Our favorite restaurants in Saint-Germain
Here are our favorite tasting menus, wine bars, vegetarian options, and spots for oysters, brunch and more in Saint-Germain. Scroll down to learn what we really don't like.
Saint-Germain is pretty as a postcard but filled with mediocre restaurants. To help you avoid the tourist traps, we’ve created this list of recommended restaurants and wine bars based on recent visits.
Best tasting menu: Quinsou
33 Rue de l'Abbé Grégoire, 75006
Open for lunch and dinner Wednesday-Saturday, plus dinner on Tuesday
Reservations online or at +33 (0)1 42 22 66 09
Chef Antonin Bonnet is serving beautiful food in a serene (bordering on sleepy) dining room just south of Le Bon Marché. At night, the five course tasting menu for 95€ includes an excellent cheese course - our most recent visit included Brie de Meaux under a shower of black truffle. Three and four course tasting menus are available at lunch for 56€ and 72€. A lovely spot for a quiet or romantic dinner.
Another good (cheaper) tasting menu: KGB
25 Rue des Grands Augustins, 75006
Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Saturday
Reservations online or at +33 (0)1 46 33 00 85
Kitchen Galerie Bis (KGB) has been stealthily delivering for more than a decade: solidly good, not overly-expensive, and relatively easy to get in. This is chef William Ledeuil’s second restaurant after Ze Kitchen Galerie, and the best value option to taste his Asian-inflected French cuisine. Four and five course tasting menus are available at night for 59€ and 75€, but you can also order à la carte.
Best vegetarian tasting menu: Dupin
11 Rue Dupin, 75006
Open Tuesday-Saturday for lunch and dinner
Reservations online or at +33 (0)1 42 22 64 56
Vegetables and seasonal ingredients play a starring role in chef Nathan Helo’s cooking at Dupin. His menus (86€ for 5 courses at dinner, 36-44€ for 2-3 courses at lunch) always include one or two “serious” vegetarian options for each course, along with some brinier and meatier options. Recover here after a shopping trip to the nearby Bon Marché.
Bonus points: good for outdoor dining and for vegetarians
Also good for vegetarians: Semilla
54 Rue de Seine, 75006
Open for dinner Wednesday-Sunday, plus lunch on weekends
Reservations online or at +33 (0)1 43 54 34 50
We’ve had an on-again off-again love affair with Semilla during their many years on the rue de Seine. For the moment, we’re back together and recommending Semilla especially for those who love vegetables. Meaty options abound here, but we crave Semilla as a corrective when we want to eat slightly healthier (paired with excellent wine, bien sûr). While there are meat and fish options on the menu, the vegetable-focused plates are where the action is.
Bonus points: Open Sunday, vegetarian options and an outstanding wine list
Best wine bistro: Sauvage
55 Rue du Cherche-Midi, 75006
Open every day for lunch and dinner
Reservations at +33 (0)1 45 48 86 79
Sauvage is boisterous and fun. It has the feeling of a friendly neighborhood wine bar that just happens to have real talent (chef Sébastien Leroy) in the kitchen. Sauvage caters to a local St-Germain clientele that doesn’t bat an eye at relatively high prices, resulting in luxurious dishes like quail with foie gras and black truffle. The wine list leans natural, and contains treasures.
Bonus points: open Sunday and Monday
Best wine bar: Augustin Marchand d’Vins
26 rue des Grands Augustins, 75006
Open Tuesday-Sunday from 5-10pm
Reservations strongly encouraged at +33 (0)9 81 21 76 21
The red neon sign throws a sexy light into the cozy interior of Augustin. A jumble of books, bottles and flowers combine to make this space feel special - the sort of place you’d hope to stumble upon by happy chance. Food and wine are curated by the enthusiastic proprietor who advises and serves every table himself. The kitchen is about an inch wide and lacks extraction, so most of the small plates are product-based: mortadella from Pouilles, Cantabrian anchovies, aged Comté (to taste with a glass of vin jaune). There are usually one or two “fresh” plates every night - we had some excellent asparagus on our most recent visit, along with za’taar-dusted octopus. Prices are high for a wine bar, reflecting the real cost of Augustin’s excellent ingredients. It’s worth it. Small and intimate with only a few tables - book in advance or risk being turned away. Highly recommended for a romantic encounter or a quiet one-on-one.
