Of all the famous cafés in Paris, the most well-known around the world is without a doubt the Café de Flore, very close to our hotels.

Founded in 1887, the café became a meeting spot in the 20th century for the city’s artists and intelligentsia including Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Pablo Picasso, André Breton, Alberto Giacometti, Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Juliette Gréco, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Serge Gainsbourg, Yves Saint-Laurent, Givenchy… and many, many more.

Imagining that these famous names could have sat at the table you are currently seated at is wild!

Everyone visiting Paris should drop by the Café de Flore, whether you have a drink there, a meal or just check out the large terrace. We decided to go for dinner and see what it was like…

The Café de Flore. Just the name is enough to evoke the spirit of Paris, its literature, intellectualism, creativity, rebelliousness, avant-garde… The café even has its own literary prize since 1994.

It’s an enduring reputation – ask people to name one café in Paris and the Flore will almost certainly be the first they think of – and one that the owners have understood can be monetised, thanks to a well-stocked expensive online store (breakfast crockery for two costs 210€, ashtrays are 32€… 😲) and hip collabs with sites like Highsnobiety, whose Flore collection is almost completely sold out (only a t-shirt and two hoodies are still available).

Few iconic places manage to maintain their reputation and remain relevant like this, and it’s true that the café is still an essential spot for watching the world go by at any time of year, especially Fashion Week.

Part of the ‘Flore experience’ is to people watch and been seen hanging out there, and that’s OK.

However, two things surprised us during our visit:

— Firstly, while the terrace is huge, the interior is actually pretty small (especially if you exclude the upstairs room that we would advise you to avoid) and looks a little old. Some will embrace the fact that it seems well preserved despite being in need of a coat of paint, while others will feel it would be sacrilege to change a thing….

— Secondly, the menu is very clearly for a café, not a restaurant. Chez Lipp, almost opposite, there’s a large choice of dishes and courses, but at Café de Flore you’ll find mostly light meals (a club sandwich, onion soup), not hearty dishes.

Could this be a deliberate choice, to make sure people don’t hog tables for too long? Or perhaps the kitchens don’t allow for anything more expansive to be offered? Difficult to say, but one thing is sure – food and drink at this famous café is particularly expensive, even for Saint-Germain-des-Prés (melon with ham is 23€, a cheese sandwich costs 9€).

After a glass of Brouilly (expect to pay 10€-14€ for a glass of wine, and up to 28€ for a glass of Margaux 2008), and black pepper-flavoured crisps (yum!) we took a look at the menu (very standard fare, nothing wild) and order our dishes – a salade niçoise and duck parmentier.

The salad was exactly as expected – fresh, well-seasoned and of a decent size, served without any frills.

As for the duck with mashed potato, the latter was very obviously freshly-prepared in-house, lightly but not excessively grilled, and the duck was fresh and of a good-quality cut.

It’s bistrot cuisine but well executed with quality ingredients, but if you’re looking for something more creative or out-of-the-ordinary, you may find it a bit vanilla.

For dessert, we chose a chocolate tart and a slice of apple pie.

Again, both were competently executed, delicious, fresh, not over-sweet, with a fresh crust and very ordinary presentation. The apple pie was nevertheless impressively stacked with slices of apple!

As you might have gathered by now, going to Café de Flore is an experience, a classic, and why change a classic?

The food is good, simple, and ruinously priced (expect to pay around 100€ for two glasses of wine, two mains and two desserts). Despite all that, it’s definitely worth a visit, even if you just want to take photos and tell your friends you were there 🙂

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The Café de Flore (here) is open seven days a week from 7.30-1.30am (no reservations)

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Une publication partagée par Café de Flore Paris official (@lecafedeflore)