Restaurants in Lille, North France

This excellent restaurant majors in fish dishes. Satisfied locals sit at well-spaced tables in an open ground floor around the central bar. A new décor has brought all-white tables and chairs against a dark grey floor, and the sense of space is helped by a balcony with tables and chairs around the outside walls. The plateau de fruits de mer at 40 euros is a real feast of the sea; other fish and shellfish from lobster to sole are treated with classical respect. Menus from 18 euros (lunch) to 25 euros at dinner (but you have to ask for the menu as they don't bring it automatically).

L’Ecume des Mers
10 rue de Pas
Tel.: 00 33 (0)3 20 54 95 40
Website
Daily lunch and dinner.

Bustling brasserie right on the main square, but more a local than a tourist favourite. It’s a beautiful Art Deco restaurant with all the right stained glass and brass fittings, mirrors, banquette seating and busy waiters. The menu takes in all the brasserie staples: oysters, peppered steak, roast duck with orange and mussels and more imaginative dishes as well. It’s all very well done; the cooking is a high standard and the place hums with contented diners, from little old ladies lunching on their own to large families.

Brasserie de la Paix
25 place Rihour
Tel.: 00 33 (0)3 20 54 70 41
Website
Monday to Saturday lunch and dinner.

Part of the group of restaurants owned and run by Marc Meurin, who is one of the leading lights of the restaurant world in north France, the Lille outpost is in an old house opposite the Opera. Odd corners, wood paneling, an open kitchen with a range, a brick wall and a magnificent staircase make you feel you’re in a private house. Classic dishes are given a modern touch as in terrine of duck with quince cannelloni and seabass with pak choi. Daily menus from 23 to 30 euros are good value.

Monsieur Jean
12 rue de Paris
Tel.: 00 33 (0)3 28 07 70 72
Website
Daily lunch and dinner. Closed last two weeks of August.

One of the institutions of Lille, founded in 1761 and the place where Charles de Gaulle came for his favorite waffles. The original beautiful shop has expanded and now there’s a tea room behind for light meals and a restaurant to one side for the more serious. There’s also a delightful terrace at the back for peaceful summer dining. The menu offers club sandwiches, salads and more substantial dishes like lamb and spring onion casserole, and grilled sole with asparagus. There’s a daily lunch menu at 29 euros.

Restaurant Meert
27 rue Esquermoise
Tel.: 00 33 (0)3 20 57 93 93
Website
Open Tuesday to Saturday lunch, Thursday to Saturday dinner.

La Part des Anges is part wine bar with a large and impressive list of wines at all prices and tastes, and part restaurant. In the wine bar part, plates of cheese and charcuterie are hearty enough to make a good lunch or light snack in the evenings. And there are other small dishes on offer, chalked up on blackboards. The restaurant is off to the back, serving good classic bistro style dishes. It’s in an old building with brick walls and wooden floors and furniture, and buzzes with people meeting their friends or chilling out after work. Menus run from 45 to 55 euros.

La Part des Anges
50 rue de la Monnaie
Tel.: 00 33 (0)3 20 06 44 01
Website
Open Monday to Friday lunch, Monday to Thursday 6pm-midnight, Friday to 1am, Saturday 6.30pm-2am.

This is the place for good Flemish comfort food. The estaminet, in an old building with wooden chairs, tiled floors, candles and old-fashioned games to play, offers hearty dishes such as soup made with the local Maroilles cheese, sausage with apples, carbonnade of beef and chicken in Camembert. It should all be washed down with local beers. You’ll stagger out a little heavier, but very happy.

Au Vieux de la Vieille
2-4 rue des vieux murs
Tel.: 00 33 (0)3 20 13 81 64
Website
Daily lunch and dinner.

You come across this delightful local estaminet in a small courtyard. Go through the gateway into a 16th-century building and you walk into a bustling, two-storey restaurant with wooden tables, chairs and floors, shelves on the walls and odd artefacts and pictures dotted around. Expect bistro-style, hearty dishes witha more imaginative twist than usual. Start with a casserole of shellfish cooked in beer with vegetables and move onto duck with a dish of potatoes, artichokes and truffles. Menus run from 20 to 39 euros, and the beer list has some surprises.