Bonus points: excellent wine list, open Sunday night
Another good wine bar: L’Avant Comptoir(s)
3 Carrefour de l'Odéon, 75006
Open every day from noon-11pm, every day of the year
No reservations and very few stools (mostly standing)
L’Avant Comptoir opened more than a decade ago as the Basque-inflected tapas bar next to Le Comptoir (see below, under Not Recommended). Since then, Yves Camdeborde has added a second L’Avant next to the first, and has distinguished the two by their focus: L’Avant Comptoir de la Mer serves seafood, including platters of oysters with good bread and Bordier butter. L’Avant Comptoir de la Terre (the original) serves land-food, predominantly pork. Both are small with only a handful of stools. Both are packed (and fun) during peak eating hours. We wouldn’t spend a whole evening here, but it’s wonderful for a pre-dinner apéro or for an afternoon snack. A few blocks away, tucked in the southwest corner of Le Marché Saint-Germain, a third location called L’Avant Comptoir de la Marché offers more space and more seating. That one is a better option if you prefer to be outside.
Bonus points: open every day of the year, even on holidays, continuous service throughout the afternoon
Yet another wine bar: Freddy’s
54 Rue de Seine, 75006
Open every day from noon-midnight
No reservations and a mix of standing and stools few stools
To be honest, we haven’t eaten at Freddy’s since before the pandemic, but we have tried to eat at Freddy’s multiple times in recent months. The place is packed every time we make an attempt. Their well-deserved success stems from reasonably-priced small plates (meaty skewers plus a number of vegetarian options) and an incredible list of wines by the glass. If you manage to snag a stool, consider yourself lucky!
Bonus points: open every day, continuous service throughout the afternoon, excellent wine list
Best for oysters: Huîtrerie Régis
3 Rue de Montfaucon, 75006
Open every day for lunch + dinner, with continuous service on the weekends
No reservations
Still some of the best oysters in Paris, even after a change in ownership. You’ll find a large selection of bivalves, including the prized flat oysters from Belon, all served simply with lemon. If you need anything more than oysters + bread + butter, the smoked sea scallops are a lovely starter. The handful of tables in the spare white dining room fill up early, but we rarely have trouble snagging a table around 10pm (the hour when we usually feel like oysters). The sidewalk tables are great for hot summer evenings.
Bonus points: open every day, continuous service throughout the afternoon on weekends
Best brunch: Treize
5 Rue de Médicis, 75006
Open from 11:30am-5:30pm Monday-Thursday; staying open until 8:30pm Friday-Sunday
No reservations
Whether you want eggs + sausage with a buttermilk biscuit, or a deliciously virtuous kale salad, Treize is the perfect left bank brunch spot. Their leafy terrace on a wide sidewalk across from the Luxembourg Gardens is an ideal place for people-watching. Excellent pastries make this a good spot for afternoon tea, and generous cocktails draw an apéro crowd in the early evening. In short: pretty terrace + nice people + delicious things.
Bonus points: open Sunday and Monday, good for outdoor dining and for vegetarians
Also good for brunch: Colorova
47 Rue de l'Abbé Grégoire, 75006
Open every day for breakfast, lunch and afternoon pastries
Reservations online or at +33 (0)1 45 44 67 56
On weekends, this lunch spot near Le Bon Marché offers a 35€ menu featuring that bizarre French brunch combination of hot beverage + breakfast breads (brioche, pain perdu…) + savory main (risotto, meatballs…) + dessert. We’re more likely to turn up for the weekday lunch menu (2 courses for 24€), but people love this place for weekend brunch.
