Ordering Food in Restaurants in Paris (10 Things You Should Know)

ordering food in Paris can be stressful especially if you don't speak the language will they understand my broken French do they speak English and how do I understand what's on the menu these are questions we get asked all the time so in this video we'll tell you 10 things you need to know about ordering food in restaurants in Paris and in the end we'll share words and phrases that'll make your life so much easier [Music] the first thing and it's about the language when you walk into a restaurant always start with bonjour in France that's

the proper and polite way to greet anyone especially in the service industry then at least try to put a couple of French words together to show that you're at least trying and then you can gently ask if they speak English now usually their English will be a lot better than your French but what I've experienced with calling and going to many restaurants is oftentimes the waiter or the waitress is embarrassed about their English they'll say something like my accent is really bad or I have poor English then after you talk with them for a couple

of minutes you realize that it's actually really good so what's important is make sure you give them a lot of praise for speaking English in their country to you now what is true is that most French people will learn English in school but that doesn't mean that there were any good at it or that it was recent like they may have taken English like five six years ago and they didn't practice then they just don't think that this speak any but if you're nice with them and then you try a little bit at least try

new or French with them you'll see that most of the time they'll know more English than you do french and you'll be able to communicate perfect [Music] and sometimes you'll find the menus on a chalkboard like this one and those can be a little bit hard to read because you know you have the handwriting you have different words and and things that you're not familiar with just take your time often the menus are the same on the chalkboard as they are on a printed menu so you can see a printed menu inside sometimes it just

tells you what the menu of the day is or lets you know that they do have a formula for the lunch menu and while we're talking about the menu there are places that have the items in French and in English most of them are exactly the same you'll often find them side by side with the same pricing and there are a few shysters we covered that in our video on scams particularly around Mo Martin Notre Dame where if you ask for a menu in English and they give you a menu only in English it may

have different pricing it's not fair it's not right it's illegal it does happen and when in doubt use Google Translate it's your best friend when you don't understand what's going on [Music] now here are a few words that you need to know in French of course always start with bonjour if you're not sure what to say just say bonjour at least that will be a good way to start now how you ask for something you could say which means I would like I'm going to take for it and this is Cargo then of course silver

play which is please and mercy which is thank you so you need to know at least those two now when it's time for the bill you ask for ladies but the universal language of going like this that will work now you have Puti de Jane which is breakfast and dejeune which is lunch for your meat it's cooked is rare apple is medium and Bianca is well done and if you don't ask they'll serve it to you senior then you have those two words a lot of people were confused about which is glass and glass sun

glass is ice cream and glasson is ice cubes then you have a vion which is meat you have Poulet which is chicken and you have huason which is fish and beef is buff and then another classic that people get confused is bum and palm de tail so pum is Apple and Panda tear is potato and if you want more bread in your lower basket because it's really great here it says and with those few words and most restaurants in Paris you'll be good to go now we're gonna put a cheat sheet in the description below

just download it and use those words to help you out in the restaurants another thing you need to know about ordering in a restaurant in France is the waiter interaction because if you're coming from the U.S You're Expecting The Waiter to stop by the table ask you how you're doing make sure that things are taken care of but here in France the waiters they are not working for tips they get a good living wage and when they serve you they assume that you want to have dinner with the person you're with and they will stay

out of the way if you need anything you're going to raise your hand call them over and they'll come and take care of you they're very happy to serve but it's not the custom for a server in France could come back and forth to the table many times and like anywhere else in a post-covid world there are labor shortages so be patient because you may have to wait just a little bit longer than you're used to but it'll be a good experience now for lunch time most restaurants will open at 12 o'clock sharp and will

serve lunch until 2 30 to 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then they'll close for a break and for dinner they'll reopen at seven o'clock and we'll serve dinner until 10 10 30. now restaurants in France don't serve food all day long like they do in the U.S and if you arrive in a restaurant at 2 45 the waiter may be upset because you're cutting in their break time so sometimes people say well the waiter was really rude and I was like what time did you arrive in the restaurant and then sure enough they arrive

at 2 50 and I'm like yeah I'd be pissed off too right you're just cutting into my afternoon break so if you're starting to get hungry like after three o'clock look for a restaurant that has service continue which means they serve food all day long Pietro and Leal is one of those now if you want to beat the crowds for lunch arrive in the restaurant at 12 o'clock short because Parisian typically arrive in a restaurant between 12 30 and 1 o'clock so if you arrive in a restaurant at 12 45 there's going to be a

