There are places that seem to have always been in the Paris landscape, and the Au Pied de Cochon brasserie is one of those. Set in the Halles area, within walking distance from the Church of Saint-Eustache, since 1947, Au Pied de Cochon is the unmissable cheeky eatery if you want to discover traditional French dishes.

By day and by night, you can have a seat on the terrace and enjoy the sun and the lively area, or inside, for the convivial atmosphere and the dance of thorough waiters, in a deliciously outdated charming setting that does not seem to have changed since the restaurant opened.

As a matter of fact, Au Pied de Cochon is one of these Paris restaurants open 24 hours a day, non-stop. And the place is shared by night-owls and birds as they can have some fantastic pork meat cuts in the middle of the night, after the movies or a wild party at the nightclub.

You get it, pork is king, served in all shapes and sizes, from trotters to ears, tail included. Au Pied de Cochon pig’s trotters must be tried at least once in your life, served grilled (€22.50), served with homemade fries and béarnaise sauce, or stuffed Périgourdine style (€26.50) with mushroom fry and baby potatoes. Peel it and suck it to the last crumb.

The Tentation de Saint-Antoine – butchers’ patron saint – (€27) offers you to taste all the parts of this beautiful beast, usually left out by foodies, and yet oh-so cheeky: tail, ear, snout and fried trotters, to enjoy in an orgiastic sigh.

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More valued parts are also featured on the menu, like this fabulous pork belly cooked for 14 hours (€25.50), as smooth as can be, the Tarn pig sirloin steak (€26.50), a quality meat of choice, served with morels from Maison Montalet, and mashed potatoes as buttery as Joël Robuchon’s.

Sausage, dry sausage, ham, and more meat cuts are available for starters, served on hearty boards. Pork fritters (€11) to dip in light old mustard sauce offsets the fat of the meat and are very addictive.

Of course, Au Pied de Cochon opens to more pig horizons and serves seafood platters, mussels – mussel-pork Hortense style that eyed at us – frogs’ legs with parsley (€19.50), very fleshy, as well as traditional bistro starters, cheesy onion soup (€9.50), for instance. The incredible marrow bone (€14) topped with snail fry with garlic cream seemed like it could have belonged to a dinosaur because of how big it is, almost intimidating, and yet, is a delectable starter.

For course, pair this king’s feast with a glass of red or white wine; the affordable Pied de Cochon vintage will just do, so will plenty of natural wines also available on the wine list. The boldest of you will even allow themselves the Vacherin du Pied de Cochon (€11), but as for us, we gave up before dessert, as we were dangerously close to food coma, dishes were really hearty. We left the restaurant rolling on our bellies, but delighted by our lunch at this iconic place in Paris.

This test has been carried out as part of a business invitation. If your experience differs from ours, please let us know in the comments.