Bonus points: open Sunday and Monday, good for breakfast and for vegetarians
Best crêpes (also good for brunch): Breizh Café
1 Rue de l'Odéon, 75006
Open every day from 11am-10:30pm
Reservations online or at +33 (0)1 42 49 34 73, but walk-ins usually OK
Breizh Café is open for dinner (quite late, in fact) but we love it for brunch. There’s something about the combination of buttery buckwheat galettes and artisanal cider that works to sooth the hungover, the under-slept, and the jet-lagged (there should be a direct shuttle between CDG airport and Breizh Café). Their version of the “galette complète” made with artisanal ham, organic eggs, Comté cheese and Bordier butter is the gold standard. The oft-overlooked oysters from Cancale are truly excellent.
Bonus points: open Sunday and Monday, outdoor dining, good for a late breakfast and for vegetarians
Best for solo dining: Fish la Boissonerie
69 Rue de Seine, 75006
Open Monday-Saturday for lunch and dinner
Reservations online or at +33 (0)1 43 54 34 69
Fish never seems to be our first impulse, but we’re always happy when we end up here - often on a Monday when so many other restaurants are closed. Fish benefits greatly from the network of neighborhood places owned by Juan Sanchez and/or Drew Harré. It has an incredible wine list (like Semilla) because it’s supplied by sister wine shop La Dernière Goutte. Its crave-worthy bread is dispatched from the wood burning oven at Cosí across the street. They hire friendly people who speak multiple languages and seem to welcome the chance to make foreigners feel at home. The bar at Fish has always been a haven for solo diners. Save room for cheese (three different options) and dessert here, paired with a glass from their selection of “stickies” (dessert wines).
Bonus points: open Monday, good for solo dining at the bar, outstanding wine list
Best sandwiches: Cosí
54 Rue de Seine, 75006
Open every day from noon-11pm
No reservations
This sandwich joint on the rue de Seine is really all about the bread: thin and crispy focaccia, fresh from a wood-burning oven, slathered with simple ingredients (around 20 different combinations to choose from). There’s a dining room upstairs if you want to devour your sandwich on site, but we like to walk ours down the rue de Seine and nibble by the river. The daily soup, served with that great focaccia, is also delicious. Note: this is not the franchise fast food restaurant found in the United States.
Bonus points: open Sunday and Monday, good for vegetarians, inexpensive
Not Recommended
Le Comptoir (Yves Camdeborde)
9 Carrefour de l'Odéon, 75006
Open every day for lunch + dinner
No reservations
We’ve had good meals here in the past decade, but this bistro - the flagship address from chef and Masterchef judge Yves Camdeborde - no longer seems to be trying. Most of the long-term staff who had taken good care of the dining room have departed. Both of the dishes on a recent visit were disappointing: escargots dressed in a parsley sauce that had turned dark green under a heat lamp. A steak that was ordered medium rare and arrived grey on the inside. There are rumors that Camdeborde is looking for a buyer and that would make sense - it certainly feels like his heart is no longer in it. If you do find yourself here, stick to simple options like pâté, oeufs mayo, or beef tartare.
Restaurant Guy Savoy
Monnaie de Paris, 11 Quai de Conti, 75006
Open Tuesday-Friday for lunch and dinner; open Saturday for dinner
Reservations online or at +33 (0)1 43 80 40 61
The three-star restaurant Guy Savoy is now in Saint-Germain, after moving from the rue Troyon in 2015. Situated inside the stunning Monnaie de Paris (French Mint), it has so much potential to be a destination restaurant. However, after three visits to Guy Savoy over many years, we’ve never quite understood the affection that certain food writers attach to this address. If you’re looking to book a three-star restaurant, our current favorites are Alléno Paris (Ledoyen), L’Arpège, and Le Cinq.
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I absolutely LOVE L’Avant Comptoir, the one with the menu focused on pork and duck (La Terre I’m assuming) the service was always on point, the butter is an institution by itself, they offer great nibbles and wine and my favourite about the place: they’re open BETWEEN LUNCH AND DINNER. So if I’m hungry at an inconvenient time for most restaurants, I head there and always leave happy.
Thanks for sharing these gems! We've eaten at a few of these restaurants (loved them!) and will add the rest to our 'we want to go' list in Google Maps.