After working as chef to the head of the French Pacific Fleet and in the kitchen at Alain Passard’s Arpège, Pascal Barbot struck out on his own with one of the most consistently original and interesting restaurants. Barbot’s 21st-century French cooking is vivid, fresh, and healthy, with an obvious affection for vegetables, fruits, and flowers. His menu changes regularly but signature dishes like the “ravioli” of avocado slices filled with crabmeat dressed with almond oil and pigeon with bilberry chutney and quince confit highlight the chef’s nervy cooking style.

4 rue Beethoven, 16th; 01-40-50-84-40

Chef Raquel Carena’s terrific cooking—a very personal take on French bistro fare that finds inspiration all over the world, including her native Argentina—has made this vest-pocket bistro in Belleville a favorite of French chefs, including Olivier Roellinger, Yves Camdeborde, Pierre Hermé, Joël Robuchon, and Alain Ducasse. What gets these boys excited are heart-felt dishes like Carena’s red tuna tartare with black cherries, Maldon salt, miso-and-malt vinegar, veal with eggplant ribbons—she skins eggplants and roasts their skin until it’s terrifically brittle and crunchy. Her desserts are terrific, too, including a bread pudding made with dulce de leche.

3 rue Jouye-Rouve; 01-43-49-39-70

Tucked away in a quiet street in the rapidly gentrifying 9th arrondissement, this small dining room is casual chic and a perfect place for real French comfort food from talented and occasionally mercurial chef Olympe Versini. Her menu, including chestnut-flour galettes with coddled eggs, marinated sardines, roast shoulder of lamb and Paris-Brest, are a charming miniature dictionary of the reasons the world loves French food.

48 rue Saint Georges, 9th; 01-42-85-26-01

Housed in an old épicerie, this popular bistro clocks a bona-fide Paris frame of mind that's created by a hip, young crowd. We can't get enough of chef Inaki Aizpitarte's inventive modern bistro cooking. Aizpitarte's menu changes daily but runs to dazzling dishes like salmon teriyaki with red fruites, pigeon with pumpkin, hazelnuts and chestnuts, and a can't-miss boulette de lait caillé rose (rose sorbet with buttermilk ice cream).

129 avenue Parmentier, 11th; 01-43-57-45-95

Ever since bistro wizard Yves Camdeborde opened this thirties-vintage dining room in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, it has been packed to the rafters with an international crowd who've reserved tables a requisite month in advance. The prix-fixe single dinner menu changes regularly but expect dishes like the deboned, breaded pig's trotter, chicken soup with vin jaune and mousseron mushrooms, saddle of lamb with Basque style raviolis, and runny chocolate cake to be excellent all the time.

9 Carrefour de l'Odéon 6th; 01-44- 27-07-50