750g La Table — Restaurant in Paris

I don’t review often, but since this is mostly negative, here are some niceties. The servers were very nice despite the language barrier, the starter was fantastic, and drinks were a decent price.

TL;DR Paid and left after waiting ~90mins and before receiving dessert we paid for. Also got food poisoning from the “medium rare” purple steak.

Now for the negatives… we arrived at 640pm, 20 minutes before the kitchen opened so we assumed that we would get served quickly. We were sat in the far corner, and did not get served until 720pm. We finished our main meal around 800pm. By 825pm we decided to leave before receiving the included dessert, paying 21€ each. They may have been understaffed, with many waiting as long or longer than us for their meals.

The kicker was the food poisoning. We chose this place based on the reviews of the steak, which we ordered medium rare. It was purple in the middle, rare by my US standards, and was oddly chewy. The next day I nearly had a heat stroke around 400pm (I’ve had them before, but understandable if this is hard to believe) and spent the rest of the evening lying down or in the toilet. Thankfully it was gone the next day, except for a light fever and general weakness.

We got very unlucky, so I cannot give 1 star. We did receive our food and drinks (other than the dessert), but I expect well reviewed restaurant food not to give me food poisoning. Due to the service and food quality I definitely would...

Disappointing!

Service: There were three trainee waiters for the entire restaurant - very young and friendly but impossibly slow. From being sitted to paying the bill more than 3 hours! It was just painful to attract the attention and remind the staff of our order. And the woman at the reception was unpleasant, borderline aggressively speaking.

Food: My starter - les couteaux shells were chewy and served in some acidic unappetising liquid. My magret was served cold and overcooked - such a waste of a dish with the potential. The mashed sweet potatoes were great. The dessert was served with an already melted ice cream. On our table we had also amongst others the tartare and the steak and the feedback for those was not flattering either. The comments on the two tables around were very similar. People at our end of the restaurant seemed truly fed up with the wait and cold food.

Overall a huge disappointment given what we remember from before the Covid lockdown.

I hope they will get their act together - I know we are not going back...

The place is well kept, trendy and shows, as the menu, an eclectic side of the owner. Owner that keep the place calm, while roaming between the tables dedicating a smile and a kind interaction to every one. The menu can look confusing, but after the owner explained that everything is bio, possibly locally sourced and in house elaborated, we found the red line connecting all the dishes... The freshness! Every dish is simple, yet well elaborated and assembled to keep the main ingredient in spotlight. For me, at this point, I was ready to give 4 points, but the price stepped up the game. Is really difficult to find in Paris a well balanced dish/price rateo, but here they managed to go around changing the menu daily to follow what the local market was offering, decreasing the costs of the ingredients, while offering fixed menu formula for maximum 24 euros. I have to say that I was pleased by the food, the aesthetic and the smartness in using this formula to maximize the entrances without compromising the ingredients or...