Bar de la Croix Rouge

Loved my Negroni almost as much as our waiter Gile. Great watching the passing foot traffic too.

Wonderful food and service when I visited. The hit for me here is their Tarte Tatin (French upside down apple pie)! Incredibly delicious: perfect bite while people watching in Paris! It’s for me one of the most authentic Paris food experience I have tried, especially when you dine at the outdoor tables.

Along with so many others here, we were treated very rudely by two different waiters. We are polite people and both speak French, but were treated to surly and miserable waiters who got our small and simple order wrong an astonishing three times. At that point they blamed us for not confirming what they had repeated back. Maybe try writing it down at first? It takes no more than a couple of months to learn how to be a waiter at a simple brasserie like this, but 20 years to perfect being a miserable human. After this, with our daughters on their first ever visit to Paris, we never went to another of these semi-formal cafés and instead frequented only informal places with young staff. How to give Paris a bad name.

There must be 100s nay 1000s of these Bistrots in Paris. But this one is nicely situated, takes pride in its appearance, offers tasty well-prepared food with good service. I would say that ticks most boxes!

Best bar for lunch. Typical buzzing day brasserie with high quality French classics. This is a very busy place at lunchtime so you might have to wait for 10 mins to grab a table but service is very fast and options are vast in the menu. I went here twice for lunch in 4 days in Paris. The eggs and mayo are better than you can imagine. The wine selection is also quite large as usual. It’s a must try if you’re around St Germain for lunch.