line out the door of people waiting to get a table the same go for dinner arrive in a restaurant at seven o'clock because French people and parisians will start to arrive in the restaurant between 7 30 to 8 o'clock and if you're nervous ordering you might want to arrive before the big rush so get there at noon get there at seven o'clock you'll be the wait staff first table and you'll get all the attention that you need and it's also a great tip if you want to make sure that you get in eat and get

back outside seeing arrive early at the restaurant so you don't have to wait because service is going to be a lot slower if you arrive in a restaurant at 1pm versus 12 p.m [Music] now let's talk about beverages because when you're seated in a restaurant in France they're going to come and ask you if you want something to drink they're not asking if you want a Coke or a water they're actually talking about an apparel and for apparos I like to get champagne but they're usually talking about a before dinner drink and it is okay

to order some water or a Coke but what they're really asking is you know what sort of a festive drink do you want to start your meal and if you're ordering wine you can get a glass of carafe a bottle but they say it a little bit different verdevonne or a glass of wine a piche divon or a carafe or the Boutte de Von which is the bottle and that's true whether you're having a red a white a rose but champagne is always a great idea and if you order water they're going to bring you

a bottle of water and if you just want tap water then you'll order a correct dough which they'll bring to the table with a glass and if you want a sparkling water then order a Perrier a bagua or a Pellegrino [Music] then the next thing if you're ordering coffee in France if you order a coffee you'll get an espresso if you want an American style coffee you'll order an Alan Jay and if you want cream in your coffee you'll order a cafe creme or a cafe Olay and don't expect them to come around and fill

it up there's no free refills here if you want a little more coffee you're buying a second cup and in France you'll have an espresso but if you were in Italy it would be an espresso so pretty much if you order a coffee that's what you're going to get unless you need to say espresso espresso [Music] now there are a lot of types of restaurants in Paris like the cafe The Bistro the brasseries and the standard restaurant so it's easy to get confused so I'm going to break it down for you you can usually eat

light fair in a cafe which is where they have little Terraces the little round tables so they're all serve a sandwich a salad a Monsieur this is where you have a glass of wine it's usually a light fare and it's going to be quick surveys the second type is bistro Now Bistro is a step above the cafe but Bistro comes from the Russian word quick the Russian immigrants that came to Paris in the early 1900s they would go in a restaurant in a cafe in Paris and it would say Bistro Bistro which means quickly quickly

and it stayed as a tradition to call those restaurants Bistro which means quick so you could say that Bistro is the original French fast food then you'll have brasseries which is the equivalent of a French Pub and then this is where you're going to have some pop style foods and sometimes some are fancier than others but you could you know you could expect to have a good meal and then you'll have a standard restaurant so a standard restaurant is something where you have a tablecloth a napkin where you should expect to at least spend a

couple of hours so if you have time you want to enjoy a great meal go on a standard restaurant but if you want a quick meal on the go I would go to a cafe or a Bistro and finally the one that you'll see sometimes in Paris is a Salon de te which is a tea Salon but a lot of them serve salads sandwiches and all kinds of fair one of our favorite restaurant in Paris La jacobine is actually a salon that take it's designed to go and have a cup of tea but they serve

all kinds of foods and you'll see a lot of those settle into all over Paris [Music] the next point is about tipping and taxes because the price that you see on the menu is the entire price with nothing added to it if it's 10 bucks it's 10 bucks if it's 25 it's 25 the tax and tips are included now in France in Paris the waiters love Americans because Americans assume that there is a tip that comes on top and some of them have come to expect it so it has happened where a French waiter has

told people that it is not included the tip is included and another thing if they do go above and beyond it's typical for a French person to add maybe one or two Euros to the table as a true gratuity or a thank you for extra special service and if you're paying by credit card you're going to want to have a couple of Euros available for the tip because the machines just aren't set up to edit it the way they are in the US because the tip is included and if you're in a restaurant and you're

paying with a credit card they're not going to take your card and walk away they'll bring the machine to directly to your table so you'll put it in you'll take care of it you'll get your receipt right there and you're done now I suggest you watch this video with great bistros in Paris check out our travel guide there's a link in the description below it has important information lots of places to try and until next time [Music]