8 Paris Street Food Spots Locals Eat At (Not the Tourist Traps)

Most people come to Paris and eat at the same five places that they've seen on Instagram. But this is not where we Parisians eat. So we spent two days eating our way across Paris. Eight spots all over Paris and every single spot is going to be under 20 euros. We're talking a 5.0 rated sandwich shop. I could eat this all day. A place that somehow invented taco sushi and a rotisserie on one of the oldest market streets in the city. By the end of this video you will have a complete food crawl that you can replicate yourself. So let's start with the one that made us question if we knew anything about the food in Paris. Allez, on y va. First stop of the day, where are you taking me? I'm taking you to try taco sushi. What? Did you say taco and sushi? Yeah, very curious to try it actually. All right, let's go. Let's go. Bonjour. Hello. So this is really nice. Very cool. Actually, nice and pink and everything. Yeah. What are we having? I think we're going to... So there's different things. This one apparently is like one of the best. Yes, very good. Salmon, tuna, spicy mayo. Can you do spicy mayo? I can do spicy mayo. Karaage is very good. Let's do the karaage. We'll do a karaage. Okay. Most of the time, people would go to places like this because they are, you know, not expensive. You get a very good meal with a lot of taste. The service is very fast. Okay, cool. Merci. You grab it like this. Yes. And you lean your head. Yes. Bite once above, once down. And you have the knocking in place. Yeah, I think I'm going to need some of that. You need to prepare yourself. And visually, it's beautiful. And don't forget the bites at the bottom. Yeah, the spicy mayo. Yeah, it really kicks in. Actually, it doesn't taste like a taco at all. It's just the shape. Yeah, it's the shape. Yeah. But it definitely tastes like a sushi. Yeah. Or some type of poke bowl. Yeah. Well, I'm going to try the karaage chicken. So here's the karaage chicken. It's super tender. Not spicy at all. Flavored mayo. Wow, this is really good. That's good stuff. Yeah. Great spot. That was creative. And we're going to go into Classics now. We're nearby République. So it's really a neighborhood. It's not a touristic neighborhood. What is this tiny little spot? It's one of the tiniest shops that you can find in Paris. It's tiny, man. But this is part of the charm. All right. Let's go. Bonjour. You want to get one each? I think we have to. Yeah, we have to. I want the sandwich that he believes is going to be the best jambon d'heure in Paris. Merci. All right. So this is my jambon d'heure, which is the quintessential. This is the original street food. Oh, man. The baguette is crunchy. The butter is salty. The ham is delightful. The cheese gives you the additional flavor. Oh, my God. This is... Okay. So this is mine. And the recipe is different. First, you can see the bread is different. Right. And this is a bread with charcoal. It doesn't change the taste of the sandwich, but it's just more digestible in your stomach. And look, inside, butter on both sides of the sandwich. And I have a little bit of mustard. The taste of the mustard and the cheese, it's a really good sandwich. So how much was this, by the way? 15 euros. 15 euros each? It's pricey, but it's high quality. Yeah. And good quantity as well. So it makes it, you know, really worth it. Okay. Are you eating my whole sandwich? No, I'm not. Oh, look. Over there. What? So, a sandwich does not need 20 ingredients to be amazing. I'm declaring this the best jambalaya in Paris. Next. Where are you taking me? I'm going to take you to another place. Yeah. It's going to be a little surprise. All right. Let's go. We're in the Saint-Georges neighborhood of Montmartre. At the end of the street right there is the opera. You have a little church right here. It's a beautiful neighborhood. Behind us, it's called the Gyoza House. So guess what they're making here? I'm betting for gyoza. I think it's a good guess. Yeah. Well, let's go and find out. Let's go and find out. We're going to take a lemon chicken. Oh, is that for us? Yes. Nice. And a karagi chicken. Okay, great. Thank you. Gyoza. Karagi chicken. That looks good. Yes. If you know how to eat gyoza, you've got to use the sauce. So you put a little bit in here. Right. Oh, look at you. Yeah. Nicely grilled. Yeah, dude. A little sesame on top of it. So I like to pierce mine to actually have a little bit of the sauce inside. Yeah. I don't know if that's, you know, custom, but that's what I do. So I'm starting from this end. Okay. And