Category Archives: Wine Bars

La Buvette

La Buvette, opened in 2013, is perhaps the most stylish and intimate wine bar of its generation in Paris. Its Lilliputian confines are the size of the average e-cigarette shop, and yet manage to contain four small tables, a thin zinc bar, a prep kitchen, and in the rear, an authoritative-looking wine fridge. Scrawled on a wall-mounted mirror is the menu: a rotating array of highbrow nibbles, ranging from orange-zested white broad beans in olive oil to thick-cut nubs of andouille au lard, or intestine sausage laced with lardo.  >> Read More

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Les Enfants du Marché

A key charm of the Marché des Enfants Rouges has long been the discrepancy between the surrounding Marais’ chic tourism and the humid food-hall atmosphere of the market itself. Les Enfants du Marché – a frankly luxuriant, avant-garde dining counter tucked in the rear right of the market – is arguably the first establishment to bridge these two cultures. >> Read More

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Café de la Nouvelle Mairie

For the wine-indifferent, Café de la Nouvelle Mairie is merely a timeless, picturesque terraced café on a shady lane beside the Panthéon. Wines are inexpensive and available by the carafe, like in the old days. The café’s simply-executed bistrot cuisine is well-sourced and agreeable: oeufs mayonnaise, chicken liver terrines studded with grapes, and hearty Angus steaks for pressure-free meals on long summer evenings.

But for alert wine geeks, Café de la Nouvelle Mairie might as well be the Panthéon itself, as pertains to natural wine.  >> Read More

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Aux Deux Amis in Paris | parisbymouth.com

Aux Deux Amis

There’s a boisterous, fun vibe at this Oberkampf dive, where you’ll find a compelling selection of natural wine, outstanding charcuterie, and a short list of small plates that varies in quality depending on who’ve they’ve got working in the kitchen (it changes a lot). Expect loud music and great people watching. Don’t expect to snag a table. A great place to begin or end an evening, belly pressed against the bar, sharing snacks and bottles. Note: they used to do a great lunch service, but as of August 2018 they’re only open at night, serving cold tapas from 4:30pm until the kitchen opens from 7:30-11pm. >> Read More

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Le Repaire de Cartouche | parisbymouth.com

Le Repaire de Cartouche

Le Repaire de Cartouche Restaurant in Paris | Paris By MouthThis simple bistro has for years been a favorite among wine lovers, who arrive hoping to plumb the depths of Rodolphe Paquin’s cellar. Whether you taste something from the carte, or persuade Paquin to share an off-list treasure from his cave, wine is undoubtedly the highlight of any experience here. Paquin’s terrines are also extraordinary. He’s written a book about the subject and sells them whole in ceramic crocks to go. In autumn and winter, this is the place to go for wild game. Everything else here is pretty average, except for the service, which is atrocious. Two different tables stormed out during my most recent visit. What saves the experience for some is the joyful welcome from Paquin, the affable host (some ladies might say too affable) who greats regulars like long lost friends. Since I’ve been coming for years, I get a squeeze and a smile but still suffer through the terrible service… no one is safe. Visitors to Paris who can’t cite a winemaker connection or who haven’t yet been introduced will most likely be ignored and wondering why we’ve included this on our site. We’ve included it to reclassify Le Repaire de Cartouche as a great place to sit at the bar without reservations, order wine with a slab of terrine, and wait for your table to open up at Au Passage. It’s still great fun as a wine bar, even if it can no longer deliver as a restaurant. >> Read More

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Le Bel Ordinaire in Paris | parisbymouth.com

Le Bel Ordinaire

We have not yet visited Le Bel Ordinaire, which combines an épicerie (grocery and wine shop) with a wine bar and cave à manger. Scroll down to read some of the early reviews.

