Café de Paris V — Restaurant in Paris

Extremely underwhelming experience in every way possible. I usually never write reviews, but I can’t stand seeing how high this place’s rating is versus how bad our experience was.

TLDR; If you are looking for a place to spend your evening enjoying some French music or jazz while having few decent drinks this is not the place I can recommend. Don’t waste your time.

More about our experience: We were looking for a place with live music and good drinks. This bar seemed to be a good fit: highly rated, cozy interiors, decent cocktails variety and the most importantly live jazz and chanson promised! Well.. It turned out as disappointing as it can possibly get.

Music. True, there was a guy playing piano. Was it jazz or chanson? Not even close. I genuinely like Scorpions, John Lennon and Queen… but not when I came to Parisian place to listen to something completely different. Tea. For starters we decided to order some tea after noticing few tea pots on other tables. Don’t get fooled the same way we did! A tea pot with hot water and two Lipton tea bags is what we’ve got. Cocktails. The fact that they are basic isn’t even a problem. The problem is that they taste below basic. My gin fizz tasted like a watery gin tonic. My partner’s cosmopolitan had the cheapest cranberry flavour I’ve ran across in quite a while. Food. Again, I don’t care that ham & cheese plate is the only option available – obviously we didn’t come here for food. But the quality is just shockingly bad. For 15€ we have got: 1 kind of hard rubbery tasteless cheese chopped in cubes, 2 kinds of very average smoked sausage, 3 pickled cucumbers (no ham).

The only thing that was ok is service, no complaints here. Also I have to mention that this place turned out to be quite cheap for Paris, but I wouldn’t agree to pay for any of it if I have known how low the quality bar is – just doesn’t worth is, no matter...

Please do not go into this place if you are an American. We sat at the street side table easy enough and waited approximately 15 minutes for the service to come out and see to us. 25 minutes later we get our first cocktail that we ordered. Once we were done for almost 20 minutes we walked over an told the host we would love to stay because we enjoyed the music but the service was non attentive. He had someone come over and 5 minutes later we had our second round. Once we finished that round we sat the timer to see how long it would be before someone saw that we were out again. 15 minutes later the guy showed up and we just asked for our tab saying we enjoyed the music but not the service. He became hostile with us saying that it was not his fault but the service machine was broke. Whatever. If there was a problem with the machine that still shouldn’t have prevented him from coming and talking to us. Service is service. He basically said he had no interest in servicing Americans. So off to...

I have been going to this place for years, every time I come to Paris. They have live music with a singer and a piano player, which usually changes regularly, so if there is one you like, enjoy them fully that night, and if there is one you do not like, check the place out on another night. The crowd and their interaction with the performers often determines how fun the night will be. Most nights, it's a great place to have a few cocktails with a friend or lover while enjoying the music and atmosphere. Service in the seating area can be very slow, but if you go directly to the bartender or are very direct that you need another drink, you are usually fine. The place is small with seating very close together, so the audience can interact with each other, so I've made many friends and have had many great...