Grand Café Capucines — Restaurant in Paris

Disappointed by both the onion soup and the service.

I came here because of the many online recommendations — sadly, it didn’t live up to the hype.

First of all, the service was far from ideal. I sat at my table and waited about 40 minutes before anyone took my order. Staff passed by several times, each time saying “I’ll be right with you,” but I had to follow up four or five times before someone finally came.

I ordered the deviled eggs, which were quite good, and the razor clams, which were decent. But the much-recommended French onion soup? Honestly… it was so salty I started to wonder if salt was free in this place.

There was no balance, no depth — just salt. It tasted like hot brine. I’m not French, but I’ve been in Paris for five days and have had onion soup every day in different restaurants — this was by far the worst, and I truly believe this isn’t a matter of “taste preference,” but a genuine seasoning mistake.

I politely mentioned it to the staff, suggesting that maybe something went wrong in the kitchen. But instead of checking or offering any solution, the response was a blunt:

“That’s just how our soup is. We can’t cancel it, and we can’t remake it.”

No apology, no concern, just dismissal. That’s what disappointed me the most.

As someone who has traveled to over 30 countries and 100+ cities, including Paris more than once, I know what a good French onion soup should taste like. This was not it.

All in all, the attitude made me feel unheard and unvalued as a customer — and that left the bitterest taste of all.

If you’re just here for photos and decent ambiance, go for it. But if you’re after a good bowl of onion soup… maybe keep walking.

—————

Right before I decided to pay and leave, I remembered how many people had praised their onion soup, so I chose to give the restaurant one more chance.

To be honest, I was so disappointed by their French onion soup that I decided to bring it up with the manager. In order to give the restaurant a second chance, I ordered another bowl. Unfortunately, even though it was slightly less salty than the first, it was still far too salty for my taste. I took one sip and didn’t continue.

When it came time to pay, they still charged me for two bowls, which I accepted. It wasn’t the payment that bothered me — it was their attitude, which I found rather unpleasant.

The food was disappointing, but the service was even worse.

They insisted I leave a tip when I checked— with 5% being the minimum allowed. If I had a choice, I honestly wouldn’t have tipped, because I didn’t feel the service was good at all. But I still did it.

What I really want to say is: if you’re an Asian traveler visiting Paris, don’t expect the service to be like what you’d experience in places like Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and so on— where customer satisfaction and feedback are truly valued.

Otherwise, you’re likely to be very...

Went around 10pm on a saturday night for just drinks. Crowded. Maitre'd sat us outside with no wait. (BTW, the Maitre'd or Captain or whatever his position is, greeted guest, sat them, bussed tables, took orders. French get a reputation for being slow and lazy by Americans but this man worked harder than most people I've seen in New York -if I only dealt with him, I'd give 5 stars for service). The cafe specializes in seafood so we were tempted to order dozen oysters and watermelon/tuna tartare. The tuna/watermelon tartare was refreshing but the tuna was a bit chew. The oysters were FAT and briny. The only negative of the evening was when we got the bill, the waiter tried to strong-arm us for a tip and even then the preset tip options were 5, 10 and 15%. I normally am not confrontational but I had to ask, "Isn't tipping not normal in Paris?". He acted like he didn't hear me and kept pushing the credit card device in front of me. I just gave them a 10% tip because I'm a push-over and I'm not going to ruin my night fighting over a couple of Euros. But next time I'm in Paris: no more tourist traps! Do the research. Google 'em. Go to a neighborhood restaurant. They all speak English and Google Translate will translate the menu if they don't have an English menu. Or be prepared to be taken advantage of. Paris isn't one of those cities where the locals are protesting tourists. Part of the reasons is that Paris, like New York, is a big city and they can absorb a lot of tourists, the locals know to avoid the tourist spots and, they make a lot of money of...

Honestly very disappointed.

Food I would give it a 3 star, the shrimp/lobster and oyster was very good and fresh. But the half crab was clearly not fresh, it smells and tastes overly “fishy” and ammonia-like, the taste is an already a bit bitter and the texture turned mushy and overly dry. Also you can see from the crab leg meat clearly that the color of the meat is not white and turned very yellow even brown.

But I am sure they didn’t intentionally put unfresh crab for me, pre-cooked sea food like this can have this problem if not put in the right temperature or for a bit longer. But the way they dealt with it is very unprofessional and unacceptable.

They didn’t return it back to the kitchen to check the quality, instead just two waiter smell it and say it’s good then keep telling me it’s just my taste is not used to it. I told them from all taste, smell, texture and color the meat is off, but they just say that because they smelled it, it’s the right smell…and never with any apology…

And other parts of the service also very bad, I entered the restaurant and stood there for few minutes before anyone come to greet and lead me to a table. I ordered a sparkling water, asking them for ice and lemon, asked 3 times to 3 different waiter, all said yes but until I left it never arrived. I ordered a soup, but it never arrived, until I pay and left no one said sorry that they missed my order.

Overall, I think it’s a good restaurant worth trying, but the waiter’s service really...