La Rotonde — Restaurant in Paris

We came here for a family dinner with my brother-in-law and his new bride. They recommended this place to us when we first got to Paris but we never found the time to try on our own. I'm certainly glad they took use before we left! This is an old-school cafe, the kind that I would imagine I would find back in the day when people still dressed up to go out (except now no one dresses for anything). Very ornate, extremely decorated with oceans of plush red velvet and perfectly turned out all-male staff who' only desire to give you an impeccable and unforgettable dinner service.

We made it very early for the first seating of dinner service where our waiter spoke excellent English. Tables were all dressed with white on red table cloths and festooned with plenty of silverware for the evening's battle to come. They are known for their seafood and we were going to put them to the test. We ordered their largest seafood platter and it was enormous. Measuring at least 24 inches in diameter loaded with crushed if and every imaginable seafood delicacy of the Christmas Season. We did ask for sea urchin to be added only to find out that they did not have the day we visited.

Before they brought out the seafood, we ordered French beers that were on tap, both the dark and light beers, sparkling water for the table and proceeded to nosh on the warm bread (not quite epis but crusty rolls reminding me of baguette-type dinner rolls) and butter;

In addition, we also had a serving of their French onion soup, haricot verts salad an order of escargot and frites for starters. Plus 2 orders of steaks one larger than the other. Entrecote (boneless ribeye) medium-rare and an even larger (1400grams) Cote de boeuf (tomahawk) also medium rare.

The seafood was amazing, plenty of it for everyone to have at least 2-3 servings of everything. The soup was delicious, sweet, nutty and sublime and not overly salted. The haricot vert salad was simple and delicious, perfectly cooked and seasoned bright with the color of the season and still crisp and snappy inside. The frites were hot and crisp on the outside and tender inside. Last of all the beef, mind you I'm a beef connoisseur, I love steaks, grass-fed, grass-finished, corn-fed, corn-finished, Japanese A5, American Wagyu, Australian varieties, Argentinian/Brazilian varieties ... this French example did not disappoint. Perfectly rare to my liking and I must say that I enjoyed the cote de boeuf slightly more than the entrecote.

Needless to say, if you ever have the chance to have a meal here, please do. See why former French Presidents, celebrities and the Parisians love coming here over and over again. I believe that as soon as this location announced it would reopen after the COVID shutdown there was a mad rush to come and dine and that this was the first place that President Emmanuel...

Hello, yes this is my English review of La Rotonda. First, I just want to start off with saying the food was excellent! It was exceptional, truly. I had oysters, escargot, and stake tar tar and they all were very delicious. But my waiter from the start was very sexist. Yes, the waitstaff was very curious and kind they all said hello and recognized that we were from the US and gave us an English menu. But, when I was ordering wine the waiter would insist on a different wine then what I chose. It was frustrating. Hello.. I'm telling you what I want I'm not asking for suggestions. I guess that wouldn't of bothered me so much if it stopped at the wine, but it was ever course I chose. I had to ask do you have this still or did you run out??? After he said yes I had to say well this is what I want, for him to stop insisting on what "I would like". My starter, my entree he constantly insisted on what I should be eating. It wasn't that I was unsure. I knew what I wanted yet, my boyfriend across the table didn't know and the waitstaff stood there and waited for him to choose. It was very rude. It got to a point where I just expected the waitstaff to do it at every choice that I was trying to make. And he succeeded on letting me know what dessert I should have after I said creme brulee six times. It got to the point where I was just annoyed on how I was being treated, he never once told my boyfriend what he should be eating.

Words of advice: don't let the wait staff tell you what is "good" especially if you know what you want to...

It's sad when a favourite place starts going downhill, and that's exactly what's happened in La Rotonde. It's been one of my must-visit spots in Paris for several decades, but yesterday's dinner changed that.

The first sign of trouble was when my husband, who doesn't speak French, called to book a table for two days in a row, to be told both times they had none before 10pm. I had a feeling he was being discriminated against, so I called back within minutes of his second attempt and used my meagre knowledge of French to get a booking for the same evening and time he tried to get.

Once we arrived and it was obvious we weren't French, we were treated with patronising disdain by the waiter, who not only violently flung cutlery onto the table, but kept repeatedly setting other people's bottles and service items onto our table, asked if I knew the steak tartare I ordered wasn't cooked, and so on. It was the most shocking treatment by waitstaff I've had anywhere in the world, and I've been to some very unfriendly places.

The food itself was still delicious, although the steak tartare I have been ordering there for years wasn't presented on the plate with the usual care, and we both were sick to our stomachs afterwards.

You can't remain an institution by resting on your laurels, dear Rotonde. It's no surprise your customers are mostly tourists and geriatrics, and if you don't maintain your formerly high standards, you'll...