Five Places to Dine in Paris With the Author of ‘Let’s Eat France’

5 Places The 16th arrondissement is turning into a dining destination. François-Régis Gaudry, the popular food writer and radio host, offers compelling reasons to eat in the neighborhood. Among the most dense and affluent districts in Paris, the 16th arrondissement has long been considered a sleepy, stuffy, gastronomic desert on the French capital’s vast culinary landscape. François-Régis Gaudry, the 44-year-old food critic, radio and television host, and best-selling author of Let’s Eat France!

, knows the area’s limitations firsthand: Every week for the last decade, he has recorded his wildly popular radio show, “On Va Déguster,” at La Maison de la Radio, the 16th arrondissement headquarters for Radio France broadcasting. But now there are compelling reasons to direct appetites here on the city’s western edge. “There’s been a real desire among chefs and restaurateurs to move away from the saturated 9th, 10th and 11th arrondissements to where they can have more space and reach a clientele that’s hungry for more choice,” he says. Here, he shares five of his favorite places to eat in the neighborhood.

“It’s a foreign take on French cuisine that is refreshing,” Mr. Gaudry says of this two-year-old contemporary restaurant. Its Canadian owners, Etheliya Hananova, the sommelier, and Noam Gedalof, the chef, earned a Michelin star for what Mr. Gaudry calls the whole package: an inviting interior, full of antique furnishings and stunning fresh flowers; their expertise and neo-Classical approach to French cooking; and an artisan-driven wine program.

“It was so unexpected, in part because of its location and unassuming design,” he says. 31, Avenue de Versailles; comice. paris “In some ways, the spot doesn’t feel like Paris,” Mr. Gaudry says of this Le Fooding award-winning cocktail bar.

He loves the bar as much for the building’s carefully preserved Art Nouveau architecture by Hector Guimard (who famously designed Paris metro entrances) and historic design elements — from the facade to the porcelain tiles and original signage — as for its expert drinks menu. Cravan is run by Franck Audoux, formerly the co-owner of the highly-regarded restaurant Le Chateaubriand. “Franck has elevated the cocktail to the level of high liquid gastronomy and does so with elegance and simplicity.