Bazurto — Restaurant in Paris

It's frankly not in my habits to post negative reviews. I know the restaurant industry is a difficult one and it's a lot of hard work. Today, however, I just had to. Everything went wrong tonight. I was very keen to try Mr Arbelaez's new concept restaurant in Saint-Germain-des-Prés so I booked in the bar section (downstairs) to celebrate a friend's birthday. I was also happy to see such a wide variety of vegetarian dishes but it turned out to be such a disappointment! The wine arrived much after the food (because it was in the cellar, of course...). The first bottle we chose was a bit too green so we had to send it back. We ordered a different one and it took ages for it to arrive and when it did, it was far too chilled (Malbec!!). The texture of the empanadas was good but the wrapping was too thick and the arepas were simply too dry and too flaky. The signature "Guacalogico" was nice though, I have to say. In conclusion, the whole experience was below average. Also, we didn't particularly appreciate drinking water from tin cups so asked for proper glasses. The tin plates seemed nice for the concept but quite frankly, it's just much nicer to eat from proper plates! The server was very nice but didn't know much about the food or wine he was serving and when we left, no one bothered to say goodbye. Also, if you are going to put cocktail-sized napkins on the table, please provide a stack or just give us regular napkins, please (which we had to ask for)!! The service was "décousu" and for finger food + a bottle of wine for 2 people at €100 (sans dessert!), it's overpriced. Mr Arbelaez, if you are on vacation, so should your restaurant be, quite frankly! I really regret not following my gut instinct which was telling me to leave when the wine was taking so long to come. Instead, we could have gone to Freddy's right around the corner for small plates and wine, including dessert, for the same price and much better value for money. Disappointing Mickey Mouse experience and a silly waste of time and money! Last but not least, the toilet was in a...

We had a quite interesting diner at Bazurto which yet did no start so well. Although having booked for 9:30pm we had to wait about half an hour to get seated, the time for the first service to finish their diner, and also sadly because there was a table of 17 people that arrived just before us. Such a group will be a nightmare to handle for any restaurant however the staff did the best they could to quickly organise. We were lucky to be seated at a large table directly facing the kitchen which led us to follow the entire diner service and to have nice chats with the staff. As per the food, the menu was quite interesting with many dishes Colombian inspired and rearranged. I do not understand the critics you can read here on the food ; to me it was perfectly cooked, and size wise well dosed as well. One starter dish might feel less savoury than what people are used to, but then you have to understand that they used a replacement vegetable for the avocado which is not a carbon friendly vegetable - perfectly fine for us. The only critic we could do on the food was the desserts that might not be up to the level of the other dishes, and the waiting time between each dish. It is not that the kitchen staff is slow - they were actually really busy all night long - but maybe understaffed. The table of 17 also probably didn't help that night. Also, they are cooking for the bar downstairs which must be troubling the table menu delivery. Service wise - I also do not understand the bad reviews here - the staff was lovely to us despite litteraly running trying to cover both ground and 1st floor. Communication was sometimes difficult with the kitchen, but it is a restaurant's life + there was so many "special" requests coming in (many clients there seem to behave like vips). The staff apologised and compensated in drinks the waiting time which helped us a great evening. Long story short: yes it was not a flawless evening, but still an...

Staff at this restaurant are shameless scammers. I received a gift certificate for a 10-course tasting menu at this place. We went there last night (with a reservation, so they knew we were coming and knew we had the tasting menu certificate). We received: a fish appetizer, a small appetizers tray (two tiny pieces of chicharrón, two empanadas, two tacos, two pieces of yuca bread… all bite sized), one beef dish, one fish dish, and dessert. After this, our server happily announced the meal was over. When we pointed out we actually had the certificate for the 10-course menu, she said "well yes, that was 10." When we pointed out it was actually 5 (or 8 if you were being really generous and counting every element in the appetizer tray as a separate thing) she proceeded to count them herself. She obviously counted up to 4 + dessert. Then she just looked at us, as if we were going to suddenly be satisfied with her answer. At this point we decided this was not worth it, as the food quality was quite mid and we were not willing to spend the rest of our evening arguing with the restaurant staff, so just got up to leave. She never said she would perhaps check with her manager or the kitchen, apologized or even asked us to wait. Afterwards I checked other reviews here and those of people who had also had the 10-course menu looked very different from what we received (unfortunately I didn’t took any pictures). All in all a...