This was our final dinner in Paris on Bastille Day. We had walked all the way from our hotel in the Bastille to Le Dome only to discover that it was closed. (Thanks for nothing, Google.) We saw this place tucked around the corner and decided to cut our losses and try it since it's the restaurant's sister bistro.
The place was quiet when we arrived, but busier as we were leaving. The menu is written on a large chalkboard that they haul over to your table, which is both amusing and silly. We started with their gazpacho soup with shrimp and some grilled squid skewers. The soup was fine, but the "shrimp" portion was two pieces on a toothpick. Le Lame. Squid was kind of meh. We were super excited for our main course, the classic sole meunière. The fish was cooked to perfection and we could have gone swimming in its sauce, but the fish was not deboned. Aren't they supposed to do that tableside for us? Or ASK if we wanted it done? We saw our waiter deboning for another table! Were we being punked?? We ended up getting the hang of it, but the whole experience was unpleasant because our toddler loves fish and was charging the plate, so we had to take all this extra time and care to make sure she didn't get any tiny bones. That sucked, so one star off automatically.
Dessert was a Grand Marnier mille-feuille that didn't impress and a scoop of salted caramel ice cream that was only OK. Speaking of said scoop, we watched it sit on the server station, half melting, while the waiter kept walking by until the mille-feuille was also brought up and then both dishes were brought over. We just do not understand the logic of French service. It wasn't even that bad here--just the overall system makes no sense in certain ways.
So, three stars. Not an unhappy three, and this would have been an "extraordinary" meal back in Austin, but this is Paris, so standards are higher. It was a fine final meal to end on, but not the highest note of the trip. C'est la vie! read more