Le Cochon à l’Oreille — Restaurant in Paris

Beautiful room - loveless service - average to poor food. Without question, the rooms are beautiful and promise a stylish evening with good service and food of a high standard. The menu and wine list underline this claim - the dishes sound like good upscale French cuisine in the same price segment...as do the wines. We had the Oeuf parfait en meurette as a starter - the taste was ok, although not outstanding, and the Oeuf was not parfait because it was cold - and the Esargots - also average. This was followed by the magret de canard and the poitrine de cochon croustillante avec purée. The magret was cold, the skin flabby. After complaining, it came back warmed up...the skin still flabby, the basic taste below average. The poitrine de cochon was indeed delicious, even if I would have liked a bit more crunch - the purèe was bland, the consistency too slimy and overall below average. What was really annoying was the smell emanating from the St Jacques at the next table, which finally spoiled my appetite (otherwise a big fan of fish and seafood). All in all, very disappointing and absolutely not in keeping with the price level. What a shame, especially when you got to know the restaurant years ago at a completely...

Oh gosh. Where do I start... ? Cold food. Rude waiters and cold coffee (why would you serve cold coffee?) …. Ruined our first night in Paris. My partner researched this restaurant and booked based on reviews. I think the waiter had an issue with us from the start and I had to tell him he was being rude (rushing our menu choices and dismissing a request for water). Waiter said it was a misunderstanding and if we spoke French perhaps it would have been ok…. We decided to laugh this off…. The first course was delicious and we thought all was good. Main course was cold so we sent it back….. we ordered a cafe au lait which arrived…. Cold. So re-ordered… again, cold. How can you screw up coffee???! At this point our evening was ruined so we decided to pay and leave. Manager and waiter told us a cafe au lait is meant to be served cold……. Not sure how you run a restaurant that serves cold lamb, cold coffee with rude service but maybe there is a gap...

We came here for our final meal before we left Paris and it was a wonderful experience. The restaurant owner was super hospitable and took care of our every need. Even though she was heavily pregnant (at the time of Aug 2023) and did not really speak much English, she made us feel very welcome and served us with a fantastic attitude.

We ordered their homemade foie gras and a chicken in cream sauce. Both dishes were extremely good. We wished that we had more room in our stomach to try their steak and french soup, as it was raved about by many of the customers on our left and right who ordered them.

During our visit, we even had a wonderful conversation with a French couple who lived just in the building next door. We spoke with them about life topics and they shared words of wisdom from their 40 year marriage.

Overall, it was an amazing experience and would definitely come back here again if I'm...