Biondi — Restaurant in Paris

What I liked: 1) Subdued elegant decor with exposed stone, large white candles (although, could have done without the meat hooks everywhere. A bit morbid if you ask me). 2) Everyone spoke English well, important as the clientele seemed to be predominantly English speakers (pity then that the menus were not translated). 3) the noise level was acceptable (I cannot stand noisy restaurants where you cannot carry a conversation so this is important to me). 4) the service was fast and efficient What I loved: 1) the octopus entree. Great flavor, texture and cooked to perfection What I disliked: 1) both our main dishes, the chicken (it was a bit gonflé to call it volaille when it is a lambda chicken) and fish (pollack) were overcooked and dry. The flavor combos were not very interesting or original. Dare I say dull. It was good but certainly not memorable. 2) Very lukewarm hospitality from the two main servers a tall young woman and a middle aged man: not rude but no warmth either. The woman was texting on her phone on numerous occasions requiring me to wait to get her attention. There were two other bussers/servers(?) that had big warm smiles and were happy to converse in English. 3) menus were printed on the thinnest low grade paper, cheapening the whole experience. 4) Menu shown on website is NOT what is on offer in the restaurant. I was really looking forward to their advertised bass with pak choi. Instead I had to go with the mediocre chicken dish.

There was enough good to make it a special night out with my dearest bestie who was in town for just a day but, I...

5 glasses of wine

What a place. A rollercoaster of emotions.

You go in and it is dark, low to no music and candlelights on every table. Perfect ambiance for a date night, well we were a group of 11 that night so we clearly misunderstood the brief.

Once seated, you start to realise that the service in this restaurant is not a priority. Things take ages to arrive, most of the staff does not speak french or english. Yes we want authentic but we want to be able to communicate as well.

I did not feel irritated by all of this despite how crazy bad the service was. Something about the candlelight ambiance made more patient.

Then came the food. Change of gears, and we were hit by flavour bomb after flavour bomb. The prime rib from Galicia was perfectly dry aged, seasoned and cooked to perfection. The wagyu picanha was another masterful dish full of flavour.

I am a carnivore, always looking for the best steakhouse. For so long I always thought I could cook the meat better at home and pay a third of the price. Not tonight, I think tonight the quality of the meat, the seasoning and the cookery is something I would struggle to replicate.

That said it is a place where you would break the...

I do not live in Paris but I visit often. I have been to Biondi before and enjoyed the food, so I booked it for last Saturday. Due to a terrible customer service experience, unfortunately I will not be coming back. The person on the phone with whom I reserved a table for 10pm was very friendly. I advised him that I was maybe going to be slightly late because I had a concert at the Bataclan, a short walk away. When I arrived to the restaurant at 10:30 all the tables were taken, which is completely fair that they gave away our table. However, the hostess with the face piercings was extremely rude. We apologized for being late and kindly asked for the first table available. She kept repeating “we are fully booked” while indicating to the restaurant room as if we were blind. A few nice alternatives could have been: “I am sorry we are full” or “the first table available will be at X time” or “unfortunately our kitchen closes at X time”. She just kept repeating the phrase “we are fully booked” while pointing to the tables as if we were idiots. This is the girl with the face piercings. Extremely rude and terrible...