I’m always on the search for a new restaurant experience. While my tastes range anywhere from traditional bistro right up to fine dining, I am always up for a new dining adventure. On the other hand, MrsWT73 has much more generic tastes. She prefers straightforward food that isn’t too fussy or complicated. In researching Parisian restaurants, this led us to Bouillon Pigalle; Paris’ version of straight forward bistro dining. Read on to see what our dining experience would be…

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This post is one chapter on our trip to Jordan, Israel and France during the end of the pandemic. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards and Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Restaurant Review: Bouillon Pigalle, Paris Opéra, France

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I am usually on the search for great dining opportunities when visiting any new city. As a city with world class dining experiences, Paris – France should contain hundreds of excellent dining opportunities.

My research led me to Bouillon Pigalle. As recommended by Condé Nast Traveller magazine as one of the twenty five restaurants in Paris you should be eating at right now, we set out to locate Bouillon Pigalle for an early dinner during our visit to the city.

About Bouillon Pigalle:

We could call Bouliion Pigalle a restaurant for these economically depressed times. It’s hard to locate a restaurant where you can enjoy a three course meal in the heart of Paris, France for under 25€ ($27 USD). Yet Bouillion Pigalle serves up a lengthy menu of french favorites at exceptionally reasonable prices. Even the wine is served in bulk and was actually pretty drinkable.

Bouillon Restaurants runs two locations of this concept; the version at Bouillon Pigalle restaurant across from the Pigalle Metro Station, and the Bouillon République restaurant near the Républic Metro Station.

Locating the Bouillon Pigalle:

The Bouillon Pigalle is located a short walk down from the world famous Moulin Rouge cabaret. It’s located at the bottom of the hill from the Montmartre neighbourhood in Paris.

We ended up at Bouillon Pigalle after an afternoon of sightseeing in Montmartre and taking in the sights of Sacré Coeur church. Instead of returning to our hotel at The Westin Paris Vendôme, we opted for a little more exciting dining in the immediate neighbourhood.

Inside Bouillon Pigalle:

The atmosphere inside Bouillon Pigalle restaurant is that of packed calamity. Like many French Bistro’s, tables are stacked on top of each other with a high volume of diners. Our wait staff actually pulled our table out in order to seat MrsWT73.

Noise levels are moderate to almost loud, and a general boisterousness consumes the dining environment here like it did in your school cafeteria, all those years back when you were in secondary school.

On the Bouillon Pigalle Menu:

Bouillon Pigalle offers a straight forward menu containing all of your favourite french classics.

Some highlights from the menu:

• Almost all the starters are priced under 5€
• Almost all the mains are priced at 11 €, or less
• Almost all the deserts are priced at 4€, or less.
• All Bottles of Wine are House Varieties, priced at 10.80€ or less

While their website offers a french menu, they will provide an english menu (pictured below) at the restaurant on request.

The sheer combination of everything being so reasonably priced leads to a certain approachability to the menu. As a result, you tend to order more than you might normally.

The Meal: Café Supper

I ended up ordering a full experience consisting of a starter and main. MrsWT73 went a little bit lighter and just stuck with a starter served as a main course.

We started off with some complimentary bread on the side. While it wasn’t the usual french baguette for tourists, it was exceptionally savoury and on the dry side of flavour profiles.

I started off with escargots. Simply described, it was presented as six escargots (snails) with beurre Persille.

MrsWT73 went with another French Onion Soup. It was value priced at 3.80€ ($4 USD), although it was admittedly not as tasty as the one we’d had earlier in our visit at le Café de la Paix, Paris Opéra.

I went traditional and old school with an Steak and French Fries with Roquefort Sauce. It was pretty darn tasty for a bistro meal. While the Roquefort sauce wasn’t overly complex, it was a nice addition to the meal that you don’t normally find in North America.

The cheque was presented digitally, saving the servers their time in running around trying to tabulate bills. The check for 3 courses, one half bottle and one glass of wine came to 33.40 € ($34 USD)

We would end up paying by Apple Pay, while MrsWT73 sent me photographs of myself tearing into french escargots as a great memory.

As we left the restaurant at about 6:45 PM, we saw evidence of Bouillon Pigalle’s success. Queues were tarting to form for dinner, with about seventy five people in line just before 7 PM.

If you’re looking for a wonderful and inexpensive meal, make sure you arrive to Bouillon Pigalle little early.

After dinner, we headed back on foot to The Westin Paris – Vendôme for a little after supper champagne and some Eiffel Tower light show viewing.

My Thoughts on Bouillon Pigalle:

Bouillon Pigalle was a great dining experience for a casual modern Parisien Bistro.

By offering a really approachable menu at a reasonable price point, Bouillon Pigalle is a restaurant for these current economic times. In addition to offering reasonably tasty food, the price point is something everyone can process.

Bouillon Pigalle easily gets my endorsement for casual bistro dining in the Pigalle area of Paris, France.

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If you have visited Bouillon Pigalle or Bouillon Républic, did you enjoy your dining experience ?

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