Practical Information

Address: 54 Rue de Paradis, 75010
Hours: Closed Sunday & Monday. Open for lunch & dinner Tuesday-Saturday. 
Telephone: 01 46 27 46 67
Website   Facebook   Instagram

What people are saying

  • Le Fooding (2017) appreciates the selection of natural wines but say that “there were some ups and downs the day we went for lunch, seated around the lone, long oak table… overcooked penne with leeks and haddock; Morteau sausage couscous with hints of butternut squash and daikon radish, seasoned with a spellbinding veal-harissa broth.”
  • TimeOut (2017) raves about the silky œufs mayo, the plump duck croquettes with Chinese cabbage, and a delicious but overpriced minestrone of vegetables with stracciatella. They find the to-go groceries, particularly the cheese, to be overpriced as well.
  • Atabula (2017) interviews Sébastien Demorand, who explains that many of their products come from his sourcing work for the failed Jeune Rue project, including the vinegars of Laurent Agnès and duck from Basque producer Jean Michel Berho. He also shares his hope to open another Bel Ordinaire in the 17th arrondissement.
  • Le Figaro (2017) calls this one of the best tables for Summer 2017 and says not to miss the salade piémontaise.

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    Fish La Boissonnerie restaurant in Paris | parisbymouth.com

    Fish (La Boissonnerie)

    This popular restaurant and wine bar run by Drew Harre and Juan Sanchez is a sort of Anglo haven, excellent for a quick glass, a solo dinner at the bar, or for those times when you’re just tired of speaking French. The wine list is populated by small producers, many of them organic and bio-dynamic, with fair prices and plenty of options by the glass. They’re open every day, and we often find ourselves here on a Sunday or Monday when so many other restaurants are closed. Compared to their sister restaurant Semilla, the more gastronomic option across the street, Fish is the reliable bistro and a genuine Saint-Germain institution.

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    Freddy's Wine Bar from FB | parisbymouth.com

    Freddy’s

    One of our Favorite Paris Restaurants (small sharable plates).

    Boasting one of the city’s best selections of wine by the glass, Freddy’s is a great call when you want to share some delicious nibbles while perched on a stool, especially at odd hours or on Sunday & Monday when many other places are closed. With high quality and reasonable prices, this place draws a serious crowd. Come with a large group or at peak hours (anything after 7:30pm) and you’re not likely to find a spot. Come early to dine alone or with a friend and you’ll be in for a treat with interesting food and wine plus great people watching.  >> Read More

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    Frenchie Bar à Vins

    One of our Top 50 Paris Restaurants (small sharable plates). If you want a taste of Gregory Marchand’s cooking without the challenge of scoring a reservation at Frenchie, this sister wine bar is a great option. However, there are caveats. A victim of its own popularity, Frenchie Bar à Vins is often chaotic, loud, and (for folks who don’t wish to perch on stools) a little uncomfortable. But chaos and noise, when combined with creative and delicious small plates, not to mention a fascinating wine list, can combine to make for some wonderfully memorable evenings. You shouldn’t go if you need to be seated and fed right away, or if you’re not willing to flag down a friendly server to beg for what you need. Go for rowdy fun, and by all means go early, like right when they open at 6:30pm. Either that, or after the major rush passes, after 10pm. Arrive during peak hours and you can expect to wait for a fairly long time out on the cobblestones.

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    Verjus Bar à Vins

    This tiny space near the Palais Royal functions functions both as a neighborhood wine bar and as a holding tank for those waiting for their table at the restaurant upstairs. The printed wine list is filled with so many interesting bottles, and the ever-changing chalkboard list has plenty of options by the glass. The food options have changed several times over the years. Their famous fried chicken is no longer available here, having moved over to Ellsworth, but you can still order small plates to nibble with your wine. Options on the menu right now include veal tartare, house-made pork and duck terrine with pistachios, and warm Mont d’Or cheese with pickled mushrooms. Groups of more than two will have a hard time squeezing in, but the intimate space is perfect for an apéro before dinner upstairs or elsewhere in the neighborhood.

