You arrive in Paris on Friday lunchtime. A trade show, a romantic weekend, or a nephew’s bar mitzvah where you do not know half the guests. You know nobody who knows somebody who knows the owner. And you want to eat kosher without accidentally fasting all Saturday.
Good news: it is entirely possible. Bad news: in Paris, the calendar matters as much as the menu. Here is a four-step method.
Step 1: choose your neighbourhood before your hotel
Paris kosher restaurants are not evenly distributed. They cluster in a few arrondissements, worth considering if you can choose where to stay. In the Keila catalogue as of 5 October 2026, the areas with the most kosher places supported by documented evidence are:
| Place | Kosher with evidence | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| 17th | 23 | The list, the 17th guide |
| 16th | 11 | The list, the 16th guide |
| 19th | 11 | The list, the 19th guide |
| Levallois-Perret | 11 | The list, the Levallois guide |
| 11th | 9 | The list, the 11th guide |
| 8th | 5 | The list, the 8th guide |
| 12th | 5 | The list, the 12th guide |
| 4th (Marais) | 4 | The list, the Marais guide |
| 9th | 3 | The list, the 9th guide |
These figures count places with documented certification or a restaurant declaration as of 5 October 2026, to our knowledge. Places mentioned only by directories are excluded: there are others awaiting confirmation, included in the guides. Figures change with updates, but give a useful sense of density. The overview is in where to eat kosher in Paris by arrondissement, and the current list of documented kosher listings by neighbourhood is at kosher restaurant pages by place.
For business travel, the 8th and 9th are convenient if meetings are around Saint-Lazare or the grands boulevards. For families, the 17th and 16th offer choice. The 4th, with the Marais, remains a must for the atmosphere, although it has fewer kosher places than its reputation suggests: we sort them out in our Marais guide.
Step 2: plan for Shabbat from Friday
The classic visitor mistake: Friday, 7 pm, looking for dinner, everything closed. Saturday lunchtime, the same. That is normal: most kosher restaurants close for Shabbat, from Friday before sunset until Saturday after nightfall. Exact times vary with the season: in winter, Shabbat begins around 4:30 pm in mid-December. The Consistoire publishes weekly times in its calendar.
What this means in practice:
- Friday lunchtime: your last proper restaurant meal before Saturday evening. Do not miss it.
- Friday evening and Saturday: some restaurants or caterers offer Shabbat meals booked and paid for ahead. Ask the restaurant, several days in advance if possible. Otherwise, plan a deli hamper bought on Friday.
- Saturday evening: some places reopen after Shabbat ends, especially when it ends early (which ones). Call before crossing Paris.
- Sunday: generally an open day for many kosher restaurants (the list), but check each address.
We explain everything in Shabbat and Paris restaurants: what to know. We are also honest: app opening hours are indicative, with their source and date, and do not account for Shabbat or holidays. Calling remains the right habit; the number is on the listing when available.
Step 3: prepare favourites before leaving
The Paris metro has a complicated relationship with 4G. Scout places on the train or at your hotel while connected. Tap the heart on places you like: they appear in Favourites.
Offline, Favourites keeps a dated summary of each place. No account needed. Two limits: the offline summary can be outdated, and the map needs a connection to load. The list and favourites keep working.
If you travel often, an optional account (Apple or email with a code) lets you sync favourites. It is a choice, not an obligation. Without syncing, remember that changing phones may lose your Notebook.
A traveller’s tip: save more places than necessary, across two neighbourhoods. When plan A is full, closed for work or reserved for a wedding, plan B is under your thumb, without a connection or a panic.
Step 4: search nearby, or not
In Explore, Around me sorts places by your position. The app asks permission when you use it, not before. Do not want to share it? No problem: choose Paris or a neighbourhood and get exactly the same places, with list and map using the same criteria.
Then come filters: cuisine, budget, kosher type (meat, dairy, pareve), named supervising organisation. If those words need explaining, we wrote a dedicated article. If your supervision requirements are precise, read the whole listing: Keila separates documented certification from simple declarations, as explained on the method page. Unknown information never counts as a yes in the filter: fewer places, but ones that meet the documented criteria.
The 48-hour plan
- Before leaving: identify three or four places near your accommodation and save them.
- Friday lunchtime: lunch at a restaurant. If you want a Shabbat meal, it has been booked for several days.
- Friday afternoon: visit a caterer for Saturday lunch if you have no arrangements.
- Saturday evening: call to check who reopens before heading out.
- Sunday: brunch or lunch, you have options. Enjoy them.
This plan works for an ordinary weekend. During holidays, it is different: some fall on weekdays and close restaurants like Shabbat, sometimes for two consecutive days. If your trip falls in the holiday period, double every precaution above and call before booking your train.
There you go. No WhatsApp group to spam, no David to call three times. Keila is coming soon to the App Store; everything is on the home page.