Here’s a secret not many people know: there’s a trio of Parisian bars at which customers can dine well for the price of a pint. All you have to do is order a beer or a large glass of wine, and a dinner plate-sized portion of food is yours to gobble down, free.

One of these is the oriental-themed Tribal Café, where tables spill on to a pretty alley off rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, a primary drag in what is currently Paris’s most happening arrondissement. Substantial moules-frites (Wednesday and Thursday) or chicken couscous (Friday and Saturday) are available gratis for drinkers after 9pm.

And both dishes taste fine. Or rather they taste fantastic, in the way that all free food tastes fantastic. And the euros saved can be spent at buzzy cocktail den Le Syndicat, a few seconds up the road at 51 rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis.

The other two places offer only one choice of complimentary dinner: veal couscous. La Cordonnerie is a humming after-work dive bar that offers the free dinner deal on Thursday nights. Again, the food’s hardly gourmet, though the meat is lean, but when the price is essentially non-existent, who’s complaining?

Out in the cool east of Paris, Le Grenier throws free live music into the bargain. Every Friday and Saturday evening from 8pm, complimentary couscous is available on the ground floor as “gypsy jazz” concerts take place downstairs. Nor does the fun stop there: outside is rue Oberkampf, Paris’s liveliest street after dark.