With its international reputation for fine dining, few people would be surprised to hear that French cuisine can certainly be very good.

Unfortunately, it can also be quite disappointing. Finding the right restaurant is therefore very important - try asking locals, hotel staff or even browsing restaurant guides for recommendations as simply walking in off the street can be a hit and miss affair.

There are many places to try French food in France, from three-star Michelin restaurants to French "brasseries" or "bistros" that you can find at almost every corner, especially in big cities. These usually offer a relatively consistent and virtually standardised menu of relatively inexpensive cuisine. To obtain a greater variety of dishes, a larger outlay of money is often necessary. In general, one should try to eat where the locals do for the best chance of a memorable meal. Most small cities or even villages have local restaurants which are sometimes listed in the most reliable guides. There are also specific local restaurants, like "bouchons lyonnais" in Lyons, "crêperies" in Brittany (or in the Montparnasse area of Paris), etc. Ethnic food is available throughout France, Chinese restaurants and takeaways (actually most of them are Vietnamese) are everywhere, and large cities have North African, Greek, Italian (pizzerias) restaurants and eateries. The ubiquitous hamburger eateries (US original or their French copies) is also available.

In France, taxes (19.6 per cent of the total) and service (usually 15 per cent) are always included in the bill ; so anything patrons add to the bill amount is an "extra-tip".
French people usually leave one or two coins if they were happy with the service.

Menu fixed price seldom include beverages. If you want water, waiters will often try to sell you mineral water (Évian, Thonon) or fizzy water (Badoit, Perrier), at a premium; ask for a carafe d'eau for tap water, which is free and safe to drink. Water never comes with ice in it unless so requested (and water with ice may not be available).

Ordering is made either from fixed price menus (prix fixe) or à la carte.

A typical fixed price menu will comprise:

appetizer, called entrées or hors d'œuvres
main dish, called plat
dessert (dessert) or cheese (fromage)
Sometimes, restaurants offer the option to take only two of three steps, at a reduced price.

Coffee is always served as a final step (though it may be followed by liquors). A request for coffee during the meal will be considered weird.

Not all restaurants are open for lunch and dinner, nor are they open all year around. It is therefore advisable to check carefully the opening times and days. A restaurant open for lunch will usually start service at noon and accept patrons until 13:30. Dinner begins at around 19:30 and patrons are accepted until 21:30. Restaurants with longer service hours are usually found only in the larger cities and in the downtown area. Finding a restaurant open on Saturday and especially Sunday can be a challenge unless you stay close to the tourist areas.

In a reasonable number of restaurants, especially outside tourist areas, a booking is compulsory and people may be turned away without one, even if the restaurant is clearly not filled to capacity. For this reason, it can be worthwhile to research potential eateries in advance and make the necessary reservations in order to avoid disappointment, especially if the restaurant you're considering is specially advised in guide books.

A lunch or dinner for two on the "menu" including wine and coffee will cost you (as of 2004) €70 to €100 in a listed restaurant in Paris. The same with beer in a local "bistro" or a "crêperie" around €50. A lunch or dinner for one person in a decent Chinese restaurant in Paris can cost as little as €6 if one looks carefully.

Outside of Paris and the main cities, prices are not always lower but the menu will include a fourth course, usually cheese. As everywhere beware of the tourist traps which are numerous around the heavy travelled spots and may offer a nice view but not much to remember in your plate.

Bread

All white bread variants keep for only a short time - must be eaten the same day. Hence bakers bake at least twice a day!

The famous baguette: a long, thin loaf
Variants of the baguette : la ficelle (even thinner), la flûte
Pain de campagne or Pain complet: made from whole grain which keeps relatively well.

Pastries

Pastries are a large part of French cooking. Hotel breakfasts tend to be light, consisting of tartines (pieces of bread with butter or jam) or the famous croissants and pains au chocolat, not dissimilar to a chocolate filled croissant (but square rather than crescent shaped).

Pastries can be found in a pâtisserie but also in most boulangeries.

Regional dishes

Every French region has dishes all its own. These dishes follow the resources (game, fish, agriculture, etc) of the region, the vegetables (cabbage, turnip, endives, etc) which they grow there. Here is a small list of regional dishes which you can find easily in France. Generally each region has a unique and widespread dish (usually because it was poor people's food):

Cassoulet (in south west) : Beans, duck, pork & sausages
Choucroute, or sauerkraut (in Alsace) : stripped fermented cabbage + pork
Fondue savoyarde (central Alps) : Melted/hot cheese with alcohol
Fondue bourguignonne (in burgundy) : Pieces of beef (in boiled oil), usually served with a selection of various sauces.
Raclette (central Alps) : melted cheese & potatoes/meat
Pot-au-feu : boiled beef with vegetables
Boeuf bourguignon (Burgundy) : slow cooked beef with gravy
Gratin dauphinois (Rhone-Alpes) : oven roasted slices of potatoes
Aligot (Auvergne) : melted cheese mixed with a puree of potatoes
Bouillabaisse (fish + saffron) (Marseille and French Riviera). Don't be fooled. A real bouillabaisse is a really expensive dish due to the amount of fresh fish it requires. Be prepared to pay at least 30€/persons. If you find restaurants claiming serving bouillabaisse for something like 15€/persons, you'll get a very poor quality.
Tartiflette (Savoy) Reblochon cheese, potatoes and pork or bacon.
Confit de canard (Landes) : Duck legs and wings bathing in grease. That grease is actually very healthy and, with red wine, is one of the identified sources of the so-called "French Paradox" (eat richly, live long).
Foie gras (Landes) : The liver of a force-fed duck (or goose). Although usually quite expensive, foie gras can be found in supermarkets for a lower price (because of their purchasing power) around the holiday season. It is the time of year when most of foie gras is consumed in France. It goes very well with champagne.