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    Le Siffleur de Ballons

    Sommelier-turned-restaurateur Thierry Bruneau’s versatile and tasteful neighborhood wine bar is a cherished mainstay of the Aligre neighborhood. It’s got a long, lively bar for solo diners, a bevy of small tables for couples and small groups, and a rear room that can be privatized for minor occasions. Managers Tristan Renoux and Frederick Malpart curate the dynamic, well-priced, mostly natural wine selection with an enthusiasm almost unheard of in the Paris hospitality scene. And the bar’s simple menu of salads and gourmet foodstuffs is anchored by a brilliant steak for two, prepared in the kitchen of Bruneau’s restaurant across the road, L’Ebauchoir. Bottles can also be purchased to go.  >> Read More

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    Les Caves de Reuilly

    Dynamic young Bretonne Pierre le Nen took the helm of this well-regarded neighborhood wine shop in February 2014 and promptly turned it into one of Paris’ most welcoming terraced wine bars, where an impressively wide selection of natural wines and their more conventional forbears can be enjoyed with zero corkage fee. For anyone peckish, plates of cheese and charcuterie are available, along with an array of tinned and jarred rillettes and the like. Le Nen also stocks an indulgent wall of whisky and a respectable range of French craft beer.

    Les Caves de Reuilly’s out-of-the-way location in the 12ème arrondissement ensures an ambience worlds apart from the bustle and hype of more central neighbourhoods: here instead are bands of quality-conscious, budget-conscious Parisians, enjoying honest, inexpensive wine, each other’s company, and the cool evening air. Be sure to ask the staff if the terrace looks full – as often as not, they’re able to simply whip out another table and some chairs for newcomers.

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    Le 116

    Practical information

    Address: 2 rue Auguste Vacquerie, 75016
    Nearest transport: Kléber (6), George V (1)
    Hours: Closed Saturday & Sunday; Open Monday-Friday for lunch & dinner
    Reservations: Book a day or two in advance for dinner only; Reservations not accepted for lunch
    Telephone: 01 47 20 10 45
    Average price for lunch: 20-39€
    Average price for dinner: 20-39€
    Style of cuisine: Small plates & tapas, Japanese
    Website   Facebook

    Reviews of interest

    Le Figaro (2015) “Cuisine foisonnante misant sur la braise (poulpe, poulette et ventrèche de porc en brochettes, grillés au barbecue japonais) et la malice: burger de bœuf wagyu, blé façon risotto, calamars en tempura…”

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    avant comptoir de lar mer | parisbymouth.com

    L’Avant Comptoir de la Mer

    Practical information

    Address: 3 carrefour de l’Odéon, 75006
    Nearest transport: Odéon (4, 10)
    Hours: Open every day for lunch & dinner
    Reservations: Reservations not accepted
    Telephone: 01 42 38 47 55
    Average price for lunch: 10-19€
    Average price for dinner: 10-19€
    Style of cuisine: Seafood & oysters, small plates

    Additional Images

    Reviews of interest

    Le Figaro (2016) “Poissons, coquillages, crustacés mijotés, marinés, tartinés où Saint-Jean-de-Luz croise le yuzu, la Sardaigne surfe à deux plats du Cap Ferret et l’huître Bloody Mary partage son roulis avec les bulots en mayo wasabi. Il y a du Tokyo et du parigot dans ce grand plongeon. Un océan planqué derrière le bar.”

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    La Cave de Belleville

    La Cave de Belleville’s unlikely origins sound like the set-up for a knock-knock joke: a pharmacist, a sound engineer, and a gallerist open a cave-à-manger. François Braouezec, Aline Geller, and Thomas Perlmutter deserve a lot of credit for the scale of their ambitions, as La Cave de Belleville, open every day of the week, is at once a wine shop, an épicerie, and a vast, casual wine bar. The airy, well-lit space (a former leather wholesaler) positively bustles at apéro hour, when locals nip in for inexpensive plates of charcuterie, cheese, and canned delicacies. The trio’s limited industry experience is sometimes evident in the inconsistency of the shop’s maximalist selections of wine, spirits, and beer. (Were the wine not mostly natural, it would be hard to call it a “selection”. Filling shelves seems to have been the priority.) But one senses the owners’ intentions are sincere, and the Belleville neighborhood – chaotic, culture-clashy, forever on the cusp of gentrification – stands to benefit greatly from a friendly, accessible social anchor like La Cave de Belleville.

