Le Jardin du Raphael — Restaurant in Paris

We are a Canadian family of 3 and we went here for the views and fine food and we also happen to be huge Wes Anderson fans, which is how I found this place.

Here is why we rated the way we did:

Food 3/5. Without going into long details, the meal was very good... but not worth the price. I had lamb, my wife had chicken, my son had octopus. Again, quite good, but for $250 Euros ($360 Canadian)? Not quite. The desserts, however, were fantastic.

Service 1/5. First of all, we were placed in the middle surrounded by a garden with no views whatsoever. Then at one point in the night, the waiter forgot about us. It got dark and we sat in the dark for 30 mins waiting to see if he would remember us. He didnt. Thankfully, another waiter spotted us in the pitch dark and gave us a fake candle so that we could at least see eachother. After another long wait, we paid and on the way out, I told the hostess about our experience. She kept explaining to me that they had rules in Paris about too much light on rooftops. Thats fine, however it didnt explain why they left us in complete darkness for 30 mins when they had candles that they were handing out.

Atmosphere 1/5. So maybe for someone else the atmosphere was a 5/5. The views are truly amazing. Unfortunately, they hid us away from everyone else with no view of anything at all. And its not like the place was full, there were empty tables with great views. Did they hide us because we were English? I will let you make up your own mind.

Conclusion: I found this restaurant when I was researching Paris and I was really looking forward to it as a highlight of my trip. $250 Euros and a vacation night wasted. We left sad...

Posting reviews is not something I usually do but here we go. On Thursday Sept.19th, I had lunch at the Raphaël Hotel rooftop restaurant (my 3rd visit) as I love the tranquility and cool atmosphere at Le Jardin. Got a table and proceeded to order my meal (seabream + an order of ratatouille). Food was delicious and fresh as always. A few minutes later, I asked one of the waiters if I could get some bread but I was completely ignored. I asked him a second time as he was setting up the table next to mine. He advised me that he is currently busy…busy setting up the next four empty tables and will ask the kitchen when he’s done.

15 mins later, a cold slice of bread landed on my table. This was off-peak hrs, around 2:30 pm. The restaurant was not busy and there were no customers waiting/looking for tables. According to the waiter (Adil), setting up tables is much more important/urgent than serving a customer.

I’ve been to Paris enough times to know that basic customer service is not a top priority in many restaurants. Waiters don’t usually pay attention or care about customer satisfaction but I expected more from a reputable Hotel and restaurant.

To the Raphael Hotel management and...

This rooftop bar has the most spectacular views of Paris. The food was amazing and the service was impeccable. However, the highlight of our night were the drinks at the bar after dinner. We were lucky to meet the bartender Jaime.

I’ve been lucky in life to visit many spectacular cocktail bars. This one took the prize. Jaime is la crème de la crème of bartending. He has several decades of experience and it shows.

This gentlemen takes the upmost pride in his work. bartenders like this are a dying breed. If you come to this place please have at least one drink with Jaime at the bar. You...