Hippopotamus Steakhouse — Restaurant in Paris

Maybe I caught them on a bad night because my experience was nothing like most of the reviews I read. I went because I saw their ad on the window for Steak and Fries for 13.90€ and was looking for a relatively cheap and cheerful meal. I ordered the steak medium and a glass of wine (5.90€). My server, who may have been the owner, asked if I wanted an entree. I said no, but he opened the menu to the entree page and suggested two options. I eventually was convinced to order the Tartine Chèvre. He then asked if I wanted still or sparkling water to which I said still (expecting a carafe of tap water). He asked big or small I said just small. So my wine was brought out and a bottle of water. So I knew I would now be paying for water I didn’t really want either. A basket with two bread rolls also came out, which I didn’t touch because I thought that would also be an unexplained additional charge. The entree came out soon enough. It was nice but a very small portion for almost 7€. A few slices of cheese on a small piece of bread and a bit of salad. About 15 minutes after I finished the entree the other waiter collected my plate and asked if so was finished. I said yes, but I was still waiting for my main. He didn’t really understand (which is fine, because I don’t speak French and don’t expect everyone to speak English). He brought the menu to me as if I needed to order and I said no I have ordered already and pointed to the steak advert. He looked at his tablet and seemed to understand what had happened. It seems my order was forgotten. It had already been over 30 mins since I ordered, and a table of 4 next to me who arrived after I ordered had completed their meal before my main finally arrived, about another 10 mins later. The chips were fine but the steak was a sad piece of meat, barely seared on the outside and pretty much raw in the middle. When I finshed I was asked if I wanted dessert. I said no thanks and asked for the bill. The waiter then seems to do everything he could except bring my bill. So after another almost 10 minutes, I managed to catch his eye again and he brought it over. Not unexpected, the small bottle of still water was 4.20€. So my quick, cheap and cheerful meal was long, sad and disappointing. I didn’t feel welcome. I felt like an easy up-sell target and that I had somehow annoyed them. Maybe by not ordering enough food? It wasn’t particularly busy, so I really don’t know what the problem was. But based on my experience I would not...

The Hippopotomus Steakhouse is located in a prime corner location. We were greeted soon after we arrived and sat down to look the menu. If you have no knowledge of the French language then you will struggle to read their menu. There is an option to download the English version by scanning a barcode, which we did. When the waitress arrived, the language barrier continued, but we managed to place our order by pointing our fingers at the pictures on the menu. The server was polite enough, but my basic French came in very useful as it would have been a struggle without it.

The food was ok. Although the sirloin steak tasted great, it was more tough than I expected. It was cooked to perfection but I have had better quality meat in other restaurants. The fries were very good, as were the starters we had. Our favourite was the ice cream desserts. My initial choice was not available. This to me is disappointing, because in my opinion a restaurant should never run out of any items on its menu. It's not like they have hundreds of options, just the choices they decided to make a available to the diners. At the very least, they should have told us from the very beginning which items were not available.

Overall we had a good visit, but I think with a little effort, it could have been a...

i was optimistic because of the recent good reviews, but i was so disappointed.i’m not one to leave negative reviews often. the service was incredibly slow, the place was half full and it took 20 minutes to even get our order taken. I ordered steak with pepper sauce and was told they had none, ok, i ordered steakhouse burger, it came basically raw with raw, cold bacon on top, the chips were freezing cold and were so bland, how can you not even put salt on chips? my boyfriend asked for a steak and got a burger with no bun which was also cold and burnt on the outside, completely flavourless also. he had to pay just under 20€ for it, the egg on top looked and tasted as if it had been sitting out for hours. i could honestly go on but the food was just horrid and service so so slow. the couple next to us kept comment on how tough their steak was so clearly not an isolated incident. would recommend avoiding this place at all costs. i left hungry and also...