Robert et Louise

Robert et Louise is a tiny stone-walled bistro on rue Vieille du Temple where the cooking happens, theatrically, on an open wood fire at the front of the room. Steak — côte de bœuf, gigot d'agneau, blood sausage — is the entire point; the rest of the carte is sketched in around it. There's no choreography, no tasting menu, no concept. Communal-feeling tables, candlelight, charred-edge meat, a carafe of red. It's one of the few Marais addresses that still feels like the neighbourhood thirty years ago, and the kind of place that converts even committed pescatarians for one evening. Reserve — the room holds maybe 30 covers.