Unusual foods

Contrary to stereotype, snails and frog legs are quite infrequent foods in France, with many French people enjoying neither, or sometimes having never even tasted them. Quality restaurants sometimes have them on their menu: if you're curious about trying new foods, go ahead.

Frogs' legs have a very fine and delicate taste with flesh that is not unlike chicken. They are often served in a garlic dressing and are no weirder to eat than, say, crab.
Most of the taste of Bourgogne snails (escargots de bourgogne) comes from the generous amount of butter, garlic and parsley in which they are cooked. Bear this in mind if you discover that you like them, as you may regret over-consumption in the morning. They have a very particular spongy-leathery texture that is what is liked by people who like snails. Catalan style snails ("cargols") are made a completely different way, and taste much weirder.


Let us also cite:

Rillettes sarthoise. A sort of potted meat, made from finely shredded and spiced pork. A delicious speciality of the Sarthe area in the north of the Pays de la Loire and not to be confused with rillettes from other areas, which are more like a rough pate.

Beef bone marrow (os a moelle). Generally served in small quantities, with a large side. So go ahead: If you don't like it, you'll have something else to eat in your plate.

Veal sweetbread (ris de Veau), is a very fine (and generally expensive) delicacy, often served with morels, or in more elaborates dishes like "bouchees a la reine".

Beef stomach (tripes) is served either "A la mode de caen" (with a white wine sauce) or "A la catalane" (with a slightly spiced tomato sauce)

Andouillettes are sausages made from tripe. It is a specialty of Lyon

Beef tongue (langue de bœuf) and beef nose(museau) and Veal head (tete de veau) are generally eaten cold (but thoroughly cooked!) as an appetizer.

Oysters (almost always eaten raw in France)

"Oursins" (sea urchins) For those who like concentrated iodine.

"Steak tartare", a big patty of ground beef served raw, with a raw egg on top.

cervelle, that is lamb brain.


Cheese

France is certainly THE country of cheese, with nearly 400 different kinds. Indeed, former president General Charles De Gaulle was quoted as saying something along the lines of, nobody could govern a country with more than 265 different cheeses.

Here is a far from exhaustive list of what one can find:

Bleu des Causses Livarot Roquefort
Bleu du Vercors Morbier Saint Nectaire
Boulette d'Avesnes Maroilles Salers
Brie de Meaux Munster Sainte Maure de Touraine
Brie de Melun Murol Selles-sur-Cher
Broccio Neufchâtel Sainte Maure de Touraine
Camembert Ossau-Iraty Tomme de chèvre
Cantal Pelardon Tomme des Cévennes
Chaource Pérail Tomme de Savoie
Comté Picodon Valençay

Drink

Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone, the Loire Valley...France is the home of wine. It can be found cheaply just about anywhere. Beer (lager) is also extremely popular, in particular in northern France, where "[Biere de Garde]" can be found. Note that in France, the minimum age to buy alcohol at cafés is 16, but this is not always strictly enforced; however, laws against drunk driving are strictly enforced, with stiff penalties.

Wine and liquors may be purchased from supermarkets, or from specialized stores such as the Nicolas chain. Nicolas offers good advice on what to buy (specify the kind of wine and the price range you desire). In general, only French wines are available unless a foreign wine is a "specialty" with no equivalent in France (such as port), and they are classified by region of origin, not by grape.

Never drink alcoholic beverages (especially wine) directly from a 75 cl bottle.
Such behaviour is generally associated with bums and drunkards.

Café prices depend heavily on location. Remember, you're not paying so much for the beverage as for the table spot; and accordingly, in general, it is cheaper to drink at the bar than seated at a table. Cafés in touristic areas, especially in Paris, are very expensive. If your intent is simply to have a drink, you'll be better off buying beverages from a grocery store and drinking them in a park.

There are a couple of mixed drinks which seem to be more or less unique to France, and nearby francophone countries.

Panaché is a mix of beer and lemonade, basically a beer shandy.
Monaco is a Panaché with some grenadine syrup added.
Kir is a pleasant aperitif of white wine (in theory, Bourgogne Aligoté) or, less frequently, of champagne (then named kir royal and about twice the price of regular kir) and cassis (blackcurrant liqueur), or peche (peach), or mûre (blackberry).
Pastis is an anise-based (licorice-flavored) spirit that is more popular in the South, but is also available everywhere else. Served with a small pitcher of iced water that is used to dilute the drink and turns the yellow colored liquid cloudy.
Tap water is safe to drink apart from exceptional cases (remote farms, remote rest areas), in which case it will be labeled eau non potable. Tap water may be obtained in restaurants by asking for a carafe d'eau; it will not come with ice. In some cities, it may have a taste such as that of chlorine.

There is a variety of bottled water, including:

Évian, Thonon, Contrex: mineral water
Perrier: fizzy water
Badoit: slightly fizzy and salty water.