L'Esmeralda — Restaurant in Paris

Called the City of love, Paris is fascinating, huge but actually easy to get around.

Coming by the B train from the Charles de Gaulle Airport it’s easy to get into the city centre.

I wanted to find a typical French restaurant, close to a tourist attraction, with good value for money. Of course I could have dinned up on the Eiffel Tower, but that’s rather expensive, so on a sunny March day I strolled down the street from the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Just opposite there are many brassiere’s with a great view, but they looked rather expensive to me, and since I heard a couple of American tourists talking over a burger, I knew I wouldn’t find there what I was looking for. Walking further away behind the cathedral, I found what I was looking for, a small restaurant with a few tables inside, a few more outside, Brasserie Esmeralda.

Right next to a bridge and at the beginning of the Quai des Fleurs this typical French restaurant is located at the corner of the street. A few French couples were dining here and it was reasonably priced compared to the other places I had seen before. I went for a traditional Steak Tatare with fries, and a good glass of Merlot, and paid about €20 for it. It was quiet a big portion I couldn’t finish. Of course, typical for the French served with white bread. The staff were very friendly and they could speak English where needed.

Funnily enough, at the table next to me a couple from Denmark took their meal, and they ordered Pizza! A man on the street was equally shocked and amused like me and walked up to me and said, “terrible, le tourist” I agreed: “Oui, terrible”

My verdict: Paris is big, and the prices are as well. I am not a particular fan of that city, but it’s worth a visit. The French cuisine is great, and thouhgt my choice was unusual, I got a fast service since they didn’t have to cook the meat! Waiters in Paris aren’t that bad than...

Terrible, just terrible. This is the worst place we’ve visited in Paris.

This is my first review in couple of years but I couldn’t be quiet. I’m so angry and really don’t want anyone else to experience such attitude. So you should avoid it at any cost.

Especially the rude service. We’ve just been there with two kids. We ordered an omelette and breakfast, which consists of coffee, juice, and a croissant, plus an extra croissant for the child.

The omelette and coffee (coffee was really bad but this is secondary) were brought straight away. However, we had to wait over 20 minutes for everything else, at which point the baby started crying.

So, I went to the bar and asked for the bill, saying we couldn’t wait any longer for simple croissants.

As I quickly realised, they had simply forgotten about our order, yet they demanded the full price for the breakfast because they had already brought the coffee 20 minutes ago.

When I asked them to replace the breakfast with just the coffee on the bill, the waiter quickly (in 5 seconds) brought the juice and croissant and handed it to my older 5yo child, who began eating it (of course kid wouldn’t say “no”).

Then the waiter said, “You’ve got your breakfast.”

The croissant was quickly handed over without even a plate – literally from hand to hand to my kid.

It was so rude that we couldn’t even find the words to respond. To avoid ruining the whole family day, we quickly left...

Horrible experience 10 years ago and then with friends of ours who went there a few years ago. I will never return here. We didn’t know that when we purchased a crepe that was literally right outside their door that it was not part of their restaurant, so when we sat down outside to order much more food and drinks coffees, croissants, sandwiches, desserts, breakfast, anything and everything they offered for four very hungry people, we were completely caught off guard by the waiter when he began yelling at us to leave and that we weren’t welcome there because we had the vendor’s crepe with us. He caused such a commotion it was vey embarrassing. We tried explaining that we wanted to order a lot of food and didn’t know the crêpe wasn’t from their restaurant. Even though you literally had to walk around the crepe station to access the outdoor seating of the restaurant. Regardless, we tried in vain to explain, but he refused to listen and refused us service and kicked us out! It’s so ridiculous that we had to leave but went to another café just down the street and had a much better time there. Don’t go to this place. If you make a faux paux their waiters will let the world know. So in return I’m letting the world know...