then you can use my sauce. I have no idea what flavor that is, but that's just amazing. It's citronelle lemongrass. Lemongrass? I think so. Oh, interesting. The crust is actually crusty, but it feels fresh. Yeah. Karagi chicken. So karagi chicken is fried chicken. And usually their fried chicken is really good because it's really soft and really fresh. And that's like a sweet sauce. Dude, I'm the type of guy that always asks for a fork when I'm in an Asian restaurant. Look at that. Oh, I'm having another one just for good measure, but I'm going to do my fingers this time because it's easier. Yeah. I wouldn't say it's the best chicken tenders that I've had, but it's really high quality. It's a really good chicken tender. And they give you a soup. So you can have a really decent meal that is not filling for less than 10 bucks. Again, you know, it's a good soup. The gyozas are really freaking good. It's a gyoza house and they do it well. As Parisians, we don't go out and eat French food, you know? Yeah. Every time when I want to go eat, I want to go eat to like a Chinese place, a Japanese place. Those places are also known to be fairly affordable. This is not a tourist spot. No. This place is going to be filled in about half an hour with all the people that are working around here. Yeah. But I'm honestly going to invite you, if you love Asian food, you really want to give it a shot in Paris. Oh, yeah. I think you're going to be surprised. Next, we're going to go and try a food trend that is exploding in Paris and Americans have never heard about it. So Middle Eastern food in Paris is having a huge moment with coming up with all kinds of food outlets that are serving amazing food. And this place that is behind us, called Nour Contoir, near the Republic, is one of those places. Let's go and find out. Bonjour. So we're going to get different things. Yeah. Their specialty is that sandwich, arayes. I think we should try the hummus because it's a staple. Yeah, hummus. Yeah, we have. And I'd like to try the falafel as well. We've just been challenged here by the owner and he says that he has the best falafel in Paris. First of all, I've never seen the falafel being made in front of me. Usually it's a little bit dry, you know, when you eat it. And this one, it's not. It actually looks beautiful. Look at the smoke. Since it's fresh. Yeah. It's super crispy on the outside and the inside is super tender. Look at that. It's not dry at all. I'm going to try this sauce. Like, that's their house sauce and apparently there's a bit of curry. Amazing. Now, honestly, it's the best falafel. You got to tell him. I mean, the guy does a good job. Yeah, you can tell. Like, you know, he likes what he does. I don't eat everything. A lot of places, when you get hummus, they give you either a random bread or very dry pita. So you can hear the bread is really, really good. And the hummus, as you can see, it's very creamy. I knew this place would not disappoint, but I'm actually happily surprised. You should try the harissa on the hummus. With the hummus? Yes. And I don't... Okay. Is it really, really spicy? Not that spicy. And it's really interesting. It's smoky harissa. All right. I'm... Not that spicy. I usually don't like spicy, but I'm going to try a little bit, you know, just to honor the chef because I like spicy. Spicy doesn't like me. Well done. Oh, yeah. I can... It's got a second kick. I'm actually eating at the counter like this. Speaking with the chef like that. Yeah, yeah. And they're making more food over there. Yeah. So this is harissa. And this is the thing to eat here. So it's a pita bread. It's a pita bread. Pita bread. From Syria. Filled with beef. With beef. And like onions and things like that in there. And then you dip it in the sauce. Oh, yeah. It's crunchy. It's moist. It's flavorful. It's crunchy where it has to be crunchy and it's soft where it has to be soft. For sure, I'm coming back here when I'm in the area and I'm bringing Colleen. Colleen is going to love this. Price-wise, you'll be surprised. Yeah. How much was the harissa? Now, if you have the full size, it's $9.50. Oh, the full size is $9.50. And if you want to have an XL, it's $12.50. The hummus was $5. And the falafel? $5 as well. $5 for the falafel and harissa, forget about it. I'm coming back. Me too. There are tons of great restaurants in Paris and too many tourist traps to count. So we've put together a guide with 125 of our favorite restaurants all over the city. There's a link in the description. Check it out and see if that's a good fit for you. The next stop is this bakery right