Café Varenne — Restaurant in Paris

If you are looking for a classic French, well-managed brasserie, with satisfying and uncomplicated dishes, daily changing offers, nice interior but also option to sit on the terrace, Café Varenne is your place!

We are regular guests and always happy to return! Usually you get a table in a few minutes, however Fridays and Saturdays can get very busy (booking is not possible). The waiters are very professional, the kitchen always delivers on a reliably good level.

Extra point for the homemade mayonnaise and French fries (as an extra side, you get a huge portion of it)! Our favorites are the 'confit de canard', the 'steak aller-retour', the 'epaule d’agneau' and the super 'raviole de royan'. Also, shouldn't miss the classic 'oeuf mayonnaise' or 'escargot'. The house Bordeaux is well priced and good quality.

The prices went up recently a little, now in the mid-high range, but absolutely acceptable for the quality. If there is a weaker spot, it would be the dessert menu, but there are several amazing cake shops next to the restaurant. All together, Café Varenne in my opinion is your best option in the area for an easy, unpretentious and happy...

We had dinner with out of town friends who wanted a ‘bistro’ type experience. (Bistro btw means quickly in Russian which Parisians appropriated during the allied occupation in 1814 after Napoleon’s Elba exile - in effect a Bistro is the French equivalent of fast food - but don’t let that be a turn off, as with all types of fast food, French Bistro’s can be excellent). Café Varenne’s food quality falls in the ‘above average’ category. Traditional, high quality and decently priced for the area. Their wine list was larger than I expected and, for me at least, a bit pricey. A place like this should have several perfectly drinkable bottles of white at 25-35€ but alas it starts more around 50€ per bottle. That said our Chardonnay was delicious and the service was charming and enthusiastic. As to the atmosphere it’s very typical for this part of Paris: Authentic bistro-shabbychic haunted by plenty of locals and regulars along with a fair share of foreigners visiting one of the cities most popular...

Unfortunately, this experience fell below average. My wife and I had dinner and were excited to go after reading the reviews, but we were disappointed in the service and the food. While the steak was a near-perfect medium rare, the onion garnish overpowered the flavor of the meat. The serving of potatoes and the accompanying salad was also sub-par. The portion sizes were far too large and were reminiscent of an American chain like Applebees.

At the conclusion (undoubtedly because we were not locals as I did not witness this with any other table), we were treated to extortionist behavior from our waiter asking for additional gratuity. I was so stunned by the request I had to ask again to be sure. Even in the seediest diner, I have never had a waiter ask for gratuity. And this was after being pushed to order a bottle of red.

If you are not a local, I'd recommend avoiding this place unless you want to pay 80 euros per person and get an additional amount tacked on for gratuity for only...