La Marine

Customer-Friendly Neighborhood Bistro

May 23, 2025By Heidi EllisonRestaurants
La Marine, on the Canal Saint Martin.
The bar at La Marine, on the Canal Saint Martin.

UPDATE, May 23, 2025: La Marine is still my go-to restaurant for all the reasons elaborated below: prompt, extra-friendly service; open all day, seven days a week; reliably delicious and satisfying food. The restaurant has since expanded, but retains its attractive old-timey decor. It’s all go at La Marine, all the time.

ORIGINAL REVIEW, July 19, 2017: It’s a great pleasure to discover new restaurants with creative chefs, but sometimes you just want the comfort of a simple, reliably good meal in a friendly place. When that’s what I’m looking for close to home, I go to La Marine on the Canal Saint Martin, where I can almost always get a table without a reservation even though it is always bustling with customers. 

Another advantage is its pretty bistro decor with a semicircular zinc bar, mirrors and period molding (when the restaurant closed for renovation recently, I feared that it would lose its old-fashioned charm, but thankfully they just spiffed the place up and added a rather cool ring of globe light fixtures).

So, when I had a last-minute proposal for dinner with my friend Chloe the tour guide (shameless plug: she’s great at it and works for Paris Walks) and her visiting father John on a Sunday evening, I suggested La Marine (another plus: it’s open seven days a week). 

Octopus salad with arugula.
Octopus salad with arugula.

Normally I go straight for the main course here because the servings are so generous, but we decided to share a starter, an octopus salad with arugula. It was fresh and tasty, although I would have preferred that the octopus be a tiny bit less cooked. 

Rump steak with gratin dauphinois.
Rump steak with gratin dauphinois.

Then I went for my standard dish here, the rump steak with gratin dauphinois. It comes with pepper, blue cheese or béarnaise sauce, but I like it best plain. I didn’t find this basic meat-and-potatoes dish quite up to the usual standard – the gratin seemed a bit tired – but it was still very good. I attributed the difference to the fact that it was Sunday and probably the regular chef’s night off. 

Tuna with shiitake mushrooms.
Tuna with shiitake mushrooms.
Andouillette.
Andouillette.

Chloe had the flash-cooked tuna with shiitake mushrooms and vegetables substituted for the house mashed potatoes (which, by the way, I recommend), while John partook of the daily special, andouillette. I heard no complaints from either of them, and all three plates were soon wiped clean.

Tarte tropezienne.
Tarte tropezienne.
Tiramisu.
Tiramisu.
Blueberry and lemon sorbet.
Blueberry and lemon sorbet.

The desserts were generous, fresh and tasty: a sinful tarte tropezienne (brioche with a creamy filling), tiramisu and especially fine blueberry and lemon sorbet.

A few more good things about La Marine: the youthful (and unusually numerous for a Paris restaurant) staff is always cheerful and efficient, and the restaurant is open all day every day, has reasonable prices and offers free Wi-Fi. This is a truly customer-friendly place.  

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3 Comments

  • Bravo, Heidi…et David aussi…always entertaining, always informative, and so handsomely presented. I’m loving it.

  • Thanks, Heidi, for that down-to-earth restaurant recommendation. I visit every year for a month but am not interested in the trendy stuff; so this description is one I’ll keep, and I’ll make a visit. Chez Janou is in the neighborhood where I stay, and I think it is similar in faves, service, and ambiance – simply good-tasting food, lots of regulars, and it’s friendly. Cheers from northern California!

  • I ate lunch there in early October (2021) with a view of the Canal Saint Martin. I had the pesto salad and my partner had the Nicoise salad. We shared a carafe of white wine. Delicious! Wonderful service. Great view. Relaxing.

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