Brasserie Martin — Restaurant in Paris

Unfortunately I had two quite unpleasant experiences with this place, and in particular one specific employee, possibly the manager. The first time I came sitting on a pretty much empty terrace nobody came to take my order for a long time. After a while I went to the bar, since I thought maybe I had to order there. I was sent away to my table in an unfriendly manner. When ordering I tried to speak French wherever I could, this didn't seem to be appreciated. However, speaking English also didn't seem to be appreciated. When I wanted to order a canele, this guy looked at me like I was insane. Probably wasn't the appropriate time for it, but who cares? If your customer wants to eat a canele for breakfast, you don't ask questions and just bring it. In the meantime I see this man acting extremely friendly to French speaking customers, however, he was very rude to one of the girls working there so I guess that's where his true colors shine through. I sat there for a while, wanting to order a second round but nobody came to check on me so at some point I just left. I came back another day. The second time I came I got a mayor attitude from the same person. I asked if they served flat white coffee, and I got an extremely rude response with the most annoyed expression and making hand gestures: 'What is a flat white??!!!' I tried to explain in a friendly manner what it is and if this man would have wanted to give me good service he could have easily have this coffee made for me. Two shots, hot milk and a tiny bit of foam, EASY. Instead he said with the same hostile/unwilling vibe: so you want a cappuccino?! I have worked in the restaurant industry myself and I have to say I was shocked by this hostile attitude. If you are unfamiliar with something, that is totally fine. You either try to accommodate, or you just say 'we don't serve that, sorry'. But to respond like that? Is ridiculous. So no I will never come back nor recommend this...

My wife and I are in Paris for two nights on our way back home. We looked up where we could go for good local fare, in particular steak frites, and Brasserie Martin topped the list. We booked a reservation for two at 7:15 about a month ago.

We arrived and were promptly seated outside in between two other groups. It was a fairly normal Parisian atmosphere where everyone is crammed together; no big deal.

After a few minutes we placed our order, and everything seemed fine. We ordered the escargot, Caesar salad, and two steak frites. We received a pitcher of tap water and started the wait. 10 minutes went by, then 20, then 30. The tables beside us all got their drinks and food. We kept patiently waiting.

Eventually our water went dry. After nearly an hour since ordering, and without our server coming by to refill our water or update us on our order, we flagged him down to see what was going on. He said he thought it was on the way and went inside to check. He came back a few minutes later and said, “we have a big table inside,” as if that was the cause for the delay. Hmm. Everyone around us was being served though, even if they had arrived much after us. And he didn’t even offer to refill our water.

We waited another 10 or 20 minutes, but still no water or food. Eventually we just gave up and left. When we told our server we were going to leave, he tried to gaslight us into believing that this was normal and our order hadn’t been forgotten and the kitchen was working on it, and the order simply took this long. Yeah, as if a cold salad needed over an hour to be prepared…

What a shame. The food looked good, if they were willing to serve it to...

Lovely terrace, very nice menu - took the saucisse/ puree and vegetarian special for lunch today. Everything was delicious. Unfortunately, the service was terrible. The wine did not come in time for our first course, and we had to ask a busser for it for it to arrive at all. Our main course took quite some time- understandable - it was busy at the time. We did eventually ask for it- and it arrived. As I said- very good. We were there quite a while. The service was ending, and we sat with dirty plates for long time while people cleaned the tables next to us. No one asked us for our dessert order. The server walked back and forth without acknowledging us. Finally, we told one of the people wearing a white t-shirt- very kind and warm young man- that we would order the cheese for dessert. I watched as this gentleman told our waitress who stood not five feet away. The cheese didn't come. Meanwhile, the terrace is almost empty. The cheese isn't coming. After 15 minutes, I finally manage to hail the waitress and said, "on avait commande du fromage." And she said, "Oui. Oui, C'arrive toute suite." And yet ... it didn't. She continued to seat an occasional table, take orders- and we waited. Finally, I got up to use the restroom and my husband asked for the check without the cheese. Again, we waited. Finally, we stood up to leave and the check appeared. This experience was disappointing to say the least. It's really too bad too- it seems like a great restaurant. After this treatment, however, I would not eat there again and I can't...