Distrito Francés Marais — Restaurant in Paris

I've been to this chain of restaurants many years ago but the experience this time was markedly unsatisfactory. Long wait, callous staff and limited vegetarian options. We had to wait for 20+ minutes to get our order (for a reservation at 9pm, when most of the tables were already empty) and that too because I reminded the servers. They offered my friend her glass of wine on the house to make up for that delay and apologized. As a vegetarian, they "forgot to mention" that all their vegetarian options contain only one main ingredient: sweet potatoes (this is not written on the menu and I pointed it out). So if you're a vegetarian you may end up ordering sweet potato fries as a starter, sweet potato burrito or sweet potato tacos and sweet potato and infinitum. And what if you're allergic to sweet potatoes? This is something that needs to be updated or at least mentioned to the customer when they order.

Our waitress didn't point it out to me when I ordered and, as I mentioned, the menu says the burrito actually contains frijoles etc but not sweet potatoes again! There are other vegetarian starters that I could've ordered but not knowing that both my dishes would contain essentially the same principal ingredient, I ended up with food that felt like an afterthought and unsophisticated because why bother with vegetarian menu options, they can eat the same thing all the time, right?

I hope we can appreciate that vegetarians are not rabbits who just eat lettuce (the salad at least,I was told, doesn't come with sweet potato..) or only one ingredient. And if it's the case, fine, but remind the customer or put it in the menu. Also, sweet potato is not a "protein" replacement btw, as my misguided server seemed to think. Sadly this kind of indifference to diverse food palates, especially meatless ones, is not unique to this restaurant.

Then again, the server I spoke to reminded me "this is a Mexican restaurant not a vegetarian one, there's other vegetarian restaurants in Paris". Something I will definitely keep in mind next time !

*Edited following response from the restaurant :

I appreciate your reply. While some of the justifications presented are reasonable, I do think the demeanor and the service offered could be better. The server was quite defensive, almost passive aggressive and you may know him and his intentions but what matters is also the way the customer is treated and receives the interaction. Which is why I appreciate your apology and hope that this kind of conversation can be dealt better in person next time. As for the delay, I fully understand it can take time to prepare meals if there's another event, the lack of staff is also completely understandable but an effort can be made to inform the customer in real time : there were two servers who didn't seem very bothered or occupied. Someone should check on the order and the tables to ensure things are flowing smoothly, at least 20 minutes post ordering. I had to inquire about our food else we'd have waited without updates.

Even with the introduction of chilaquiles and existing starters, I hope there will be real diversity of flavours and ingredients in your vegetarian options and not just "more vegetarian items all containing essentially the same thing in different forms ". This is really unsophisticated and uninteresting for a food lover.

Although you're not a vegetarian restaurant but a Mexican one, in the words of your FOH, he had the generosity to offer free wine (not a Mexican tradition either but a French one as you yourself claim but we shall let the inconsistency pass) to my friend (it's presumptuous to call someone a "partner" when my review states they're a friend) who did enjoy her chicken burrito! Overall she had a great time as meat eaters probably do at your restaurant. I will specify that I personally received no part of this generous French spirit.

Nevertheless thank you for taking the time to read my review, reply in detail, offer an explication, apologize, and take into consideration the changes that...

Im usually a pretty generous reviewer but I’ve struggled with this one. The guacamole was delicious. The tacos were ok. I they were out of rose then I was served orange wine so off it was cloudy and tasted like apple cider vinegar. So I asked for it to be swapped for a white wine - after about 15 minutes and asking multiple times a red wine appeared. I pointed out I had asked for a white wine and the waitress was pretty grumpy. We then waited another 10 minutes for the white wine. We were given a dessert menu and eventually gave up hoping to be asked for our dessert order after half an hour and left. In summary the food was only OK, the service was pretty bloody shoddy. I’d give this one a miss...

The best part of my experience was the service of Mamadou. He suggested a complete menu for my friend and I based on our preferences with a smile and some jokes.

The food: The guacomole was average (I make a better one at home), the tacos (chicken) were solid, but I’ve had better. The mocktail was very sweet and tasty.

The atmosphere: decoration is great, music too. Seating wasn’t ideal though - literally next to the door + under the blasting heater + in a tiny part of the resto where I could barely fit my legs (I guess that’s my fault being 6’5).

Overall, I would still recommend for incredible service + try your luck at the rest...