An American in Paris’s Kosher Restaurants
My husband Josh is a HUGE foody. He grew up in a family that owns a chain of restaurants in Arizona, and has always been surrounded by a passion for food. During his childhood, his family ate out at restaurants every night except for on Shabbat. His parents worked so hard during the day that they did not have time or energy to cook dinner after a long day of work. Josh was raised on restaurant food and doesn’t remember a time when his family did not eat out during the week. Restaurant food is his comfort food. Since we have gotten married, I haven’t had much practice cooking since Josh always prefers to go out to eat or order in food. Paris has over 200 Kosher restaurants, and Josh’s goal is to try most of them while we are here. We have also already returned to a few restaurants that we really liked more than once. We have eaten lunch and dinner at a restaurant every day since we have been here. To paint the picture more clearly, he even made up a song about how much he loves Paris because there are so many Kosher restaurants.
Even though sometimes, I think that it is atypical for a young married couple to spend so much money eating out all the time, I realize that it serves as great material for a blog reviewing Kosher restaurants in Paris. Below, you will find a list of the restaurants we have eaten at, their locations, and my experiences dining there. I have also included a couple of non-kosher restaurants that have vegetarian options and dessert destinations. Bon appetite!
French Kosher Cuisine 
J’adore le site web http://www.parispalate.com. N’est pas?
Orly, your blog is fabulous. You TOTALLY should try to get this published. xo D.
Really enjoying your blog – thanks to our cousin Adeena for recommending! Do you have any suggestions of restaurants that serve food on Shabbat? We are staying in the Vendome area and would like to keep our walk to 30 min max. Thanks!
Hi Avram,
I’m glad you are enjoying my blog! There is a restaurant called Les Ailes written about on my blog that is not too far from where you are staying, but unfortunately, it just closed. They used to serve Shabbat lunch and dinner and the food was excellent. The same owners own another restaurant in the 17th arrondissement called Raphael. They also have a Fri night/Saturday lunch, and believe it or not, the food at Raphael is even better than it was at Les Ailes! I wrote about Raphael on my blog, so you can read all about it. It’s 50 Euros per person but you definitely get what you pay for! Unfortunately, I have only ever eaten there on Shabbat so I don’t have pictures of the food for view. However, we like it so much that we have already been there 5 times for Shabbat dinner. I googled mapped the restaurant distance from Place de Vendome, and it’s about a 40 minute walk. If you’re willing to walk the extra 10 minutes, its worth it. Further, Paris is a fairly flat city, so you won’t be battling hills on your walk.
Another option is to eat dinner or lunch on the Chabad Champs Elysees. They are located at 122 Avenue des Champs-Élysées Paris, and are only a 30 minute walk from Place de Vendome. You can also go to a Traiteur (the french word for caterer) before Shabbat and take out prepared foods. They also have a parve bakery with Challah and all kinds of French desserts (croissants, tartes, mouse, etc). There is one very good traiteur in Paris called Charles Traiteur. They have several locations throughout the city, none of which are particularly close to you, but you can travel there before shabbat: http://www.charlestraiteur.fr/nos_adresses.html
Another Traiteur that I have been to is called Dado’s (written about on my blog) and it is right next to one of the Charles Traiteur locations in the 17th arrondissement (rue Jouffroy d’Abbans). If you decide to go the take out route, you can take your pick of food from both places.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions and enjoy your trip to Paris!
Orly
Thanks so much Orly. We’re going to do takeout for Friday night and try to get Rafaels for Shabbat lunch. Any idea if there is a Shul nearby Vendome area, or if that would also be in the 30-40 min walking range?
Thanks,
Avram
Hi Orly,
I’ll be visiting Paris over New Year with my boyfriend and our plan is to go to Rafael for Shabbat dinner, which I’m looking forward to! My question is: New Year’s Eve. I’ve had a look around the internet for a place for us to have a great dinner but all the places I have found are not kosher and therefore the menu is basically seafood in a seafood sauce. As NYE is a Saturday, I wasn’t sure of the situation regarding the kosher restaurants opening… do you know if any are? And if so, which would you recommend?
Thanks!
Hi Kate! Since Shabbat ends so early in Paris during the winter, most of the Kosher restaurants open on Saturday evening, so you should not have any trouble finding a place to go for dinner. What kind of restaurant are you looking for? Let’s try to narrow down the options so that I can recommend something great to you. Milk or meat? Formal or casual? Expensive or inexpensive?
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Orly
Off the top of my head, Osmose is the first restaurant that comes to mind as an ideal choice for a New Years Eve dinner. The food is pricey and the portions are small (so prepare to order wine and three courses) but it is a very chic and trendy venue as far as the Kosher restaurants here go, and definitely a unique dining experience. Definitely call in advance to make reservations though, as I would imagine that they will be booked on New Years Eve.
Thanks so much for your quick response! I’m not fussed either way about milk or meat – I would rather eat an amazing milky meal than a sub-par meat one. Nothing grossly formal either (not the kind of place that expects you to wear a jacket and tie) and although we don’t want to spend an absolute fortune, it’s a special night and deserves a special dinner. I think my only stipulation would be that the portion sizes aren’t small, as my boyfriend has a hearty appetite and although I think Osmose sounds like a great experience (and I’ll for sure run the option past him), I think I’d rather make sure that he’s full and happy!
For a great dairy meal with nice portions and a trendy young atmosphere, I would recommend l’inte Cafe. Everything I have ever had there has been excellent!! I especially love the penne a la norma and the caprese appetizer!
For a nice meat meal I would recommend Kavod. You’ll eat classic French cuisine and there is an extensive menu with meat and fish dishes, nice portions, on the expensive side but worth it!
