Le Grand Véfour. Maxim’s. La Table de Joël Robuchon. None of these venerated restaurants are on Alexander Lobrano’s list of the 102 best in Paris. And that’s one of the reasons I love his new paperback Hungry for Paris: The Ultimate Guide to the City’s 102 Best Restaurants. Lobrano, the European correspondent for Gourmet magazine, has lived here and written about food for 22 years, so he’s qualified to call those behemoths overrated. Which establishments do hit the mark? Le Pré Verre, in the 5th (where I once ate a life-changing parsley ice cream); Le Petit Marguery, in the 13th (Best. Service. Ever.); even L’As du Falafel, in the Marais (can’t talk—eating). How I wish I would have had this book before I made the mistake of taking someone to La Coupole (hoping it would match earlier memories of fabulousness). Or before I agreed to be seated on the west wall of Brasserie Balzar (that’s where they relegate the tourists!). Lobrano is no snob. His prose isn’t arty-farty. Eleven of the eateries he heralds are in the under-30-euros-per-person realm (sans vin, bien sur). His favorite dish is boeuf bourgignon, which explains why the book leans toward bistros and simple, traditional preparations. Still, there are haute cuisine recommendations (Arpège, Le Cinq, Guy Savoy) and some foreign ones (Le Bambou, Higuma, Liza). The text organizes the restaurants by arrondissement, and indexes in the back reclassify them by type of cuisine and price. His précis of French dining protocol helps the uninitiated feel more at ease (doggy bags aren’t offered, for instance, but Lobrano tells you how to ask for one in French). Armed with Hungry for Paris, you’ll feel like you’ll never spend a euro unwisely on dining in the city.