Qype User (macman…)
Yelp
This place is a Geneva institution - it's website's Historie section goes Dans les annees 1930 But we're interested in the here and now. So what exactly is it? A cafe? Only in the sense that the United Nations building is an office block. On the other hand, it is as one-track as the UN is diverse. The thing is, it does one thing only - steaks in a unique sauce.
Stick with me, it is a place worth the hype. It's easy to find, next to the railway station Gare Cornavin, as you walk towards the lake. It's not so easy to get a table at peak time. The best way is to walk in confidently, past the pavement tables, and ask the senior chap (black waistcoat) directly for a seat. You may have to wait a few minutes, but they are quite friendly. The waiters are generally preoccupied (the place is busy, remember) and not much use for anything apart from getting food and drink. Most will oblige with English, too. Just remember to start out 'Bon soir, madam/m'sieu' before you do your impression of Ali G.
The place is crowded, a bit of an elbow-to-elbow dining experience, but there is genuinely enough place to properly eat a steak. And what steaks they are. The official description is entrecote, which I understand to mean rib-eye. Now, I normally prefer fillet steaks, but the Cafe de Paris do something special with their bits of beef. But then, they also do a special sauce, which is rumoured to have liver and cheese and mushrooms - you can certainly taste all these. The secret ingredients are the subject of speculation, just search wikipaedia to see what I mean.
The steaks come on a bed of the sauce, on a platter that is placed on a burner that lets the steak bubble away in the sauce as you tuck in. They promise three helpings of les pommes frittes, done in the thin fries style that I like. Of course, you start with a green salad and a crusty roll. Tip - go for the French wine. Apologies to any Swiss wine die-hards reading this, but one has to draw the line somewhere.
Any other steak I've ever had, anywhere else in the world - I prefer it medium to well done. A hint of pink in the middle is all I'll usually tolerate, but at the Cafe de Paris asking for 'well done' brings you a cut more pink than anything else. And simultaneously marks you out as a gauche tourist; as if you were pretending otherwise. One of my companions on a recent visit, a Fifer, asked for hers blue, and raw it was. I bravely went for medium and was amazed by how much I enjoyed what most places outside Argentina would term decidedly rare. I've also ordered well done, and without murmur have been served a lovely pink/medium steak.
Would I go there again? Hell, yeah. At forty Swiss francs (about £20) it's a cracking deal. And I'm not even a proper carnivore in my friends' eyes.