Both restaurants are expensive but not crazy and nice but not too formal. Both have healthy sized potions for you boyfriend’s liking! I think they would be nice venues to celebrate New Years Eve. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Orly
Is Chateaubriand still open? My wife and I had a lovely dinner there for NYE 2006/2007. It was quite expensive, but there were something like 10 courses and the meal lasted 5 hours. Was well worth the splurge for a one time thing.
Hi JZ,
I think you may be thinking of the famous non-Kosher restaurant Chateaubriand. They are world renowned for their elaborate and 10 course meals and the price per person is certainly a splurge! The restaurant that I referenced in my blog is a Kosher restaurant called Chateaubriand. It is also one of the most pricey and formal dining experiences in Paris, however, they don’t offer a 10 course degustation meal (as far as I know). Their meat is high quality and I have heard only positive reviews about their steaks. The restaurant has kind of a stuck up, old world French atmosphere and the service is formal and high class. They seem to normally have an extensive wine list, but the evening that we ate there, they only had 5 bottles available. Thus, if you are looking for a more young, trendy, and chic atmosphere for NYE, I would not recommend this. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Orly
Hi Orly,
I left a follow up to this but it seems to have disappeared. But I wanted to mention that we 100% for sure went to the kosher Chateaubriand, and they must have been doing the special 10 course dinner just for NYE.
I have some follow up questions for you if you don’t mind contacting me directly! jeffzack at gmail
Thanks!
JZ
My wife and I are going to Paris on 5/6 and to complicate matters my wife is gluten intolerant and lactose intolerant. On your blog we read that your husband has Celiac, would it be possible that you and my wife have a few minutes to speak about dining options prior to our trip?
Thanks
Hi Joseph,
I’m going to be honest with you. Paris is the most non-gluten free friendly city that I have been to, and I have traveled to MANY cities in different countries around the world. My husband found it quite difficult to be gluten free in Paris, especially since most of the waiters at restaurants don’t know what gluten free or celiac is. The best advice that I can offer is go to any of the meat restaurants on my blog. Most of the meat restaurants have ultimately the same menus. They pretty much all have steak and frites, both of which as you know are gluten free and lactose free. There is also an amazing Indian Kosher meat restaurant called Darjeeling. It is one of the most popular kosher restaurants in Paris and is packed almost every night, so make sure to make a reservation. Most Indian food is naturally gluten free because almost all dishes are made with meat/chicken/fish, rice, lentils, chickpeas, etc.
The two restaurants that make the best steaks in my opinion and are not extravagantly expensive are Rafael and Kavod, both which are discussed in their own blog entries. Rafael also serves Shabbat dinner every Friday night for 50 euros per person. The food is delicious and portions are very generous! Yayin and Osmose are two meat restaurants which are very popular and quite expensive. Yayin serves gourmet nouvelle cuisine style plates and Osmose is a trendy French/Asian fusion restaurant.
There are also a whole bunch of Kosher Chinese and Japanese meat restaurants, but I would be cautious of these because they use a lot of soy sauces in the cooking and I’m sure they are not wheat free sauces. They are not very good anyways, so you aren’t missing out. As long as you visit the French style meat restaurants, you’ll find something for your wife to eat. Look at the 4 and 5 starred restaurant on the blog for those restaurants which I liked the best. Good luck and enjoy Paris! Please let me know if you have any other questions. Definitely also eat French macaroons because they are made with almond flour so are GF and many of the fruit flavors will be dairy free.
Orly,
Thank you for producing such an informative and useful website!
I am currently planning a suprise weekend trip to Paris for my wifes birthday. I have booked a hotel in Le Marais and have recently been researching where to eat our shabbos meals. I note that the ‘le Ailes’ restaurant is now closed, and it now seems the only options avaible for a shabbos meal out of the hotel room would be Rafael and the chabad house. Given that we are staying in Le Marais, I am surprising my wife for her birthday (i.e is chabad really an option), and we are shomrei shabbos, I wondered if you wouldnt mind giving me some advice on where best to go please.
I have checked and Rafael seems to be circa 1.5 hour walk away, which wouldnt be so bad on a nice shabbos evening or afternoon, however the lady I spoke to did mention that the rav of Paris now only allows kosher resturatns to open on shabbos if they have a minimum of 30 reservations.
many thanks in advance.
Josh
Hi Josh,
It’s funny because we actually left Paris over a year and a half ago, but I still get many inquiries from people who find my blog. I’m not up to date anymore, however, I hope that my advice is still relevant and helpful to you.
If you are going during the summer (not in August because most restaurants are closed then), Rafael should be busy on a Friday night and should allow you to be able to make the reservation. Friday night dinner at Rafael is a very special experience- nice ambiance, great food, large portions. If you can make it work, I would definitley suggest doing the walk. For Sat lunch, you can take out from Charles Traiteur (the french word for caterer). They also have a parve bakery with Challah and all kinds of French desserts (croissants, tartes, mouse, etc). I believe they have 4 locations so you can search for the one nearest you at http://www.charlestraiteur.fr/nos_adresses.html
Enjoy and let me know if you have other questions.
Orly
we will be in paris in about 1 week you said most restaurants r closed then what to do? susan
Hi- I haven’t lived in Paris for the past 2 years, but your best bet is just to call the restaurants to see if they are open. There is no science to the closing of the restaurants in Aug 🙂
how do I find out which kosher resturants will be open on August 21-25 2013 for dinner or lunch? There are too many to call all of ten. Rafael will not accept reservations at that time for shabbat I was told. Thanks you. Elizabeth Also we are staying in the Vendome area. Are there any kosher supermarkets there or nearby?
Galina is near Vendome-
11 Rue Bertin Poirée, Paris (not chic restaurant more for lunch)
In terms of places that are open in August, your best bet is to just call the restaurants to find out. Good luck!