here called Ficelle. And they make goat sandwich exceptionally well. And it's one of the highest rated restaurant, 4.9 stars. So let's go and check it out. Let's go. Oh, look at that. So what's actually interesting is there's a bunch with cheeses or ingredients that you don't find in other sandwiches. So that makes it really interesting to try. Bonjour. Hi, I'm doing great. Thank you. So this restaurant makes sandwiches with a specific kind of baguette that you hardly ever see now in Paris. And it's called a Ficelle. And a Ficelle means string. So it's a very, very thin baguette. This restaurant brought it back and it's making sandwiches out of it. All kinds of... Top ingredients. Yeah, top ingredients. Like really high quality. And they're selling them for 3.90, 4.90. And then they have a formule for 12 euros. All right, so we're going to have a Marcel Gouda. With truffles. Yeah, yeah. Okay, that sounds like amazing. Yeah. This is Henry. Okay, shoot that. When I was a kid, when I got home from school, I would grab a baguette. I would go and get some salted butter and I would put chocolate. I've shown this to American and they're like, what the heck are you talking about? This is what the French kids eat. Well, that's what we used to eat. Merci. What I like here, they have a lot of place to sit. It's really cool. Yeah, it's a classic, you know, classic Parisian street. So it's going to be... Yeah, it's going to be hectic. By the way, this, yeah, this is for Paris for you. Yeah. Enjoy. Thank you. Thank you so much. So let's start with this one. Like that's the classic jambon beurre. Yeah. With some truffle cheese. Yeah. So we're going to give this one a shot. Well, you can smell... I definitely smell the cheese with the truffle, which means very good and smells of butter. It's really good. Nails the spot. It just brings the crunchiness to the sandwich. Yeah. Which makes it, makes it great. I'm going to try the second one. It's a cemento beef. A little bit more salty. Exactly feels like a carpaccio in a sandwich. Yeah. Also, because in this sandwich, they add a little bit of olive oil. Yeah, a little bit of olive oil. You can really see the quality of the meat here. It's really good quality. Yeah, it's next level sandwich. That's good stuff. I mean, I could eat this all day, right? Yeah. No problem. All right. The third sandwich. This is my childhood, man. Right. So this is the bread and butter baguette. Check this out. Just a nice crunchy little ficelle with some salted butter and some chocolate. This is my childhood in a stick. That's good stuff, isn't it? Really good, huh? Yeah. The crunchiness of the chocolate. Yeah, it just transports you, doesn't it? So this was an amazing baguette sandwich, ficelle. Now, I'm ready to go and have a smash burger in Le Marais. I'm ready, too. It's called Dumbo Paris. So they have a couple of locations in Paris. We're going to this one in Le Marais. I mean, literally, there's not even a sign on the door. Yeah, just right here. Oh, okay, right there. Dumbo. Bonjour. On va vous prendre un cheeseburger. D'accord. Vous voulez monter sur place? On va monter sur place, oui, s'il vous plaît. En présent, s'il vous plaît. Mick, Amiseka. So we're paying $20 for, I got a cheeseburger, a fry, water, and a cookie. Do you see the cookies? That looks delicious, man. That's the size of my head. You want to eat a burger in Paris, first, because you might have a craving from back home, but also because they're actually delicious. Like, this one is smashed. The edges are super crispy. All the flavors of the different ingredients, it's made to perfection. That's why you got to try a burger, because it's going to bring a different taste. And if you have a little craving, there's no shame to actually have a burger. It's really big in the Paris culture. People eat burgers all the time here. And I think Parisians eat the most burgers out of all their Europeans. So this is why you got to eat a burger. Yeah, this is very nice. So check this out. Cheese and mustard and ketchup. What I like is that it's a very simple burger. It's good taste. It's very soft. And when you bite it, it's just like melts in your mouth. Oh, yeah. That's a very satisfying burger. They give a little… I don't know what's in the sauce. So that's the special sauce. Special sauce. So it's mayo with another ingredient, but we don't know what it is. Oh, yeah. Nice French fries. Have a try. