Late lunch · Paris 12
Most Paris kitchens close from about 2.30 pm until 7 pm, which is how a lot of visitors end up eating badly. We serve without a break from midday to 11 pm, Tuesday to Saturday, between Bastille and Nation.
Ty Louis, a Breton restaurant at 240 rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, serves continuously from 12 pm to 11 pm, Tuesday to Saturday. The kitchen does not close between lunch and dinner, so you can sit down and be served at 3 pm or 4 pm, when most Paris restaurants are shut.
The Paris afternoon problem
It is not you, and it is not bad luck. It is how the city is organised.
Most Paris restaurants run a lunch service from about midday to 2.30 pm and a dinner service from about 7 pm. In between, the kitchen brigade breaks, preps for the evening and cleans down. It is a staffing decision, not a whim.
Parisians know the rhythm and plan around it. Visitors arrive on a plane or a train at an arbitrary hour, which is why the 3 pm to 7 pm window is the most common cause of a disappointing meal in Paris.
Cafés and brasseries on the busiest squares, which is precisely where a visitor is most likely to be overcharged for a reheated dish. Service continu in a proper kitchen is the rarer and better option.
Your options
From a full plate to a single coffee. All of it is a legitimate reason to sit down.
The kitchen stays open through the afternoon, so you can order food outside the usual service windows. Our lunch set menu is served at midday only, so an afternoon meal means ordering from the menu. If you have something specific in mind, call ahead on 06 73 08 54 13 and we will tell you what is available at that hour.
You are welcome to push the door open for a coffee, a tea or a drink without ordering a meal at all. No minimum, no raised eyebrow. In the warmer months, on the terrace.
A coffee served with a few homemade Breton petits fours. The neat middle ground between a drink and a dessert, and the most Breton thing you can order at 4 pm.
Bottle-fermented cider from small independent Breton cider houses, poured by the glass. Brittany drinks cider rather than wine, and the afternoon is a perfectly respectable time for one.
Who eats at 4 pm
Jet lag does not respect French service hours. Arriving mid-afternoon and hungry is the single most common way visitors end up eating badly in Paris, because the good places are closed and only the tourist terraces are serving.
Gare de Lyon is a direct ride on metro line 1 to Reuilly-Diderot, about 3 minutes from the door. An early or late meal before a train is exactly the slot most restaurants cannot cover.
The Coulée verte, the Viaduc des Arts and the Marché d’Aligre are all within about 10 minutes on foot. They do not run to a lunch timetable either.
The afternoon between services is the calmest stretch of the day. Air-conditioned dining room, Wi-Fi throughout, and nobody rushing you.
Late risers, people on a night shift, anyone whose day does not start at 8 am. A 4 pm meal is not an odd request here.
Getting here
We are at 240 rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, in the 12th arrondissement. Reuilly-Diderot, on metro lines 1 and 8, is about 3 minutes on foot. Nation, which carries lines 1, 2, 6, 9 and the RER A, is about 6 minutes. From Gare de Lyon it is a single ride on line 1, with no change, which makes this a practical stop before or after a train.
Mid-afternoon is the quietest part of our day, so you can usually walk in without booking. If you want to be certain, or if you have a particular dish in mind, call us on 06 73 08 54 13. The full practical rundown, including the Sundays we do open, is on our visit page.
Good to know
At Ty Louis, in the 12th arrondissement between Bastille and Nation. We serve continuously from 12 pm to 11 pm, Tuesday to Saturday, with no afternoon closure, so 3 pm is a normal hour to be seated. The nearest metro is Reuilly-Diderot on lines 1 and 8, about 3 minutes away.
Most run two separate services, roughly midday to 2.30 pm and from 7 pm, with the kitchen closed in between so the team can break and prep for the evening. Restaurants that stay open through the afternoon advertise it as “service continu”, and there are not many of them.
It means the kitchen does not close between lunch and dinner: the restaurant serves without interruption through the afternoon. At Ty Louis that is 12 pm to 11 pm, Tuesday to Saturday.
Yes. Mid-afternoon is the quietest part of our day, so you will almost always find a table without booking. Booking is worth it in the evening, at weekends and for groups.
Yes, with no obligation to order food. A coffee, a tea, a glass of cider or a café gourmand, which is a coffee served with homemade Breton petits fours. On the terrace from April to October.
The kitchen is open, so you can order food outside the usual services. Our set lunch menu is served at midday only, so an afternoon meal means ordering from the menu instead. Availability at a given hour depends on the day, so call us on 06 73 08 54 13 and we will tell you exactly what we can serve.
Not as a regular service. We open at midday, so there is no morning sitting. Brunch happens at Ty Louis only as an event, alongside our creative workshops, and those dates are announced on Instagram @letylouis.
Tuesday to Saturday, 12 pm to 11 pm non-stop. Closed on Mondays and, as a rule, on Sundays. We do open for about ten Sundays a year at lunch, tied to a Paris event or a family occasion, and the dates are listed on our visit page.
Yes, and none of it runs on a lunch timetable: the Coulée verte René-Dumont and the Viaduc des Arts are about 8 minutes on foot, the Marché d’Aligre about 10, and the Jardin de Reuilly about 8. Place de la Nation is about 6 minutes away.
Yes. American Express is accepted, which is not a given in Paris restaurants, along with credit and debit cards, cash and French luncheon vouchers. Chèques-vacances holiday vouchers are not accepted.
Reservations
Tuesday to Saturday, lunch and dinner, non-stop service.
240 rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, between Bastille and Nation.