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    black truffle deviled eggs cave paul bert | parisbymouth.com

    La Cave du Paul Bert

    Practical information

    Address: 16 rue Paul Bert, 75011
    Nearest transport: Rue des Boulets (9), Charonne (9), Faidherbe-Chaligny (8)
    Hours: Open every day
    Reservations: Reservations not accepted
    Telephone: 01 58 53 50 92
    Average price for lunch: 10-19€
    Average price for dinner: 10-19€
    Style of cuisine: Small plates

    A photo posted by Paris by Mouth (@parisbymouth) on

    Reviews of interest

    Le Figaro (2016) “À la Cave Paul Bert, les coudes contemporains trouvent à lever les classiques et les inattendus de cette vigne dite dynamique (même si parfois carrément éteinte) tout en scrutant le jour le jour d’une petite cuisine d’ardoise, vive, percutante, pertinente, un peu courte dans l’assiette mais généreuse à rappeler que le nouveau comptoir parisien balance aussi bien que les tapas ibères, izakaya nippons et autres cicchetti italiens.”

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    Les Caves de Prague

    Parisian wine shops tend to exhibit tunnel vision, often to the point of obsession: either they sell natural/organic/biodynamic wine, or they sell “traditional” wine, and rarely do the twain meet. One sees many of the same wines over, and over, and over again.

    Not here. There’s plenty to satisfy any palate or ideology, and what’s more a lot of the labels aren’t the common names littering most modern restaurant lists. Add in a casual vibe, a ton of tables for casual in-store imbibing (with a wonderfully minuscule droit de bouchon), a rather surprising menu of tapas and the usual wine bar comestibles, and there’s finally something new under the Parisian sun.

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    le pigalle hotel via FB | parisbymouth.com

    Le Pigalle

    We have not yet reviewed this wine bar, but you’ll find practical information about location and hours on this page, along with links to other reviews. Feel free to share your own opinion in the comments.

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    Yard wine bar in Paris | parisbymouth.com

    Yard Wine Bar

    We have not yet reviewed this wine bar, but you’ll find practical information about location and hours on this page, along with links to other reviews. Feel free to share your own opinion in the comments.

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    AT Wine Bar photo courtesy of their Facebook page

    Bar à vin A.T.

    We have not yet reviewed this wine bar (below the Restaurant AT), but you’ll find practical information about location and hours on this page, along with links to other reviews. Feel free to share your own opinion in the comments.

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    Cave a Michel Restaurant in Paris | Paris By Mouth

    La Cave à Michel

    There is no real “Michel” behind La Cave à Michel – the name of this lively, standing-room-only Belleville wine bar uses the name in its French sense of “everyman.” And indeed, the bar is as welcoming and informal as its product standards are rigorous and precise. The product of a friendly collaboration between caviste Fabrice Mansouri and Romain and Maxime Tischenko, the brothers behind next door tasting-menu restaurant Le Galopin, La Cave à Michel rivals the Left Bank’s L’Avant Comptoir for the best Parisian cuisine you’ll eat standing up. Romain Tischenko reins in his more maximalist impulses in the bar’s tiny kitchen, and turns out small plates of jewel-like delicacy: beef tartare beneath ricotta salata, bass céviche, or mozzarella with salmon roe. Mansouri’s selection of natural wines is well-considered and well-priced. If service can become a little sluggish at times, it’s because the bar is reliably packed with restaurant industry regulars and Mansouri has a gift for banter. Serious cuisine is rarely this fun.

    — Aaron Ayscough, January 2016

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    Aux Deux Cygnes

    Well-appointed, informal and lightly exotic, rue Keller wine bar Aux Deux Cygnes is the answer for any casual diner looking to drink natural wine and snack on something other than the usual cheese plates and charcuterie. French-Vietnamese owner To Xuân Cuny shuttles between service and the kitchen, where she turns out a tasty array of sandwiches and small plates influenced by both her Vietnamese heritage and her experience in the Michelin-starred restaurant world. The latter means Aux Deux Cygnes is among the cleanest and most hospitable of Paris wine bars. The former finds expression in a tasty banh-mi, as well as some delicately piquant mackerel rillettes that arrive beneath a bright heap of cilantro. The natural wine selection perched amid the bar’s pretty triangular shelving is nicely curated to emphasize atypical grape varieties and marginal regions. If the overall experience at Aux Deux Cygnes can veer towards the dainty at times, it still makes for a welcome change from the mélée of beards and egos one encounters in many more traditional Paris natural wine bars.

