Hotels near Le Baratin

Raquel Carena has cooked at Le Baratin on the Belleville hill since 1987 and the room has barely changed: a mahogany bar, worn banquettes, a chalkboard menu in French only, and a list of natural bottles assembled by Philippe Pinoteau. Cuisine: French bistrot cooking with an offal bias and an Argentine hand. The signature dishes are the ones most kitchens will not attempt - veal kidneys in a coffee sauce, calf's ruffle with capers, salt cod with cod tripe ragout, Challans pigeon finished with sherry vinegar.

This is the great-value neighbourhood entry on the list. The lunch menu runs about €20 and dinner a la carte lands between €38 and €56 a head before wine. It opens Tuesday to Saturday, with lunch daily except Saturday from 12pm to 2:30pm and dinner from 7:30pm to 10:30pm, and closes Sunday and Monday. Two caveats worth knowing. Nothing is translated and the specials change every day, so bring patience. And retirement rumours circulate about Carena most years without coming true, so ring before you plan an evening around it.

Pro Tip: Telephone on the day for lunch, because the €20 midday menu is the best-value serious meal in this guide and lunch tables free up far more often than the 8pm sitting. Walk down from Métro Pyrénées rather than up from Belleville, since the hill is steeper than it looks on a map.