Escargots de Bourgogne are snails baked in their shells under a thick seal of garlic and parsley butter, served by the half-dozen or dozen with bread to mop the butter: a Burgundy starter found across Dijon.
Where to eat it: 6 restaurants across 2 cities.
The Burgundy snail, Helix pomatia, is the large Roman snail of European woods and vineyards, and its name travelled with the dish of snails baked in garlic and parsley butter that French menus call à la bourguignonne. Wild snails are protected in season: in France collecting them is banned from 1 April to 30 June and below a shell diameter of 3 cm. In Dijon they are still ordered as a first course, often alongside oeufs en meurette.
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Common allergens: Milk, Molluscs
Tip from the editors. Make the butter a day ahead so the garlic flavour spreads through it; it freezes well in shells, ready to bake.
Loiseau des Ducs holds a Michelin star inside the 16th-century Hotel de Talmay in Dijon, chef Iulian Fistos cooking the Bernard Loiseau repertoire.
OrderThe Dijon-style snails in persillade, a Bernard Loiseau house classic since 2013.
TipThe lunch menu is the better-value route into the Bernard Loiseau style than the evening carte.
La Brasserie des Loges seats guests beside the Musée des Beaux-Arts on Place du Théâtre in Dijon, serving Burgundian brasserie classics daily.
OrderThe Menu Bourguignon, a set three-course run through the region's classics.
TipIt stays open every day of the year bar three, useful for a Sunday or holiday table when smaller kitchens shut.
Bouillon Chartier in Paris is the 1896 workers' brasserie still plating œuf mayonnaise at €3 and a full bistro 3-course set under €18, no reservation.
TryThree-course bistro classics
TipQueue moves fast. Arrive at 11:30 lunch or 18:30 dinner for the first wave of seating.
Two centuries of dining-room history at Le Grand Véfour, the Palais-Royal mirror-and-velvet salon where Paris cooked dinner for Napoleon, Colette and Cocteau.
OrderThe ravioles de foie gras at the chef's prix-fixe lunch.
TipTuesday-Friday lunch is a third the price of dinner and books two weeks out, not four months.
Polidor in Paris has run a Latin-Quarter bistro at the same address since 1845. The carte still holds bœuf bourguignon, blanquette de veau, tarte tatin.
OrderBœuf bourguignon in winter, tarte tatin with crème fraîche, a pichet of red.
TipCash preferred. The shared tables are part of the experience; come at 19:30 to share with strangers.
Aux Lyonnais in Paris is Alain Ducasse's Lyonnais annex on Rue Saint-Marc. At 32 Rue Saint-Marc. Booking recommended. Cash and card accepted.
Why locals goAlain Ducasse's Lyonnais bouchon-style annex sits unmarked behind a curtain on Rue Saint-Marc; the chef name brings the food, the lack of branding hides it.
TipClosed Sunday and Monday. The €40 set lunch midweek is the same kitchen at half the dinner price.
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