L'Assiette — Restaurant in Paris

"Euro-food" is a term I use to define restaurants that stay safely within boundaries. Safety is a great concept for the hotel concierge that use places as their safe place. And they can. Few would leave here with a bad impression. And for the most part, we, too. First clue of euro food is the fish selection, sea bass, sea bream. All the same regulation sized fillets. Close your eyes, and the "bouillabaisse" sauce could be anything. The accompaniments too are deviod of any real farmed character. If you have to top your potato with cabbage and speck, then its obviously not a remarkable potato to start with. And France is busting with amazing potatoes right now. But "right now" isn't a safe way to construct a menu...too much adjustment is expensive and work. Apart from the lovely pesto, everything on the plate could be at any euro capital city midmarket concierge recommendation. The bread is delightful...genuinely the highlight of the meal and undoubtedly the only really bespoke element. A special disappointment is the dessert. This regal dish of caramelised pineapple is a great of the culinary world. Here, they destroy it in a tragedy of cornstarch "caramel". The beauty of this dish is the caramelisation of the outer of the fruit in butter, sometimes with enough sugar on the exterior of the fruit to ensure it caramelises (though great pineapple doesn't need this). The fruit done, the sauce is then formed by making a caramel freshly from the just liberated pan. Short cutting by heating the fruit with no caramelisation, and using a cornflour thickened sauce, which has none of the deep characteristics of real caramel. Sounds like I'm making a lot of this, and I am, but it's like paying to see Pavarotti, and hearing as the curtain rises that his cousin is standing in, and taking a swing at it...how hard can it be? Answer, to do it right, very. The service is good, and the wine list ok. The wines by the glass aren't listed, and it seems most of the bottles are €60-90. But that's Euro...

We had (perhaps excessively) high expectations of this restaurant, whose cassoulet was warmly recommended to us by our son who had enjoyed it on a cold winter night. Since the menu is very limited (four entrées from 12 to 23 euros and four mains from 29 to 37 euros, except the cassoulet at a hefty 41 euros) we expected something really exceptional. Unfortunately, the green asparagus appetizer tasted of nothing at all (out of season, perhaps), although the (small) piece of salmon confit was quite tasty. As mains, we ordered the pork cheek and the guinea fowl dish (ballotine: the meat of the guinea fowl made into a roll and sliced). Both lacked that kind of intense flavor one expects of such dishes in France. My wife suggested that both dishes had been prepared sous-vide, which would explain the tenderness combined with lack of flavor. Pork cheeks really need to be braised for a long time in their own juices. The dessert we shared (baba au rhum) was mediocre (at 18 euros). The two coupes de champagne with which we began were grossly overpriced at 17 euros each. We don't drink wine any more and, as mentioned, shared one dessert, yet the bill came to 165 euros. Given the moderate cost of ingredients and the uninspired preparation involved, this seemed excessive. All the tables were occupied by tourists (we left toward 8:30 pm and not one French client was present). I'm not sure whether 'tourist trap' is justified, but it's tempting to use the term. I gave full marks for service, which was friendly and efficient. The waiter confided that the chef was away on travels and had left the kitchen in the (capable?) hands of his Asian sous-chef. In the end, my disappointment was such that I couldn't wait to get...

Rude Manner towards Booking Mistake What a disaster when you arrive early than the booking time at 7:00 p.m. and get the message that your booking is cancelled. Booking through the Fork with confirmation, and reconfirm the booking by our hotel 2 days before to this L'Assiette Bistro. The man in the reception denied receiving the phone confirmation, and just said that he has contacted me several times with a wrong phone no. and cancelled my booking due to failure to contact. He even did not try to think way out and offer a solution, even I requested him to just offer me a quick dinner and I can be finished it within one hour, and can return the table to other customers with booking at 8:30 pm. He refused all my requests immediately, and blaming for the point of no response for the wrong telephone no. Actually, it is not the fault of a customer, and I did witnessed the hotel manager called to confirm 2 days before . I think there must mistake internally and it is so easy to blame the customer not receiving the call for confirmation (actually the email confirmation has not requested customer to reconfirm the booking in advance again).

In facing this situation, one can understand that how I feel so helpless and very hungry in a Saturday night with most other restaurants not providing service on Sat. The man at the Reception not even use soft tone for comforting the customer, but behaved very rude, and wanted us to leave as quick as possible. I can say that there is totally no hospitality attitude...