Fosca' — Restaurant in Paris

2024 UPDATE: A lot has changed in the past two years. The night chef has their act together, for one, and the servers were in great form. A real surprise after the relative disappointment of two years ago.

It's essentially a hotel – the side entrance is through the hotel – so you're kind of a captive audience while your here. As such, you might feel taken for granted by them. Fortunately, at least for dinner, it's changed.

We had burrata with mango and avocado to start and shared pesto pizza blanco. The burrata was a delight, the pizza was perfect with a light crunchy crust and plenty of pesto. They added chopped hazelnuts to add to the texture and taste. The servers were friendly and highly attentive. All in all a complete reversal from our experience two years before.

A definite YES for dinner.

On the other hand, the breakfast suffers from being a hotel buffet breakfast with all the sad mediocrity that implies. My partner wanted eggs, her only choice was some form of boiled, but the boiler's water level left the egg only half-way immersed, so her soft-boiled egg was pretty soft. Other items, such as pancakes, were pretty pathetic (thank goddess there was plenty of maple syrup and apricot preserves!), the server didn't under stand that one of us wanted tea and the other wanted hot chocolate (if the issue was linguistic, it wasn't my French: My partner IS French and she did the talking this time)

So, in summary for this edited review: a resounding YES for dinner and a whimpering MAYBE for breakfast buffet. Next time we're here and feeling lucky, we'll try lunch.

Sadly, just average to maybe just above-average… we went twice – first on a Friday afternoon and the staff were attentive and friendly, not too many people at all, but the food was somewhat ordinary, nothing wrong, just not amazing. Saturday night, we went again — as we were walking out of the hotel, the concierge handed us a 20% off coupon, not that it made any difference to me, but it raised questions later, after dinner.

The place was quite crowded, and the staff were clearly feeling the strain, especially since it looked like only two people were serving and one of them was minding the bar. A very long wait to order and an equally long wait for service… people were actually leaving before getting served. At one point, although there were still some tables available, several people were turned away at the door — prime time Saturday night, no less.

The food, once it had arrived, was fine, but when a dish is supposed to feature aubergine, one expects more than four tiny bites in it. Pasta isn’t hard to do and both of our dishes were done well (aside from the aubergine stinginess) but nothing stellar.

So we got to wondering how many others there had been given coupons and was it an attempt to drum up flagging business, possibly due to poor management of the restaurant? Nothing “wrong “ with the food, there was clearly an issue with the staff.

It’s a shame, as being right next door to the hotel, they’d have a captive audience… something quite clear when looking at the café on the OTHER side of the hotel… but that’s for another review,...

My friend and I ate here without making a reservation. We were seated promptly. The restaurant was not super busy, but is not far from a tourististy spot in Paris (Le tour Eiffel). Clean and pretty inside. They have menus in both FR and EN. The server didn't really speak English well, but that's okay because I ordered for us in French. But, he could get by. We first had the Mix de Brushetta (Brushetta Mix). She had Prosecco. Perrier 33mL for me. The Brushetta was good, but we weren't expecting the cured raw salmon as a "topping." However, it was tasty. The toppi gs are described in either menu, so you should ask as they might change. We ordered separate meals, but tasted each other's. My meal came out incorrectly so I had to wait. She had pizza, which was just okay. She removed a few pepperonis for me to taste a bite while I waited. First they brought out this huge bowl of twisty pasta with ham (Coquillettes du Jambon, Comté à la Truffe), which looked good, but I don't eat meat. I didn't have a chance to take a photo b/c I didn't let the server leave it. When I correct meal came, I had the Ravioli Ricotta E Spinaci (Rav w/ Ricotta & Spinach), which was DELICIOUS! My friend was so jealous. It came out hot and looked like a smaller bowl, but we were both surprised by the amount. It kept giving, and she kept dipping her pizza in my sauce. It really was quite good. The British guy next to us chatted with us and let me try his Tiramisu, which was great. Clean and crisp, with the taste of espresso but not overpowering and not overly sweet. And her Panna Cotta was good also, smooth, chilled, not too sweet. But my Crème Brûlée was very good. The sugar was thin and not burnt, also smooth. And I tasted all the vanilla, with the visible beans. I highly recommend...

Avoid this place like the plague. I can't be sure if related, but as soon as we spoke english the waiter became extremely rude. We ordered a pizza, as a light snack, and the the waiter became upset that we didn't order one each when we asked the size of the pizza (about 14"). The pizza was soggy and was not left to sit out of the oven long enough to harden. The restaurant was not busy, only 5 tables were seated with no more than 4 people each, yet the waiter rushed around like he was in some sort of race. As an American, who worked in the food service industry, I typically tip 17% just for being polite, but here I would be doing a disservice with such a reward.

Edited after the check: €4,50 for a coke. When I paid, €20,50 on €18,50 for a pizza and coke the waiter says with an attitude "here is all your money back". I was going to tip €2, but that comment put it over the top so I left €0,02. Waiter's name was Kenyon, but looking at the other reviews the management knows about his behavior and does...