Brasserie Barbès — Restaurant in Paris

EDIT: This is a prime example of how a bad experience with an employee can ruin one’s opinion of an establishment. As you can see below, my first review of this place was glowing. I went back to take more pictures and have more food because I enjoyed it so much the first time.

They were busier, which was to be expected, it was a Friday early evening. I sat at the bar. The brother behind the bar is always cool. ☺️ I had a waiter with a blonde ponytail, he wasn’t so attentive, so I was also ordering from the bartender. He was nice. A third guy behind the bar was a little bit snarky, I didn’t interact with him much, but ironically, HE was the one who asked me to write a review. I was thinking “based on what? “🤔

I waited a while for my bill, and finally I paid and tipped the young guy behind the bar. I began to leave. The blonde waiter rushed after me at the stairs, and very abruptly said “you need to pay.“ I turned. He modified to “who did you pay?” Gesturing to the bar, I said “yes, I paid him.” Blondie asked his colleague, who confirmed, then he turned away to the computer and just left me standing there.

Finally, I said “so is everything OK?” Without even really looking back at me, he said “yes.“ That was so OBNOXIOUS. It’s not my fault that he wasn’t keeping track of what I was doing. Was I supposed to sit there waiting all night for him to come back with a bill?

You don’t accost customers like that. The implication he made is that I left without paying. It’s rude. The waiter should’ve come up and said “I’m so sorry, can you let me know who you closed your bill with?”

Oh, and the oysters were still yummy, but the shrimp wasn’t so good the second time around.

I doubt I’ll be back soon. —— Decent prices for food and drinks, really nice wait staff, and it’s a lovely setup. Feels cozy and cool. My oysters were lovely. I also got the crevettes and mayo, that was so tasty, I got a...

Overall a very disappointing experience. Location is good and the restaurant looks great inside, but the service was poor. We had a table on the first floor, booked for Sunday at 3pm. I assume the lunch service had been busy as there were a lot of tables still uncleared from earlier when we arrived. They remained full of dirty plates, glasses etc for the duration of our visit. Our table was reserved and was clean, but other guests arriving were sat at dirty tables and had to clear their own table onto dirty tables next to them. Service was slow, and after the main course was served the waiter didn’t come near us again. At all. Not even to clear our dirty plates or offer more drinks or dessert. Around 40 minutes after we had finished eating we got up and went to the bar to get our bill and leave. As far as the food is concerned, the starters were good - crispy egg in a Comte sauce with spinach was delicious. We also ordered cod fritters but were served the chorizo fritters instead. That was okay because they were very tasty, but indicative of how disengaged our waiter was. He really didn’t care at all. For the main course, the chicken salad was nice but the sliced sirloin steak special is best avoided if you like steak cooked rare. I love a genuinely rare steak, which this was, but the outside was grey rather than caramelised. Sadly chef didn’t know even a rare steak has to be cooked in a hot pan! The bone marrow sauce was delicious, however, so I ate the lot. Our waiter didn’t bring the side dish we ordered, but we’d given up trying to get service by this point. Eventually, 40 minutes after we finished eating, I got our own bill at the bar. No tip - needless to say. We...

We had a reservation for a party of 13 for new year's eve. I should've called in advance because their dance floor and rooftop bar was closed which, was a disappointment to our party. I did read the reviews about the cigarette guys standing in the corner and the not so savory area so warned our party beforehand on what to expect. We were greeted by a tough burly security guard, a welcome sight after being swarmed by the cigarette guys. It took awhile to get inside until a server peeped his head around the security guard and asked if we had reservations. Once inside, we were greeted very warmly and taken to the 1st floor. The ambience was cozy and eventually a live jazz band came on. We had one server for the entire floor who was amazing!!!! He was friendly, efficient and spoke a few languages. Our food came out timely, including our drinks. For appetizers, everyone enjoyed the escargot and oysters. I had the egg in cream sauce (forgot the name of it). Half the group had sea bass and the other the beef. I had the beef which was juicy and tender. Since the restaurant had nothing going on for NYE, half our party left to go elsewhere and the other half to a bar. Overall wonderful dinner but not the NYE we...