The Best Cheap Lunch in Paris

Yep that's me on the left there.

Paris aficionados will already know that the best way to eat for cheap in this city is to do it at lunch - lunch is still the main meal of the day for many French people, and cafes in this city specialize in lunch formules, or set menus, usually for under 15 euros. For this you'll usually get several courses - an appetizer, main dish, and often a choice of dessert or a glass of wine. I've actually been taking myself out to lunch lately on Wednesdays, when Sophia has a babysitter, and plan  to do some good lunchtime food reporting in future posts.

But, when I first came to Paris in college, I was stunned by how expensive the food was here, and just had no idea how I would make it on a student budget. Then I discovered L'As du Fallafel on Rue des Rosiers in the Marais, and my life was forever changed. It still wins my best cheap lunch in Paris award, and its one of my favorite things to recommend to visitors.

L'As du Fallafel means "The Ace of Falafel", and its on a street where its got a lot of competition - in fact, its sort of the street of falafel stands - but I've never gone anywhere else. Rue des Rosiers is also the food center of the Marais's Jewish roots - just down the road is Sacha Finkelstejn, an honest to god Jewish deli where you can get a pastrami sandwich, as well as several Kosher butchers. You won't be able to miss the place because of the long ling outside, which usually moves fast. Ask the order guy for a fallafel with everything, including sauce piquante, and you'll get a pita stuffed with falafel, tahini, about five kinds of vegetables, including roasted eggplant and lightly pickled cabbage and celery root, and topped off with harissa, all for 5 euros. It'll come at you like this:

Though it looks like this guy skipped the harissa -mistake!

Don't worry, they give you a fork and napkins. BUT this is a mobile eating experience - you can sit down indoors at L'As du Fallafel, but its much better - and cheaper - as a takeaway. The only trick is to find a place to sit and eat it.

It requires a little patience, but there are two pretty little parks about a five minute walk away. Continue down Rue des Rosiers away from the Centre Pompidou until you get to Rue Pavee, your next possible left. Take Rue Pavee to the Rue des Francs Bourgeois; here, you can either make a right and there will be a little garden on your right about halfway down the block, or you can contine on Rue Pavee another block, as it become Rue Payenne, and eat in the Square Cain behind the Musee de Carnavalet.

Happy eating - one fallafel should set you up for a good day of sightseeing. Don't forget  to buy yourself something to drink, that sauce is piquante!

And, if you want to see what better food writers than I have to say about the place, check out Mark Bittman's review in the New York Times.

L'As du Fallafel
32, rue des Rosiers
75004 Paris
Metro: Saint-Paul
Closed Saturdays (its the Sabbath, yo!)