Aux Petits Oignons — Restaurant in Paris

This is a quaint local restaurant that falls short on delivering properly cooked food: great service, but with Dry, tough chicken, and an undercooked medium-rare steak. But, I do recommend a visit, and I might give them a second-chance.

I had come in on a Tuesday evening, was seated immediately, and ordered their special in-house Parisian chicken main dish. My server, Etoua, was very helpful in suggesting a proper white wine pairing. The French wine was fantastic, robust, yet light enough for the white chicken meat. When the chicken came out, it looked fantastic, however, upon attempting to cut the meat, it was immediately obvious that the chicken was extremely tough, rubbery in texture. After a gruesome effort, the first bite yielded nothing except dry chew, impossible to eat, with following bites of the same result. I informed my server of the issue, and he immediately offered to kindly switch out the dish, recommending their steak instead, served with potatoes and salad.

Accepting his suggestion, I requested their steak Medium-Rare, and was promptly presented with a wonderfully looking plate. However, upon cutting open the filet, my eyes fell as it was clear the steak remained significantly undercooked, with a seared edge, yet raw bluish center. Undeterred, I still took a bite, which yielded a repulsively blue rare steak, lukewarm in the center at most. Had it been rested for the proper amount of time, perhaps it would have reached a proper rare, but definitely nowhere near Medium-Rare. At this point, I was quite hungry, so I decided to savor the salad and scalloped potatoes, which were indeed delightful. After I finished my meal, my kind server evidently realized that the steak was undercooked for my liking, and offered to ask the chef to heat it some more. Unfortunately, the combination of both the unappetizing meats had ruined my appetite, and so I was finished with my meal.

As a frequenter of France, I realize that cooks of meat are different than that in English countries, such that medium-rare is equivalent to À point. Nonetheless, I was disappointed by the chef’s choice in cooking the meat to more of a Saignant or Bleu, especially considering that the chicken was also sent back due to improper overcooking/storage that made it inedibly tough and dry.

Surprisingly, I would still positively recommend this restaurant due to the exceptional service of kind servers like Etoua, great wines, beautiful plating, and perfectly cooked sides. I suspect that the meats were improperly cooked because perhaps it was an unlucky day for the chef, or that my communication for the meats could be improved. Had I still had my appetite at the end, I’m sure the steak would have been better cooked and delicious after a re-cook. Thus, I think I will give Aux Petits Oignons another try...

I had the misfortune of dining at this dreadful restaurant and it was a complete disaster.

The dish I ordered, the "Tataki de boeuf", was an insult to the real thing and tasted nothing like it.

The frites were ice-cold and tasted like they had been sitting out for hours, while the vegetables were so tasteless and unappetizing that I couldn't even bring myself to finish them.

Adding insult to injury, the waitress was extremely rude and showed zero interest in making our experience better. Her complete lack of respect and indifference only served to further sour our evening.

In short, if you're looking for a terrible dining experience and terrible food, look no further than...

Looks great but taste bad. And the service is worst. Your paying for the name the brand. Don't waste your money and time. We ordered two main plates of "fresh" beef skewers. One of them was ordered well done and the second normal. Both were more gum then meat. We couldn't eat them. So we took the rest for the dog. We paid full for the amount with no discount nor any free desert even though we told the service that we were not satisfied at all. They did offer us a new meal but its the same meat so the end result would have been the same. Anyways would never go there again. This is my professional opinion as a traveler...