Bistrot La Renaissance — Restaurant in Paris

Do not go if you have a food allergy! Terrible experience. I visited them on Monday 23rd of December 2024, with my mum and my brother, who’s lived in Paris for 10+ years and speaks perfect French (so it wasn’t an issue with the language). I’m severely allergic to mustard and asked the waitress if the food I ordered was mustard-free. She said she would let the chef know and confirmed my scallops where mustard-free (no allergen menu was provided, allergens were not shown in menu). Excellent, the food came and I ate it, but soon after I started developing the symptoms of my mustard allergy. I asked the waitress again about mustard in my dish, I was clearly in distress and had already taken 4 tablets of antihistamines and had my Epi pen (adrenaline self injection) on the table, ready to be used, in case symptoms escalated. She apologised and said there were only scallops and salad with vinaigrette. I pointed out that one of the ingredients of the vinaigrette is MUSTARD so if that was the case then they served me food with mustard. She then apologised again and offered us 3 more glasses of wine?! That was it… I didn’t want to make a scene and I was hopeful the antihistamines were going to be enough to stop the allergy reaction, mindful it only occasionally happened to me to have contaminated food and that was usually enough. We paid and left. Unfortunately, while walking home the symptoms escalated, I struggled to breathe and felt like I was passing out, I quickly had my adrenaline injection and called an ambulance, as advised by British NHS procedures. The doctors went through a telephone assessment and decided to keep me at home under vigilance of my family, given the adrenaline improved my condition. I find myself today, December 24th, with difficulties in eating and debilitated by the adrenaline injection. This morning, when my brother went to inform the bistrot of the seriousness of my situation, they were just able to apologise, they admitted there was mustard in the vinaigrette used as salad dressing, but nothing else. I could be dead, someone else could be dead if the restaurant staff, and I mean the chef and the kitchen staff, don’t take allergies with the due attention. Please please please be careful, apologies are not enough when someone risks their lives, if some day one of your guests has another severe reaction or doesn’t have adrenaline on them, they could die and you could face the difficult consequences of that, I bet then you would highlight the allergens on the menu as I believe it’s compulsory under Regulation 1169/2011EU which came to effect on December 13, 2014.

I’ve also informed the French dedicated authorities of this, my hope is that no one else has to face what I went through for the CARELESSNESS of the staff and the management...

Great! What could be a tourist trap considering the place‘s history as a filming location is actually a lively French Bar & Bistro highly frequented by locals and visitors alike. It is off the beaten track of those that need to fill their Instagram with Sacre Coeur shots and that’s probably also what saved it. The team is super nice and also speaks English. The food is a great quality Bistro cuisine that is tasty, plenty and good value for money. We came here twice and enjoyed the food both times. The atmosphere is great because it is just not a touristic place - so just in case you are one of those Instagramers: people drink beer here and not pink Champagne, there are no rainbow-coloured Macarons on the menu, and no, Amelie was also not...

Really cute and classic Parisian bistrot that does not feel touristy or kitschy at all. It was worth a visit for the vibes. Cute waitstaff and good kir royale. We came for New Year’s Eve though and I was a bit disappointed in some of the food. The scallops were extremely small and only gave 3, plus were not especially tasty. Plus they had only a small handful of sparklers that they gave to some people at the restaurant but not others. I felt like if they are hosting a costly prix fixe holiday menu, it should have been a bit better. I would return if I was hungry and in the area but wouldn’t go out of my...