Chez Janou — Restaurant in Paris

We were seeking a good French bistro-type experience that wasn’t perhaps classic Parisian bistro and so settled on Chez Janou for a taste of the Provençal.

They do host an impressive list of pastis, however, as that was the final part of the meal, I’ll return to that shortly.

The staff were congenial and polite, even if perhaps not warm and friendly. We were seated outside, but under the awnings, which was fine as it provided safety from any turns in the weather. Unfortunately, the sides of the awning were also enclosed. While this would be a good thing for rain, with the continued defence of smoking on patios in France, it also turned the area into a smoking room on the occasions that people decided to light up. Thus the lower rating for “atmosphere”. Nothing like cigarette fumes as you are trying to enjoy your burrata and Kir Royal.

While the Kir Royal was fine, I’ve had richer ones, where the hosts are more generous with the cassis, leading to a richer result. In this case, the Kir Royal was maybe more lesser aristocracy.

To start we mulled over getting both the Ravioles du Dauphine, a burrata with asparagus on special and the Petit chèvre rôti au romarin, but ultimately decided on just the ravioles and burrata. While I am sure that the petit chèvre would likely have been delightful, thank goodness we only chose the one … I think we would have needed wheelbarrows to leave otherwise.

Whereas they may have skimped on the cassis in the Kir Royal, there was no skimping at all on the cheese in the ravioles. Decadent hardly describes it. It was sumptuos. And the provision of two baskets of sliced baguette certainly assisted in sopping up any cheesy remnants. Bonus points were earned.

The burrata was creamy and the asparagus well cooked and blanched. It presented as expected, so if you’ve had burrata, then it was good, but then that’s what you’d expect from burrata.

On to the “plats”.

The potatoes that came with the entrecôte and the magret de canard were not particularly appealing, being slightly limp and heavy with grease. The steak eater, however, appreciated the steak, even if it was mostly unseasoned and required additional salt. The duck was considered “ok”, but had a hefty layer of fat, almost overwhelmingly so, to the chagrin of the duck eater. “Not the best duck had”.

The risotto aux asperges vertes was, on the other hand, quite delightful. The grains were well-cooked, with just enough “al dente” bite left, which married wonderfully with the asparagus, peas and beans in a soft and gentle sauce. The Parmesan crisp also provided a nuanced cheese perspective to an earthy dish. Bravo.

I’ve enjoyed many a crème brûlée and this ranked somewhere in the middle to the upper end. Nothing to blow your mind, but certainly not displeasing in any form. Accompanied by the pastis, it was a great ending to the meal.

On the pastis, I looked to the advice of the server. I asked what they would recommend beyond the usual Richard or Pernod and they suggested the Armoises Boyer … which was a delicate twist, with a little bite. It was perfect.

A good meal, albeit with some slight distractions in the cigarette smoke and...

Little edit to preface: I got a notification from google stating that this review was reported by Chez Janou for “hateful speech”. Nonetheless i did successfully appeal this and my review remains. Great attempt trying to silence reviews that actually call out this outlandish behaviour!

Me and my partner visited at 8.30pm. Large queue and we were happy to wait to make a reservation. Unfortunately the earliest we could make this was 10-10.30. In that time we quickly got hungry and stopped for a meal around the corner. Returned at 10pm on the dot, was quickly seated in the tiniest corner of the restaurant, so far practically inside of the kitchen we should have received an hourly wage. It was until then we asked a very polite younger male waiter just to get the chocolate mousse to which he gladly obliged. Reaching for it an older female waiter interjected and stopped him, stormed over our table and began to belittle my parter (who is french) as to how us just ordering the mousse prevents “genuine diners” from having it after their meal and that we’d have to order something more to make it properly worthwhile for them? This is supply and demand issues. Motivated to try this nice sounding mousse recommended to us, i asked for us to have our menus returned. I’d settled to split a 13€ salade entree but was told that we’d have to order “atleast 2 of those or else it’d be almost a loophole to their rules.”. The absurdity of how they segregate their customers in terms of how much they order? what do they benefit from this are we not still willing and paying customers? IS 9€ FOR MOUSSE NOT ENOUGH? they were expecting us to pay for an entree, main (which starts at 25€ ≈ 40ish) EACH! to be given their divine permission allowing us to grace our tastebuds with this heavenly mousse! Horrible, belittling, discriminatory institution which ruined and wasted our evening and almost left my S/O in tears from their horrible condescension. No wonder we weren’t hungry after waiting nearly 2 hours and had to eat somewhere else. Shocked by how much of a joke this place is by putting some customers on pedestals. If this restaurant wasn’t purely surviving on the misinformation to their customers and strong arming them into spending more money than they’d have wished they’d put up a disclaimer declaring their “rules”. Ironically this wasn’t even a financial issue but we weren’t hungry at that point, had a reservation, was willing to tip largely for being allowed to just get dessert and was planning on being in and out (10minutes max!) having it been late nonetheless!!!!!!

In short just a 17 year old couple who wanted to end our evening with chocolate cream having waited hours but got scorned for our absurd request. AVOID...

I wanted to love this place! But I did not. It was loud, had awful seating, very rude waitress, and was overpriced. Here are a few points before I go more in depth.

If you want to have a good experience here, follow these tips: 1) Absolutely make a reservation! Be aware they take a break between the lunch and dinner servings and will be rude around 4:30 wanting you to leave. 2) Only order duck. Everything else is pretty mediocre/bad. The steak is greasy and chewy for American standards. Grilled swardfish with fennel is teeny tiny portion, fairly flavorless and does not appear to be actually grilled. 3) Absolutely only order chocolate mousse - it will blow your mind. 4) Ask for a better table if available. People are sitting on top of each other and it's very loud and unpleasant. Do not be shy for your own money. 5) Be aware of the tipping scam/pressure if paying with the card. The service of 15% is already included as per French law, the waiters are paid a monthly wage - yet when paying with the card they pray on unassuming tourists and present you the machine with 5%, 10% or 15% options. Chose "other" and type in zero.

Now back to our experience. 1) The table sucked, they had to remove it for me to squeeze behind it. I had a smelly sweaty man sitted so close to me his elbow was almost in my food. 2) They ran out of ketchup and brought us COLD TOMATO SOUP (gazpacho) in a tiny ramekin, instead lol. 3) The waiter started cleaning and washing floors in between tables while we were all still eating. There was a clog in the toilet and the same waiter went with the bucket and mop in the bathroom, then carried the same mop back throughout that tiny restaurant to the kitchen area!! 4) The waitress rushed us to pay and asked for a tip! French DO NOT TIP! 5) The restaurant is not near anything fun so we couldn't make an outing out of it. We took the metro elsewhere. 6) The duck & garlick roasted potatoes were very good. Do not get swordfish unless you are an influencer on a diet or you just had a gastric bypass. 7) The mousse is the BOMB! It is the best thing I have ever eaten and I am sad that I won't ever experience it again. I am not sure if you can just come for the mousse but if you can, do it. 8) The menu is in French. If you don't speak it, upload a picture of it to chatGPT and ask it to translate ahead of time. Poor T-Mobile reception in the restaurant. 9) Do not go on avery hot day in July or August as the dining room is tiny and packed with people and tables are on top of...