Au Pied de Cochon, gourmet cuisine at Les Halles day and night

Day or night, the brasserie Au Pied de Cochon delights Parisians and tourists alike with its traditional, generous French cuisine. A legendary address to try at least once in your life.

There are some addresses that seem to have always been part of the Parisian landscape, and the brasserie Au Pied de Cochon is one of them. Established in Les Halles, a stone's throw from thechurch of Saint-Eustache, since 1947, the Pied de Cochon is theplace to go for those in search of traditional and truly naughty French dishes .

Day or night, you can sit out on the terrace to soak up the sun and the hustle and bustle of the neighborhood, or indoors for thefriendly atmosphere and the ballet of attentive waiters, in a delightfully old-fashioned setting that seems to have remained unchanged since the restaurant opened.

Le Pied de Cochon is, in fact, one of the last restaurants in Paris to be open 24 hours a day non-stop, the kind of address that night owls, revellers and other night owls pass on to each other under the cloak, where it's perfectly possible to drop in and devour some cochonnaille in the middle of the night, just after a movie or a wild night at the club.

As you may have guessed, the pig is king here, presented in all its forms, from feet to ears to tail. The Pied de Cochon pig's trotter is a must-try at least once in your life, served grilled (€22.50) with home fries and Béarnaise sauce, or stuffed à la périgourdine (€26.50), with mushroom fricassee and pommes grenaille. We'll peel it off and suck every last crumb.

The Tentation de Saint-Antoine, the patron saint of pork butchers (27€), allows you to taste all the parts of this beautiful beast, generally neglected by gourmets but nevertheless oh so naughty: breaded tail, ear, snout and foot, to be savored with an orgiastic rattle.

Of course, the more esteemed parts also have their place on the menu, with fabulous ribs cooked for 14 hours (€25.50), melting in the mouth, and rib-eye steak from the Tarn region (€26.50), a choice, high-quality meat, accompanied by morels from Maison Montalet and mashed potatoes as buttery as Joël Robuchon's own.

Sausage, ham and other cuts of pork are also available as appetizers, in the form of generously garnished boards. The pig croquettes (11€), to be dipped in a light old-fashioned mustard sauce that offsets the fat of the meat, are perfectly addictive.

Of course, Pied de Cochon is open to other horizons than cochonnaille, and also offers seafood platters, mussels - including the Hortense-style moules-cochon, which really caught our eye - and meaty frog legs en persillade (19.50€), as well as traditional bistro starters, led by onion soup au gratin (9.50€). The incredible marrow bone (14€), topped with a fricassee of snails in garlic cream and which could have belonged to a dinosaur given its imposing, almost intimidating size, proves to be a delectable starter.

Naturally, this kingly feast is accompanied by a glass of red or white wine; the affordable Pied de Cochon cuvée does the job, and the wine list also features a number of natural wines. The more adventurous will even indulge in the Pied de Cochon's famous vacherin (11€), but for our part, we gave up before the sweet stuff, on the verge of a food coma as the dishes were so generously served . We left the restaurant rolling, but perfectly satisfied with our lunch at this legendary Parisian address.

This test was conducted as part of a professional invitation. If your experience differs from ours, please mention it in the comments.