Au Terminus du Châtelet — Restaurant in Paris

This was the single worst dining experience I have ever had in Paris. Our waiter here is the reason why some foreigners may think that the French are rude. I love all things French and have had only the kindest, loveliest experiences dining and talking to people in Paris and throughout France…until tonight. I travel to France twice a year for the past five or six years to eat, drink and shop.

Our waiter called to tell us that we should come 15 minutes later than our reservation and that worked well for us. When we came, I told him that our party of five was actually four because my mom became ill. He immediately let us know how annoyed he was that we didn’t tell him. I know running a restaurant is difficult, but the restaurant was totally empty except for two other tables by that point so he could have been a little nicer about it. When he told us about the special, he pointed out that the andouillette was not available but no matter, it’s not for us anyway, just the French. When we ordered wine, he gave us two glasses of red wine, with a very minimal pour. He said he would choose the wine. By this point, we could sense his resentment towards foreigners. We tasted the wine and it was vinegar: sour, fizzy, nasty!. I asked him about it and he promptly replaced it. Honestly, it felt like he knew but tried to get rid of it with the dumb foreigners. We sat right next to wine serving station and saw that the wine was served next to a Coca Cola glass that the bartender used to measure the wine. We noticed that for non foreigners, he would top off the wine. Not for us and the other non French.

Many people came to the restaurant asking for a table, if they were non French, he was very dismissive. One couple came in and they only spoke French and he was quite lovely and apologetic to them. I speak a little French and could understand. When another (foreigner) couple came in that was late for their reservation, he scolded them so rudely that we winced at our table. Then he went on to very kindly and sweetly seat a group of French ladies, I don’t know if they had a reservation. But what followed totally blew our minds. After he sat the ladies, he called someone and told them that they weren’t here to their reservation that was in the future (ten minutes later!) and that he was going to cancel their reservation. Ok, I get if you’re going to scold someone for being late but wow, you’re going to scold someone even though they are not late and cancel their reservation anyway?!

After the initial hiccups in the beginning, we realized that it was going to be a bad night but we tried to make the most of it because we had already ordered by that point and it was our last night in Paris. It’s a small restaurant and we sat prime to hear all the craziness that was happening. It was certainly entertaining, though in a negative way. I will never be patronizing this restaurant again and warn any foreigner to not bother. I know he is not representative of most French people. The other server that came in at the end of our evening was much friendlier and the food wasn’t terrible but we all left feeling quite bad and didn’t finish because of such...

We returned to Au Terminus on our current visit to Paris and found it still wonderful and run by Thomas, grandma and dad (in the kitchen). Our visit overlapped that of my son and daughter in law who joined us. Sorry, no photos this time, we were too busy catching up. A small handful of tourists joined the locals and mostly regulars. My son, a gourmet cook himself (not his job) thought this was the best meal he had in Paris. When I commented about the regulars, he said that if he lived here he would be a regular too. On to the food. Entrees (appetizers): chanterelle mushrooms, escargot, os a moelle (bone marrow), a simple green salad all delicious. Plats principale: perfect medium rare steaks, bar tartare (sea bass), a pork special and lamb chops. The lamb tasted different than American or Australian lamb, better, and all dishes were outstanding. We were too stuffed for dessert. I still highly recommend this restaurant for its food and jovial atmosphere. Below is my first review.

If I could give it 6 stars I would. Small place with an unlit sign was hard to find, but so glad we did. Ambiance was great. Friendly locals made recommendations. Definitely a mom and pop (or more accurately grandma and grandson—I think dad was in the kitchen) kind of place. As other reviews noted, they are big on mushrooms of many varieties. Ordered os a moelle (roast bone marrow) appetizer, 2 scallop mains and steak frites, all delicious and perfectly prepared. Dessert creme brûlée and a special sabayon with cherries. Thomas, the grandson works his posterior off along with grandma at the front of the house and has a sense of humor. He told my wife she had to finish her last scallop and got laughs from the adjacent tables. Reasonably priced wine list. Our neighbor had a goose egg appetizer. Yes, it really...

I really wanted to love this place. They had all the right ingredients to become the ultimate local gem. They didn’t have an English menu. The chef was visible watching for folks to come in, they used local ingredients, and they served traditional family style French food. I really wanted this to be a winner and unfortunately it wasn’t. I did have EXCELLENT cod, which was perfectly cooked and seasoned. Light wine cream sauce, hearty cut, American size portion, and perfectly fresh. That was the highlight of my meal. However, the rabbit was excruciatingly dry. Think bad thanksgiving turkey. This was it. Despite being doused in sauce and bacon, it was still barely edible. Worst — I heard the microwave go off and the waiter had described that the rabbit was “cooked/marinated 15 hours and then served pan seared”. He just microwaved the rabbit and served it to us. Before that, he had served us a plate of mixed mushrooms and 1/5 of the mushroom was bad. How bad? Bad enough where they were emitting ammonia-like odor. I am a huge mushroom fan and have collected them myself. When they smell like that, that means they’re bad. Despite being doused in garlic and parsley, you simply cannot mask the ammonia. Next, the apple tart we ordered was literally microwaved apple tart. The crust and bottom had completely disintegrated and the pie was mushy but hot, microwave hot. 5/5 for the cod, 1/5 for 2 appetizers and another main course,...