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's super crispy. I mean, you don't often get French fries like that. Yeah. It'll taste like home. Oh, yeah. Actually, it will taste better than home. And it comes with a cookie. Yeah. Oh, chocolate. Oh, with sea salt on top of it. Oh, yeah. Look at that. I'll break it off like that so you can see the inside. A great smash burger is a great smash burger. And Gumbo does a really good smash burger. I'll give you that. But where are you taking me next? I'm taking you to another great spot. And we're going to cross the Seine for this. So we're going to do a little bit of walking. So we're going to Rive Gauche this time. Yeah. So right now, we're actually on a very famous street, barely five minutes from Notre Dame. This is called Patate. Patate is slang for potato. And it's a perfect spot if you have an afternoon craving. It's not just about the fries. It's a lot about the sauce. It's not just ketchup or mayo. They have a whole selection that we're going to try. Yeah, small. We're going to get the small one. Yeah, sure. How much is the small one? It's $4. Take a Moyen. OK. We'll get the Moyen. And then what type of sauce? So they have a bunch of different sauces from the ketchup to mayonnaise with truffle, mustard with honey, creamy with dip. No garlic for me. Anything else is good. All right. We'll go truffle mayo and poivre, pepper. Let's go Conceo. Let's say Frenchie all the way. Yeah, Frenchie all the way. That's for sure. This is very local in the northern part of France. Yeah. And like on the Friday night, that's what some people would have as a family, enjoy it together. And it's something that we love. Merci, boss. Are you happy we got the medium? This is literally the size of my head. So we are by the Seine River. We have Notre Dame over there. And the Louvre is over there. Conciergerie right here. So I'm going to go ahead and actually try one of the sauces here, mayo with truffle. Mm. This is actually an excellent idea. Yeah. So what are these sauces? This one is mustard with honey. And here, it's mayo and ciboulette or something like that. Mm. That's fresh. The cone was $5. The two big sauces were like one euro each. And we added the cheese as a topping on top. So it was the total with the drinks was 13. But it's a huge cone of fries. So it's not expensive. No. I mean, honestly, for your family, would you take the large one and split it? No, I would get a medium one. A medium one for family? And then you can get three sauces. That's actually a true experience from the north of France. Because sometimes, it's not about the food that you eat, but it's where you eat it. Or who you eat it with. Exactly. So where are you taking me next? I want to take you to one specific street that's very famous and where locals go. And I think you'll like it. All right. So we are in the Rue Mouffetard. And mostly, students come here and young people because there's a lot of affordable food. And mostly because there are few universities all around. So we're going to go and try this rotisserie right here. And it's going to be delicious. Oh, you have the chicken. Oh, literally. Okay, so they make their own chicken. Look. Roasted chicken sandwich. This side of the Mississippi River. So this is not bacon bits. This is roasted chicken skin. What a place. Having the sandwiches is great, but there's also a bunch of desserts. And they're like homemade desserts, like grandma style, in the big pots. All right, so this is the mousse au chocolat. This comes with the formula. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you have the little chocolate pieces in there. That's what I was about to say, it wasn't my tea. Cheers. Let's go. I thought it was bacon bits. I'm like, oh, great, we're getting bacon bits. And the flavor of the crispy chicken skin is the right flavor. They made the sandwich right in front of us. And they actually got like real pieces of chicken out of the rotisserie chicken into the sandwich. It really tastes like a Caesar salad sandwich. And a crunchy baguette. It's more on the expensive side of sandwiches. So that sandwich costs 10 bucks. For Paris, maybe it is expensive, because people would be expecting like five or six euros. But for North America, no. This is one of the oldest streets in Paris, when we moved out, which hasn't been touched by the Haussmann development. It's still like old school, with all kinds of buildings, all kinds of shapes and sizes. Nothing's aligned. It's very charming like that. Yeah, I like that street. Eight stops, two days, not a single reservation, not a single menu with items above 20 euros. This is how Parisians eat, and now you know where to find it. Yeah. Next, I would watch this video about five cheap eats all over Paris.