Café République — Restaurant in Paris

My wife and I enjoyed a lot walking the busy and lively Place de la Republique area. Not thinking much about it we decided to have a break at this restaurant. Wonderfully located around the square it seemed like an obvious choice. I tend to agree with other reviews about the service not being the warmest but it was effective for us. Having made a last minute decision and having plenty of tourist traps around Paris we opted for something hard to mess up like a croque madam and a croque monsieur. They came to the table fairly fast and they were very good. I'm sure you can get the same simple dishes for half the price somewhere else, but you are in a tourist spot, sitting in the middle of the action, so it comes at a price. The restaurant was nice enough for a quick bite. Would I come back next time having so many options in this area? Maybe not, but it was not a bad...

We had two visits on subsequent days and found the place okay: reliable, good food in a nice ambience and an amicable wait staff.

On the third visit, unfortunately, we had an aggressively antagonistic waiter who barely glanced at us, gave us one-syllable responses to direct questions, dumped our food and drinks onto the table, and cashed us out with not one word spoken--literally not one word. This has never happened to me before, ever, anywhere. But the most unbelievable moment was when the waiter (young guy with light brown hair) leaned his entire body over the table, 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝'𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭, to look at someone outside. His upper body was literally 5 centimeters over our food, at a 45 degree angle, and my friend had to move his chair backward to avoid physical contact, again without one word of apology or even an "excuse me" from the waiter. Absolutely unbelievable! Clearly, we cannot recommend a restaurant that tolerates such behavior.

Nous avons fait deux visites les jours suivants et avons trouvé l'endroit okay : fiable, bonne nourriture dans une ambiance agréable et un personnel de service amical.

Malheureusement, lors de notre troisième visite, nous avons eu affaire à un serveur agressivement antagoniste qui nous a à peine jeté un coup d'œil, nous a donné des réponses d'une seule syllabe à des questions directes, a jeté notre nourriture et nos boissons sur la table et nous a encaissés sans dire un seul mot - littéralement sans un seul mot. Cela ne m'était jamais arrivé auparavant, jamais, nulle part. Mais le moment le plus incroyable a été celui où le serveur (un jeune homme aux cheveux châtains clairs) s'est penché de tout son long sur la table, à un angle de 45 degrés, 𝐬𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐚 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐦𝐢, pour regarder quelqu'un à l'extérieur. Le haut de son corps était littéralement à 5 centimètres de notre nourriture, et mon ami a dû reculer sa chaise pour éviter le contact physique, toujours sans un seul mot d'excuse ou même un "excusez-moi" de la part du serveur. C'est absolument incroyable ! Clairement, nous ne pouvons pas recommander un restaurant qui tolère un tel...

Pretty mixed impressions. The food was amazing, but we were waiting for main course for around half an hour, so we ate 2 baskets of bread as we were hungry, and it was nice to receive new basket when we finished first. On the other side, desserts were brought almost immediately. But in the end, we were waiting for bill for 10-15 minutes, although it was not that busy. Some waiters were a little bit lost, and were coming couple of times to check if we have ordered(at that moment we were already waiting for 15-20 minutes). In general, it was nice, but not in all aspects. If you are not in rush and want a good food, it’s great...