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This location is temporarily closed due to Hurricane Sandy. 

With the Fulton Fish Market gone to the Bronx, and the once-briny South Street Seaport area rapidly turning to condos and wine-tastings, Paris Café is one of the last places around that sells a taste of the old neighborhood. Set in the ground floor of an 1873 hotel, with windows looking over cobblestone streets and (beneath the FDR overpass) the East River, the cavernous pub has a few too many modern-day trappings—the noisy Big Buck Hunter video-game machine in the corner, and the eleven wall-mounted TVs blaring football and basketball games. But look closer and you’ll see the beautiful old hammered-tin ceiling, and the dark-wood bar where pints have been pulled since the historic tall ships outside were under sail. Like the décor, the menu makes a few stabs at the contemporary, with dishes like spinach-and-crab-stuffed paupiettes of sole and blackened snapper fillet. But the old-style stuff—heavily battered fish and chips, thick seafood chowder, sirloin steaks with mushrooms and onions—is the better bet. — Sarah Gold