Café de l'Avenue - Paris 8 — Restaurant in Paris

This restaurant was a disappointing and degrading last meal for our trip to Paris.

The good about this place: not many restaurants are open on a Sunday evening and this one was. The fries with our meal were good as well as the wine.

The BAD: my wife’s steak was undercooked. She ordered medium and received rare. The worst part about our experience was my burger. I ordered a bleu burger and received a cheese burger (American cheese.) I didn’t take a single bite and returned my cut-in-half burger once I noticed the issue. About ten minutes later the waitress brings my burger back, and it’s cut in half. I was expecting a new burger and took a look under the bun to find my same cheeseburger that was only smothered with additional bleu cheese (see picture.)

I couldn’t believe the audacity of a place to re-serve an incorrectly prepared food item that had the missing component put on top the wrong components - and then charge for it. No, I’m not one of those customers that tries to make excuses and complain to get a free meal. I paid my bill as presented, without making a scene, but simply couldn’t believe what I had just experienced.

My recommendation is to stay away from this place and go somewhere else. During our 4 day stay in Paris this was the only problem we had, every other place and outing was between good...

Very disappointing - do not visit. This restaurant tries to scam tourists. The menu states (in French only) that all taxes and service charges are included in the price, however when we went to pay they did not give us our full change. When we asked for our change, they told us “it is a mandatory tip, you have to pay it”. We knew this was not correct, as we translated the text at the bottom of the menu and know this is not the case in France. We told the older gentleman serving us about what it says on the menu, but as he knew we didn’t speak French he denied the menu said this. When we pointed to it on the menu and demanded our change, he finally gave us the balance and was very rude. Additionally, he was very pushy for us to order drinks during lunch, and tried to get us to order champagne. We laughed along and humoured him at the time, but he was really trying to upsell us. It’s a shame, as the restaurant ambiance is lovely and the food was quite good, but having read a few reviews that say similar things, it appears Cafe De L’Avenue thinks it’s okay to try and scam tourists. Sad to say it, but please do not support...

One of our last meals in Paris after 10 days and this was the only time French staff scammed us. In Paris, you do NOT have to tip. During another dinner with Parisian friends, they left a 10-euro tip on a 200-euro meal.

However, here at Café de l’Avenue, the service was already sub-par and a mid-60s waiter who had not waited on us came to charge the bill. Bill was 50 euro. Everywhere else during 10 days we’ve been charged the bill. But here, the waiter showed me the little handheld charge machine which said 56-euro and he said “It’s ok, with tip?” Uncomfortable. I said I believed tip was built into the price. He BSed me to my face and implied I was being unreasonable. What waiter anywhere chooses their own tip? And inputs it right into the system for you to pay? Some nerve!!!

We already had not loved the food. Then we felt very disrespected simply for being American, a feeling we had not experienced anywhere else.

The environment is pretty, but the food and service left such a bad taste in our mouths — I would really urge travelers to avoid this place at all...