I visited this restaurant in the 17th arrondissement of Paris; after a week of enjoying mostly French cuisine I was craving something different. Chez Ly was located just around the block from my hotel, and after reading through the positive reviews on Tripadvisor, I was excited to try this place out.
The food did not blow my mind. I ordered the poulet au caramel (caramel chicken), which was fairly tasty but very difficult to eat. The chicken was drenched in a thick caramel sauce, which quickly hardened within 5 minutes of the plate being brought out. It came to a point where I literally could not pick up the pieces of the chicken from the serving dish as the caramel had hardened so much. Having paid 18 euro for this dish alone, I was pretty annoyed. Also, a small bowl of plain white rice to eat as a side with your main course cost an extra 5 euro. The only upside was that the food came out quickly after I had ordered.
The service was questionable. I was traveling for business and was eating lunch alone, and they offered me a table for one at peak lunch time which I was at first happy about. However, the table they initially offered me was right next to the table where the host kept his reservation book, so he was taking his calls and looking through reservations right next to/above me - it was like I was having lunch with the host while they were trying to do their job. It was very odd, so I asked to be moved to the empty table next to me which was near the window, and the waiter and host both resistantly obliged.
My dissatisfaction with this restaurant was mainly due to my experience ordering with the waiter. When it came to ordering, I had placed my entire order in French, and asked for tap water. He acted confused and kept repeating Evian, so I figured they didn't offer tap water and agreed to pay for Evian (which cost another 5 euro). Ten minutes later a French couple was seated next to me, and the woman ordered water just as I had - "un carafe d'eau", and the same waiter did not hassle her to order Evian and brought out a carafe of tap water just as I had wanted. (I've ordered tap water in French many times with no issue at other restaurants in Paris, thank you very much). At that point it was pretty clear I was swindled for my 5 euro for the Evian.
Overall, a very disappointing experience, which had to do more with the service than the food; I won't be going back. I would not recommend this place to non-locals if you want to avoid being hustled for extras. read more