There are not so many places in Paris where you can have a “all day breakfast” or a real American brunch. Because we frogs are not used to eat this kind of comfort food at 4 in the afternoon… To us breakfast is for morning time only, then you move on to lunch and eventually dinner. However, thanks to the American community in Paris, it is now possible to find such places. Walking around in le Marais area, we came accross a place called “Breakfast in America”, looked at the menu, and thought to ourselves that we had to come back.
We did yesterday, although we had to queue and sit at the same table as two girls we didn’t know (the place was crowded, we had no choice). The menu is very extensive and offers a wide choice for breakfast (eggs any style, pancakes, muffins, bagels, cereals etc) lunch (burgers, wraps, chilli, fries, even a student menu), brunch and sweets (milkshakes, pies among others). We decided to have the brunch, for 15.5 euros. It consists of a choice of eggs any style + stack of pancakes with syrup or a brownie/donut/muffin and a yoghurt + bottomless coffee and a glass of orange juice. After the bilingual waitress took our order we patiently waited, listening to other people’s conversations (in English) and to the slightly outdated play list.
To be honest, it was good. The portions were filling, it was cooked on the minute and the pancakes were delicious covered with maple syrup. However, the eggs were not scrambled and definitely not creamy: they looked more like a ruined dry omelette. The place was packed so the waitresses were unfortunately not available to answer our questions about the menu. Breakfast in America is definitely a nice place, but the best time to go is in the morning, when the hordes of hungry expats have not arrived yet.
Breakfast in America: 4 rue Malher, Paris 4ème (tel: 01 42 72 40 21); 17 rue des Ecoles, Paris 5è (tel: 01 43 54 50 28). Open every day, 8.30am to 11pm. Website: breakfast-in-america.com
Bottomless cup of coffee: 2.50 euros/ Hot-dog and fries: 7.50 euros/ Classic burger with fries: 8.50 euros/ Brunch: 15.5 euros