Au Petit Tonneau — Restaurant in Paris

Food was below average for the price they charge, had 2 starters and 2 main course for €120. Paid €18 for mushrooms and a duck breast that was unchewable and hard to swallow. Super unfriendly staff, and they took so long to take an order. If you are not here to order a full meal (starter, main, dessert & wine) dont even bother coming here. As a tourist, we might not know the culture to dine in Paris as it is our first day here and we decided to dine here based on the good Google reviews. But lol we were super unhappy about the dining experience here & they didnt even bother to on the A/C with the current heatwave, all the diners were fanning themselves.

We booked the table with the fork and it did not even notify us that we MUST order 1 main course per person, asked the lady waiter politely and constantly saying sorry because we felt bad that if it was okay to order 2 starters and 2 mains. Lady waiter was not happy and she told us that we booked through the fork that she had to pay €1 each for the amount of people on the table (we had 4, so €4). Funny that one main course was at least €35 and above! What a joke! The rest of the night was bad attitude from the rest of the workers that throws plates on your table and 0 refills of TAP water. It felt like we were begging them to cook for us by us paying...

This place was quite the turn of events. We didn’t have a reservation so had to wait a bit to get a table, which is understandable. However, once we were seated and given menus, no one was serving us after more than 20 min, which made me unhappy and was thinking to leave. Finally, they came to our table and informed us that they were out of few of the main dishes which didn’t leave us that many options.

We decided to get a main dish and two appetizers and see how it goes. Meanwhile, the dishes at tables around us didn’t look like anything especial and a bit plain, so I was getting worried and was looking for the next restaurant to go after to get “more proper”food.

Once they brought our food, it was a turning point. As simple as it looked, it was all made to perfection and absolutely delicious. To the point that I decided to stay longer and have dessert. I’m so glad that we did. It was spectacular. Again, super simple green apple tart (or more like a green apple upside down), but wow. I never had apple tart this good and I’m not an apple dessert person.

I’ll be back and hopefully can get a table again. Well done. 👍

PS: the Chateaubriand steak with potato gratin is an...

We have been spending 1 to 2 months per year in Paris for the last 15 years and have eaten at 100s of restaurants. This little hidden gem is the best of the best. In fact, I'm reluctant to write this review for fear that it will be discovered. So let me throw in a few discouraging words right up front. Unlike most restaurants in Paris, the wait staff do not speak English. Neither do most of the diners. There is no English menu. It is not child friendly. So unless you are comfortable reading a "Carte" in French and ordering in French, you will not enjoy this experience. But if you can, you can't beat the food, the service and the atmosphere of this little treasure. I had a chateaubriand and it was cooked to perfection as was my wife's Sole Meunière. The soupe à l'oignon gratinée had a rich depth to it as if it had been simmering for hours or days as did the pepper sauce for my steak. The Tarte tatin was the best...