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    La Cremerie wine bar in Paris | parisbymouth.com

    La Crèmerie

    Practical information

    Address: 9 rue des Quatre-Vents, 75006
    Nearest transport: Odéon (4, 10)
    Hours: Closed Sunday and for Monday lunch. Open for wine sales and as a wine bar from 11am-2:30pm and from 6-10:30pm.
    Reservations: Strongly recommended for dinner because the small, intimate space often fills up
    Telephone: 01 43 54 99 30
    Average price for lunch: 10-19€
    Average price for dinner: 20-34€
    Style of cuisine: classic French, small plates
    Website

    Reviews of interest

    Le Fooding (2013) “The little bites are wonders: Albacore tuna from the île d’Yeu, little smoked trout terrine, blood sausage with onions from La Maison Galland in Touraine, authentic ham and Bordier butter sandwich. As for the nectars, glasses of red (Roussilon Tam-Tam du Domaine du Bout du Monde at €7 a glass) and white (Touraine Petit Buisson du Clos du Tue-Boeuf at €7 a glass).”

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    Le Barav’

    This friendly upper Marais wine bar serves simple charcuterie, cheese, salads, and sandwiches to go along with 5€ glasses, or a bottle from their cave next door. The plate of truffled ham is always a good bet.  In the summer, there’s a great terrace on the street.

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    La Cave des Abbesses

    In front, a wine shop with a good selection of estate-bottled wines. In back, a place to drink them, accompanied by charcuterie and cheese.

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    Ma Cave Fleury

    Inexpensive couples of quality grower's champagne served on a nice outdoor terrace overlooking... a gritty street lined with sex clubs and prostitutes. It's quite a combo. The charcuterie and cheese plates are standard, but it's the warm, witty personality of the proprietor and former comedienne Morgane Fleury that is the main draw for those looking for affordable, natural wine.

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    Le Porte Pot Restaurant in Paris | Paris By Mouth

    Le Porte-Pot

    Practical information

    Address: 14 rue Boutebrie, 75005
    Nearest transport: Cluny – La Sorbonne (10), Saint-Michel (RER B&C)
    Hours: Closed Sunday & Monday; Open Tuesday-Saturday 6.30pm-2am
    Reservations: Walk-Ins Welcome
    Telephone: 01 43 25 24 24
    Average price for dinner: 20-34€
    Style of cuisine: Wine bar, small plates
    Website   Facebook

    Reviews of interest

    The Guardian (2010) “There’s an old-fashioned zinc bar, and an ancient vaulted cellar transformed into a dining room…The cuisine is a mix between exotic fusion – imagine whelks with wasabi mayonnaise – and traditional rural food…”

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    Les Papilles

    Bring some friends to share in Bertrand Bluy’s family style dinner at this cave à manger. Still very well-priced at only 31€ for four courses, and with an excellent selection of bottles sold at caviste prices, either to-go or to open at the table for a modest corkage fee.  >> Read More

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    L’Avant Comptoir

    Push back beyond the crêpe window up front and and you’ll find a convivial and crowded counter packed with elbows, charcuterie boards, communal pickle jars, and wine glasses. It’s standing room only at Yves Camdeborde’s small plates wine bar, a hit since it opened in fall of 2009. Delicious and hearty bites like duck hearts, ham croquettes and boudin noir macarons are washed down with an impressive selection of wines sold by the bottle or the glass. The opening of seafood spinoff L’Avant Comptoir de la Mer next door and, more recently, L’Avant Comptoir de la Marché just a few blocks away has dispersed the devotees throughout the neighborhood. The original remains packed, however, so go during the off hours or be prepared to be get to know the person next to you very, very well.
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    Willi's Wine Bar in Paris | parisbymouth.com

    Willi’s Wine Bar

    We haven’t visited recently, but you can scroll down to see photos and what others have written about Willi’s Wine Bar.  >> Read More

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