Chefs: Thierry Delabrosse and Louis Gadby
Patricia Wells writes in her “Food Lovers Guide to Paris”:
“...L’Ami Louis, the most authentic, the most expensive and the most dilapidated bistro in the world. Even the telephone number that hangs behind the cash register — Turbigo 7748 — lets you know from the start that this is a haven for the nostalgic. It’s the land of wood-fired stoves and red-checkered tablecloths, a land that can’t exist in the present, but only in the past.’

‘Antoine Magnin, who from 1930 until his death in 1987 worked his gentle magic with foie gras, chicken, and game, is still there in spirit, a framed portrait hanging from the flaking, cordovan-colored walls.’

‘He loved the stars and the stars loved him (he kept a photograph of actress Romy Schneider taped to his kitchen wall). For him nostalgia meant the pre-war era, when he claimed to have served more wild, baby birds, such as ortalons and bécasse, than any other restaurant in Paris, and when 100 lobsters a day passed from his stoves.”

Try the whole chicken for two carved tableside with foie gras. The game gibier in season: October to February or the gigot d’agneau in Spring only.

Closed: Monday, Tuesday and July 14 through August 26.
Reservations a must.
Lunch: noon to 2 pm
Dinner: 8 pm to 11 pm.
Tip: go for lunch and especially on Sunday and enjoy a French atmosphere rather than being surrounded by all Americans at most every other meal. Have dessert somewhere else.

Still stenciled on the window is “ortolans” a small bird, highly esteemed as a delicacy but now considered an endangered species.

Top Meal by wine critic Robert Parker for many years.
Recommended by gridskipper.com November 2007.
Recommended by Mimi Sheraton in NY Times April 2009.
Recommended by chef Andrew Carmellini July 2009.
Recommended by Guardian.co.uk: The 50 Best Things to Eat in the World, and Where to Eat Them - Roast Chicken, September 2009.
Recommended by Christian Navarro of Wally's Wine January 2010.
Metro: Arts-et-Métiers