilla-truffle ice-cream. Then raise your glass to the dog who sniffed out the fungi you’re digesting.You can also buy truffles to take away. Lavinia Lavinia stocks a broad selection of French alongside many non-French wines; its glassed-in cave has everything from a 1945 Mouton-Rothschild at €22,000 to trendy and 'fragile' wines for under €10.Have fun tasting wine with the dégustation machines on the ground floor, which allow customers to taste a sip of up to ten different wines each week for €10. Fauchon The city's most famous food shop is worth a visit, particularly for the beautifully packaged gift items and the stunning pastries and cakes - or, as Fauchon likes to call them, 'le snacking chic'.
Caviar by the Eiffel Tower? Fine coffee on the Canal St Martin? Offal in the Latin Quarter? We've grouped our favourite restaurants in Paris by area so that you can browse photos and reviews and choose the perfect place for your meal.