La Marmite

We stopped in for a quick drink after a long day of sightseeing in the rain.

The service was quick, and the Rose wine was very good. Ok beer selection too. The bar was filled with people stopping in after work with friends so there was interesting people watching.

Amazing and delicious meal with gorgeous scenery. This meal was amazing and those around me started to order the same!

Nice little French bar that serves a great pint and some delicious appetizers. As with most bistros/brasseries, this location has some really awesome outdoor seating that enables a ton of people watching, especially as tourists come down from Montmarte. Overall, the service is friendly, attentive and the location is not bad at all... Solid 4 stars.

Pros-
Beer selection
Appetizers
Friendly servers
Open late (01:30am)
Location
Outdoor seating

Cons-
A bit out of the way

Walking through Montmartre, heading towards Moulin Rouge, we needed something to eat and possibly a beverage. Stepped in because they seemed to have a lot of options that might work for our group of eight, mostly picky diners. We made a good choice. Everything was fresh and delicious and no one was unsatisfied. The staff was super friendly and spoke English (very helpful). Definitely recommend this place.

If you like waiting forever for service, or if you just like being ignored, this is your new favorite spot.

The food is decent, but seriously the worst service you can get at a place and still call it a restaurant. 10-15 minutes just to have a server come to your table after you are seated. Another 20 minutes to get your first drink.

We ordered food and drinks at the same time(2 soups and a salad) and didn't get any food for almost an hour.

This was around 8pm on a Monday night with not many other customers. Not to mention they brought the wrong soup out first and then when we got the bill they tried to charge us for it.

Every time we go to Paris, we make sure and have a meal at La Marmite. I never thought that potatoes would go so well in a fresh salad, but it's fantastic and filling, now I can't imagine why it's not done more often. The food is always fresh, La Marmite has a nice nice and casual atmosphere, with good service and you really can't beat the prices! We must have paid around 30 Euros for two drinks and two salads for dinner. Highly recommended!

My husband and I stumbled upon this place after walking around late at night and many other quaint places were serving only alcohol. We were hungry after a long flight and wanted to start off our Paris trip.

We were seated right away and ambiance was very nice! the server spoke English and gave us his recommendations. We got the duck confit and escargot.

The duck confit was amazing. Duck was sooo crispy and gender. The potatoes were cooked perfectly and addicting! The green beans also accompanied the meal.

Escargot was good but I think there are better escargot somewhere else. I'm on the search. ;)

It's open a lot later than other places which is a huge plus!

We stumbled across this place in desperation for food after walking to Sacre cour from the Seine. We thought, well it can;t be that bad, it's packed! we sat down and ordered escargot which came an astounding 30 minutes later... we had some patience to spare.

after the 2 tables next to us who were seated after us got their meal, ate, paid and left, I flagged the waitress down asking where our food was. She gave me the rudest reply, "it's coming".

the food was freaking aweful! How do french people eat at a place this terrible?! I thought american food was terrible but coming from an american, this food was just a shame. I ordered the duck, and it came out dry, SUPER hard and cold. It was like the chef overcooked it and left it under the heat lamp for an hour. Duck is supposed to be soft and very fatty and i felt like I was eating a hard slim jim.

This was the worst duck I have ever had in my life. And thats making a point! Tourists and parisiennes, BEWARE!

Bleck!

We had walked many times past La Marmite while choosing dining establishments to eat at near our hotel... But every time we walked by it, it was busy.

Tonight, we finally decided to go in. "Marmite" in French refers to passion... the servers at this restaurant were anything but!

When I sat down I noticed that ALL the locals were eating from a massive bowl that resembled a potato with mixed greens of some sort, though they varied. Whenever I'm abroad, I always like to glance over to see what all the locals are eating... Because they MUST know what's good?!

We ended up ordering:

Escargots - Served in its shell (Some of them were difficult to get out, even with the snail tongs and fork. My dad resorted to just shaking them out and it worked quite well, although I think we lose points for etiquette?) It was a very savoury escargot that was served with a pesto butter.

Salade Perigovine - So it turns out all the big bowls that the locals were eating out of were salads. What would Jenny Craig say about portion size? But wait, other than portion size, there's more that Jenny Craig would hate about this salad. It is a salad with a romaine lettuce base, served with: duck gizzards, pâté on toast, thin sliced potatoes, duck prosciutto, duck fat and duck sausage with a creamy ranch-like dressing... It was such a savoury salad... however, defeats the purpose of ordering a salad (e.g. healthier alternative?) I think not. But what the heck, I was on vacation. My only regret is that my phone died and I couldn't take a picture of how massive the bowl was. I had to leave half the potatoes although I really really wanted to finish them because they were just that dang good!

Boeuf à la Bourguignonne - My dad is a very predictable diner. He seldom strays or is adventurous. If its western food, its always Steak! So I suggested to him that he should try something different. When he first heard my suggestion he gave me this "Are you trying to deprive me from my steak?" look... A rather skeptical "I don't know if its going to be any good" look. But in the end he took my advice, and he was NOT disappointed. The stew came in a pot that looked like a mini witch's cauldron. The serving size was quite generous as even my dad could not finish it on his own. There is quite a lot of sauce left over at the end. My dad liked it so much he wanted to doggy bag the sauce so we could dip baguette into it, but we quickly rejected the idea. Sure, let's just magnify the fact that we're tourists... as if being the only Asian family inside the restaurant wasn't already screaming that. The stew had an intense flavour to it and the beef was nice and tender. You could taste the subtle red wine in the stew.

Rump Steak - The steak was the most disappointing part of the meal. It was overdone, and not tender at all. It could be the cut of the beef? In general I found that either 1) French beef is inferior or 2) The French don't know how to cook a steak like us North Americans? Every steak experience we had in Paris was a bad one. The rump steak at La Marmite was quite bland.

Duck Confit - Mom ordered this dish, and although the duck meat was flavourful juicy, moist and tender - the duck skin was mushy. I like my duck confit à la crispy!

All in all, this was one of our better Parisian dining experiences... It was authentic French fare (unlike a lot of the tourist traps), and I am glad we decided to choose a hotel that was in a less touristy part of town to experience French cuisine.

Went here in 3/07 & had the cassoulet maison & loved it!! Great location to people watch too.