Hippopotamus Steakhouse — Restaurant in Paris

Having read the reviews we were a little apprehensive however we were wondering if maybe a lot of the trouble was due to mistranslation and it seems we were correct.

Due to not being fluent in French, we worked with the server to make sure we were all in understanding, with some pointing and menu comparison from the English and French menus side by side.

I decided to start with a poached egg on mushrooms in sauce as I intended to have the Irish T-Bone steak and didn't want to overload too soon and not manage my steak. I made the right choice as the sauce was beautiful and it was great mopped up after finishing the egg and mushrooms with the lovely bread. My partner had the Pheasant Salad, he was a little disappointed his poached egg was cold but the rest of the dish was all cold so the assumption is because it's a salad it's meant to be cold. If we end up going again I will attempt to ask for a hot poached egg for him.

Then we both had the Irish T-Bone Steaks, I had mine with gratin Dauphiouise and my partner had fries. I had the Roquefort cheese sauce and my partner had the pepper sauce - both were superb and still let the steak shine through. As for how they were cooked there is actually a guide in the menu - so if you have an English menu it'll be in English and you can point and the server will see what you mean or on the table as a mat it is in French so you can also try pronouncing it and/or pointing here again.

Neither of us were sure how we would manage a dessert but had both set our hearts on chocolate lava cake and chocolate moose - both were superb but as an added bonus the chocolate moose is unlimited so you can order another if you think you can manage it.

My partner doesn't really drink so he was quite content to drink coke but I went with a gorgeous fruity red with notes of apricots - it was so good I had two glasses.

Good experience on a busy...

Came here at 4:30pm on a Saturday after watching Star Wars, it was my birthday treat and this restaurant chain had been recommended to us. My boyfriend asked if we could possibly have a quieter table and the waitress gestured around the restaurant to say there obviously were none, we sat down and ordered our drinks and food. She brought our cokes and she poured mine carelessly and it overflowed and spilled on the table, she laughed and passed me a napkin from behind to clean the mess myself. A while later our food came, my boyfriend asked for the steak au poivre but instead got steak à cheval, he queried this with the food runner and our waitress came back and blamed my boyfriend for the mistake, claiming a few times that he said steak à cheval. He is French and spoke in French and I, an English person, understood what he asked for. She picked up his plate, put the sauce and fries on the table and left. We heard nothing from her and after around 15 minutes our food was cold, we decided after a further 5 minutes that we were going to leave, we got the attention of a waiter who was very nice but as we were talking to him my boyfriend's correct meal arrived. He explained what happened and that my meal was now cold and the manager said they would reheat it, I was a bit surprised by this because it was a chicken burger that wouldn't reheat well and as it was my birthday, I wanted something more than a third cooked burger. We told them continuously that we wanted to leave and eventually left without having to pay, no sign of the original waitress. Really disappointing and wouldn't give it...

My partner and I went to Hippopotamus for dinner after visiting Montparnasse Tower as it was close by. We arrived before it got busy and presumed we would have a good meal and good service, unfortunately neither were close to good. I ordered a wagyu steak with peppercorn and chimchuri sauces. It arrived luke warm along with some barely warm chips and no sauce, so just a dry steak and chips. When I asked for the sauces, the waiter told me the sauces were downstairs and he had to serve other tables and take some more orders first (I’m not sure why taking new orders takes priority over completing the course of food on guests table in the first place). By the time the waiter returned with just 1 of the sauces 15 minutes later, I’d eaten the tough steak and cold chips with some ketchup, not quite what I’d envisaged when I’d ordered it and no apology from the waiter. When we complained to the staff, we were told ‘service is complicated’ and the manager didn’t give us any response to the situation other than giving us a lemonade free. At this point it was less about the money, and more about inadequacy of the staff and disregard for customers to enjoy their meals. There were other unhappy customers around us so we weren’t the only frustrated ones in there. In general we observed a lot of waiters walking around with plates of food looking very confused. We left here really disappointed; if you’ve had a good day in Paris, don’t finish it off here. If you want a disappointing day in Paris, start off at the Hippopotamus and see if you...