Cafe Les Deux Gares

If you’re as tired as we are of restaurants plating butter with fancy radishes from some farm you’ve never heard of and calling it dinner, high-tail it to Café Les Deux Gares. This bistro with the candy-cane striped awning isn’t just name-dropping the best in France’s regional specialties—it’s transforming them with so much creativity that no part of you will wonder why you didn’t just eat the same tin of expensive sardines at home in your pajamas. Here, Galabar blood pudding is seared to a perfect crisp and plated with golfball-sized sweet peppers, and tiny Noirmoutier shrimp are scattered on a borlotti bean purée, a surprising textural contrast with a flavor punch of sage. If the weather's nice, sit on the terrace for sunset over Gare de l’Est. It’s no Eiffel Tower, but that’s why we (and all the other locals) love it.