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BŒUF SUR LE TOIT Map French €€€

01 53 93 65 55; www.boeufsurletoit.com; 34 rue du Colisée, 8e; mains €19.90 & €29.90; lunch & dinner to 1am daily; St-Philippe du Roule or Franklin D. Roosevelt

Part of the Flo stable of restaurants, the ‘Ox on the Roof’ is yet another museum-quality brasserie that allows you so easily to recall the Paris of the 1920s and 30s. Oysters and other seafood dishes are paramount here, but it’s best to stick with the set menus, which offer bon rapport qualité prix (value for money).

KOK PING Map Thai, Chinese €€

01 42 25 28 85; www.kokping.com, in French; 4 rue Balzac, 8e; starters €9-12, mains €15-23; menus €22 (lunch only) & €35; lunch Sun-Fri, dinner to 11.30 daily; George V

A very upscale Asian restaurant in a posh part of town, Kok Ping serves classic and very refined Chinese and Thai food to a predominantly business crowd at lunch. But come evening, the place lets its hair down, turning far less formal and becoming almost cosy. There’s a lot of choices for vegetarians with almost 10 meatless mains on offer.

DRAGONS ÉLYSÉES Map Chinese, Thai €€

01 42 89 85 10; 11 rue de Berri, 8e; starters €8-12, mains €15-22; menus €13.50 (lunch only) & €40; lunch & dinner to 11.30pm daily; George V

This mostly Chinese restaurant is a novelty. Below the tables and chairs perched on different levels and scattered about a large dining room is a glass floor beneath which various types of goldfish cavort. If you enjoy watching your dinner in action, than this is the place for you.

L’ÉTOILE VERTE Map French €€

01 43 80 69 34; www.etoile-verte.fr, in French; 13 rue Brey, 17e; starters €9-13, mains €13-22, menu €14 (lunch only), dinner €18 & €25 (with wine); lunch Mon-Fri, dinner to 11pm daily; Charles de Gaulle-Étoile

Founded in 1951, the ‘Green Star’ is where all the old French classics remain: the onion soup, the snails, the rabbit. When one of us was a student in Paris (back when the glaziers were still installing the stained glass at Ste-Chapelle) this was the place for both Esperanto speakers (a green star is their symbol) and students on a splurge. That may have changed, but the lunch menu is still a great deal for this neighbourhood.

BUGSY’S Map American €€

01 42 68 18 44; 15 rue Montlivet, 8e; salads €12-13.50, mains €11-18.50; lunch & dinner to 11pm daily; Madeleine

This immensely popular place – it’s heaving at lunchtime, especially with expats – is done up to resemble a Prohibition-era Chicago speakeasy from the 1920s. Food is the please-everyone easy option: Tex-Mex, salads, ploughman’s lunches, burgers (€12 to €13.50) and the intriguing entrecôte irlandaise (Irish rib steak). The huge bar keeps going till 1am daily.

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SELF-CATERING

Rue Poncelet and rue Bayen have some excellent food shops, including the incomparable Fromagerie Alléosse. The huge Monoprix (Map; 62 av des Champs-Élysées, 8e; 9am-midnight Mon-Sat; Franklin D Roosevelt) at the corner of rue la Boétie has a big supermarket section in the basement, and there’s a Franprix (Map; 12 rue de Surène, 8e; 8.30am-8pm Mon-Sat; Madeleine) near place de la Madeleine.

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CLICHY & GARE ST-LAZARE

Unlike their neighbour to the west, these areas are not gentrified in the least. Indeed, heading east in the 8e arrondissement, by the time you reach Gare St-Lazare, the shops and architecture have changed and another journey has begun. Around place de Clichy and the eponymous avenue leading north and south from it, a maze of small streets with a pronounced working-class character stretches out, a pocket of old Paris that has survived. These are happy hunting grounds for ethnic eateries and restaurants with character.

CHARLOT, ROI DES COQUILLAGES Map French, Seafood €€€

01 53 20 48 00; www.charlot-paris.com, in French; 12 place de Clichy, 9e; starters €10.50-29, mains €19.50-39, menus €20 & €26 (lunch only); lunch & dinner to midnight Sun-Wed, to 1am Thu-Sat; Place de Clichy

‘Charlot, the King of Shellfish’ is an Art Deco palace that some Parisians