Debi F.
Yelp
Hubs and I dined here on our last night in Paris. I was looking forward to our meal, as the culmination of two weeks in France. I am sad to say that I was not as pleased as I should have been.
The restaurant was located fairly close to our fancy hotel, in the 15th arrondissement. We walked there, and felt lucky to get a table, as we did not have a reservation. We were seated, I spoke French, and then I heard someone call out that they should give us the "anglais" menu. It never occurred to me that the menu in English would be different from the menu in French. I thought the choices to be a little bland and not very exciting, compared to some of the other restaurants we had been to, but I brushed it off as traditional French, and ordered. A bit later, I noticed a hand written menu on the wall. I asked both our server and the owner if the English and French menu were the same. I received a snooty reply of "yes, I wrote it myself in the morning". I got up to take another look at one of the menus at the door. Even the printed menu in French was different than the English.
"What is your problem with the menu?!" a haughty voice above me quizzed. When I told him, in French, that we were not told about the written menu, he said, "oh that is in addition to the printed menu." Remember, he insisted that the handwritten menu and the printed menu in English were the same. So, basically, he lied to me, and didn't think that I could speak or understand French. This sort of interaction does not make the experience any better, to find out that you have been handed the blandest of menu items, and you could have had onglet with roasted potatoes, or grilled shrimp, with a fresh pasta, and a cheese plate for dessert.
The meal was average. And, by average, I mean that the food was very higher end cafeteria style. Hubs ordered the grilled hake, a fish, and I ended up with the grilled shrimp, gambas a la plancha. We shared a dessert, the profiteroles, which were quite lovely in presentation, but truly tasted like stale twinkies. The best part of the meal was the assiette de fromage, which was a cheese plate that we decided to get in place of the second dessert.
The service felt more like I was eating at an American restaurant, complete with the "hurry up and get out so I can seat more people" vibe, which is completely contrary to French dining.
As an FYI, most restaurants that I have been to, on my many trips to France, allow you to get an entree and a plat, which is an appetizer and main course, or a plat and dessert, or all three. Here, we had no choice but to get all three. Not a problem, but just know this is the case. I gave the restaurant two stars because not only did I feel cheated out of a good dining experience, the food just was not that good, for the price.
I found this restaurant to be a rather bland and uninteresting French dining experience. There are so many other excellent, interesting, traditional and more experimental French restaurants, please, if you can, try one of those, and skip this one.