La Maison de l'Aubrac — Restaurant in Paris

Our server (bartender) was great and very kind. The restaurant has some meats displayed in a case in front… upon entering the restaurant, there was a bad smell in the air, but we decided to stay anyway and as we moved further into the restaurant the smell wasn’t as bad. Since this was a French steak place, I was thinking it would be a real treat. I ordered the 42 euro ribeye and my friend had their burger option. We are from the USA and I knew the portion sizes would be smaller etc,. However the steak was tough (pan or griddle fried, poor choice in my opinion) and handed me a dull steak knife making the steak even tougher to get through. I asked for medium cooked steak and it came out Rare-Med/Rare. They gladly took it back and cooked it more to medium as I requested. Unfortunately, the steak reminded me of something I might get at a hospital cafeteria and I was only able to get through about half the steak as my jaws were tired from the chewing. My friend reported that his burger was good but didn’t want the portabello mushroom it came with and took it off the burger. It was my first night in Paris ever and it was a real let down to get a chewy piece of shoe leather for 42 euros. Trying to be open but I was sad about my experience at such a steep price as it seems others have given a better review. I won’t be back but maybe my feedback will make it better for the next person and they can learn...

I don't often leave reviews, and when I do it's usually 5 stars.

It takes a really terrible experience for me to want to take the time to write a negative review.

Let me start by saying that the service was great. The only feedback would be to make better recommendations to their customers.

However the star of the show here is the steak... Apparently!

We originally wanted to go for the 350g rib eye and share it along with some sides for the 2 of us.

Quality over quantity was the plan.

We were quickly talked out of it and then went to the sirloin x 2 medium rare (was a tad overcooked).

Big mistake!

I'm sure the rib eye would've been better, but for the price we paid for the sirloin, it should have been a much better experience.

Well it was like chewing boot leather!

We only ate about half and most was fat and sinew.

We were being careful not to knock the table clear of it contents while trying to hack this steak up.

These choking hazards cost 30,00€ each, or close to $60 Aussie dollars each with sides that were okay (we got gratin and salad).

We live in Australia, and we can grab an average 150g piece of scotch fillet from the super market for $20aud that would put this to shame.

I'm sure some of their steaks are good, but unfortunately this just wasn't our experience at all.

Lesson learned for us and we should've gone with our gut on the rib eye...

We were lucky to be able to get a seat during peak dining hours without a reservation. The servers were moving quickly to attend to patrons. They were amiable and attentive with questions, needs, etc.

However, my major qualms were with the delivery of the food. Servers were often frustrated with mixed and missing orders, resulting in delays and confusion among the staff and guests as well. The drinks were served quickly, but food was much slower. Our party of 2 had our orders missing, and thus we waited for about 1.5 hours before bringing it to the servers attention. When it did come out, it was clearly cold and likely had been sitting out the entire time.

On top of this, the manager didn’t seem to care. No acknowledgement of a mistake, no apologies, no consolation whatsoever. He (portly man with glasses) never acknowledged our table, but visited other tables to deliver drinks and help out from time to time.

I’m certainly not one to make a fuss or even leave a bad review, but this stood out for me and left a sour taste in my mouth for the remainder of the evening.

My suggestion for others is to have a reservation for any restaurant (even on weekdays), but also feel free to wait in longer lines for the others. While the wait may seem daunting, patrons are moved pretty quickly and efficiently, and only a fine tuned restaurant (unlike this one) will be able to...