Baieta — Restaurant in Paris

This year’s trip was highlighted by amazing work, artistry, showmanship, and precision provided by La Maison, Jacques Genin, and Chef Nishi’s second child (a la Chef Naito) at Pilgrim. Unfortunately, however, this review is about Baieta.

We had read about Julia Sedefjian well-ahead of our visit. Her profile printed in the New York Times, along with other reviews from Parisian food blogs, were glowing since the inception of the new-yet-traditional Niçoise cuisine. As such, the schedule was set. We contacted the establishments several months in advance in an effort to procure our spots. Ya-Ya, La Maison, Baieta, Pilgrim, and another well-spent visit to Jacques Genin were on the docket.

Plainly, our experience at Baieta was only memorable in the sense that, for all the wrong reasons, we will never forget it.

1. At the time of making the reservation, we were requested to pay some money in advance ~$160. Well, although this is the first time this has been requested, we felt it was reasonable for a small-format restaurant that believes in properly sourcing fresh ingredients. So no REAL problem there.
2. The problem arose, however, on the day of the reservation when we were called with the news that the menu would be “restricted” to only several selections if we were to not select the prix fixe. I will mention that we often do the prix fixe, but in this case we wanted to order à la carte. To spare you the details, this was a 15-minute conversation. The waitress was a dour 20-24 year old who could only be described as an exponentially Millennial “millennial” – who seemed desperately disgruntled with her station in life. I used to have her job at that age. It was one of the best times of my life. From her, however, there were ZERO descriptions of dishes, ZERO warmth, and ZERO smiles.
3. We were eventually allowed to order off of the full a la carte menu, but again, this was after great resistance. *Credit to The French: I think that in America most people would have left the restaurant by this point; but our Parisian friends did a magnificent job of mediating the process (they were almost always the interpreters and conversationalists, although most all of us make an effort and are interested in speaking/learning French)
4. I would almost be certain that there is a standard code for fingernail-appearance at a restaurant slinging haute cuisine. This was not the case from our server. Half-painted, highly-chipped nails do not give a sense of clean lines. Just take the paint off…or all the way on…either will do.
5. Half of what we ordered was great (positive). Specifically, however, the boeuf was cooked to the level of a briquette on the outside and as dry as a saltine-cracker on the inside.
6. We won’t describe in detail the full gravy-boat of bouillabaisse sauce that was fully spilled over 2 of our friends and their coats.
7. Again. ZERO smiles. ZERO descriptions. Very little in the way of characteristics that we have come to expect from Michelin-level restaurants, in our collective opinion.

In conclusion, several of us have replayed this experience over – both individually, and conversationally as a group. We feel badly about writing a negative review, as we are generally in the business of writing positive ones (as we will for Pilgrim and La Maison). As such, it is unusual for us to leave a Parisian restaurant with a sour taste in our mouths and hearts. My prediction is that this restaurant isn’t there 2 years from now without some major leadership or philosophical remodel. Perhaps...

This rating is based on the fact this is a Michelin one-star restaurant. If not, the score can be higher by 0.5. We tasted the lunch menu, and perhaps other set meals/a la carte dishes would be different.

Creativity and appearance/presentation The appetizers were creative, the combination of ingredients and the presentation. The order of tasting was also designed meaningfully. The starter was a bit messy presented, and I was disappointed by the inconsistency of the ingredients. Each person got about 6-7 white asparagus pieces, while my wife had two asparagus heads on her plate, I had only one head. My asparagus pieces were of different length and thicknesses, the thickest was almost twice the thinnest, consequently the texture was inconsistent. The second dish was Bouillabaisse, served with mussel salad. It's a good idea to use salad to neutralize the taste of the fish soup. The dessert presentation is a matter of opinion, I think it's okay.

Taste The appetizer tasted good, but the only drawback was that the main ingredients overwhelmed the other seasonings. The chef probably wanted to add the finishing touch, but this was not very successful. The starter tasted excellent in terms of taste, and the balance of the ingredients was also well grasped. The fishes in the Bouillabaisse were very tender and fresh, and the soup was rich and fragrant, which was no different from what I tasted in Marseille. It was great. But!!! Not all mussels in the salad were fresh. I got 4, the first one was fresh, the second was smelly and bad, the third had taste but not smelly, and I didn't eat the fourth one. The desserts and snacks were delicious.

Service We didn't make a reservation in advance. When we arrived at the store, we saw that there were tables, but the waitress said it was fully booked. However, we tried online reservation, and it was still possible. There might be something wrong with the online system. In short, after a small setback, we were seated. When the waitress asked for feedback, we shared some mussels were not fresh. But she insisted that all the ingredients were purchased on the same day and were absolutely fresh, maybe I am not used to the taste of fresh mussels. As a person who was born and raised in a coastal city and cook often seafood at home, I definitely can tell whether the seafood is fresh. I have no doubt that the store purchased it on the same day, but it is always possible that the kitchen makes mistakes. Moreover, since the store took the initiative to ask for feedback, there is no reason or need to refute and persuade the customer. There is a waiter in the store who is very friendly but quite shy and unskilled in business. Sometimes he needs help and guidance from others. The other waiter is very professional.

Overall, as a Michelin one-star restaurant, there are too many things that can and shall...

Wanted to try this place since reading about it half a year ago.

The food was really well presented and the flavours were all in all excellent. Some more than the other.

The amuse-bouches were 10/10, the apps were 8/10 and the main course was 9/10. Dessert was a bit underwhelming at a 6.5/10. That's mainly because it was gluten and lactose free due to restrictions in diet.

Another thing is also that I specified two weeks before that one of the guests has a lactose and gluten-intollerance. This was not noted by our server who then proceeded to ask us again, and seemed a bit surprised. However, it was very professionally and kindly handled by him. I also want to thank him for speaking english with us since our french was not the best. Props for that.

There are unfortunately some less positive things to note here. The restaurant seemed way too busy for just 2 servers (it was completely full for at least 1.5 hours) and they seemed to have a difficult time getting to everyone. Our amuse bouches came after almost 30 minutes waiting, which is excessive for a one star Michelin restaurant. The level of noise was also a bit too high for this kind of theme and atmosphere.

What also ticked me personally off a bit, is that when ordering coffee after the dessert, I wasn't allowed to order a glass of cognac as an "avec". The server just looked around, and kind of rudely said "no" as it was not possible. This has never happened to me before in other michelin starred or even lower rated restaurants anywhere else in Europe. It would have been ok to get a notice beforehand that they didnt have cognac or whatever the case was, as this was quite unpleasant.

All in all though, a great experience, amazing well crafted and tasty dishes with an excellent presentation, oh and the wines were perfectly paired as well! Highly recommended, just don't go when it's super crowded and keep in mind to remind them of any allergies or dietary...