Le Soufflé — Restaurant in Paris

Tourist trap. Average food and atmosphere, poor service, clean restaurant.

First of all, we sat in the small rear dining room where everyone was a tourist, but I'm not sure that was where they put all of the tourists.

We'd ordered the set souffle meal. The food was served hot and with average presentation. The taste, quality and portion size were average.

The service was inconsistent, sloppy, and rushed. We did our research and the desert souffle was supposed to be served with grand marnier. However, the server did not bring the bottle over. We'd noticed that the servers were inconsistent across all of the tables.

Several servers worked the room. A server would bring out our entrees, another would bring out our main course, etc.. Some dishes the server would cut open the souffles and pour the sauce/liquid inside, others just put the dish on the table and walked away with no instructions. The desert souffle, some were swerved and the waiter would put the bottle of grand marnier on the table and walk away. Others, they would pour the liqueur on top of the desert and leave the bottle on the table. Still others, the waiter would just serve the desert and not bring the bottle at all. This type of inconsistency was applied to all of the dishes served and was easily observable in the small dining room. It seemed like the waiters didn't care.

Overall, a very awkward meal and disappointing experience.

-- Tourist from the U.S.A.

Replied to the owner's response :

Dear Sir. When we first sat down, the single lady to my right was served the chocolate souffle. The waiter poured the grand marnier on top of her souffle and left the bottle on her table. When we were served the same desert, the waiter did not bring it at all so we had to ask for it. When the couple to my left ordered the same desert, the waiter just put the liqueur on the table. Finally when a new couple to my right ordered the same desert, the waiter did not bring the liqueur at all. I know it is the same desert because we had conversations with all of these people while we were eating.

I'm not doing this to prove I'm better than anyone. I'm just sharing my experiences and maybe help you improve your service.

Paris is a tourist town and some servers take short cuts / cut corners because they think tourist don't know better, and they'll never...

Can't go to Paris without having some soufflé right? My friend had been to Paris recently and highly recommended Le Soufflé. Made a reservation two weeks before coming here, quite the easy process! Just so happened that we were already in Vendôme as well beforehand, so it worked out schedule wise!

A note for people trying to walk in when the restaurant opens. Just because it LOOKS empty does not mean it will be empty. Our reservation was at 7 pm sharp when the restaurant opened. But within 30 minutes, I'm pretty sure every table was booked. It's not hard to book a reservation here, just plan it out ahead of time!

Anywho, this is practically the epitome of French food. Had the French Onion Soup, Escargot, and Green Salad as starters. French Onion Soup was amazing as expected. Escargot was loaded with so much oil and pesto that you would really have no idea that it was snails.

Wanted to try a few soufflés, so we ordered the Beef Bourguignon Soufflé and the Cheese Soufflé with Chicken and Mushroom Sauce. The Beef Bourguignon Soufflé was what I expected, you can definitely taste the red wine gravy here. But the Cheese Soufflé with Chicken and Mushroom Sauce was the one that really surprised me. It wasn't too heavy and a nice flavor to it. Was a huge fan of that one! Also wanted to try the Duck Breast with Peaches and Seasonal Vegetables because I'm a huge fan of duck. Definitely some of the best duck breast I've had. Very well cooked and had a nice glaze to it.

Lastly, can't leave without a dessert soufflé right? Had the Crème Brûlée with White Chocolate Heart. Huge fan, although I wish there was a little more crème brûlée taste in it.

Service is impeccable, as I would have expected from a nice French restaurant. They all speak English here, which is probably needed since there are so many foreigners that come here. Everyone here is really nice and we were well taken care of.

Ambience is ok, but this isn't really a fine dining establishment. Very bright inside and the tables are pretty cramped together since the restaurant itself is not very big.

Very happy to have tried Le Soufflé. Definitely worth a visit if you...

I had been warned to make a reservation as Le Souffle is a small space that only seats 20 people so I am glad I made one a week ahead as I saw people getting politely turned away at the door as the restaurant was full when we went on a Thursday night.

I am a newbie to French cuisine, but my in-laws are not and all of us LOVED the food and the ambience. It's a tight space so keep that in mind, but even though it was bustling with conversation, I didn't have to yell to be heard and felt like we were still having an intimate dinner.

We ordered: 3 glasses of champagne (filled almost to the brim I might add!), 3 x green salads, 6 piece escargot, 2 x ham and cheese souffles and 1 x roquefort and pear souffle. Firstly, even the bowl of olives we got as a starter were so good! The olives didn't have that tarteness that I was expecting and even my husband, who NEVER eats olives, was happily chomping away! The salads, ingredient-wise, were nothing too special, but I wanted something lightweight to balance out the souffle and that's exactly what this was. It was a great starter that didn't fill you up and "prepared" you for souffle goodness.

This was my first time trying escargot in Paris and what I enjoyed was that the butter the escargot was sitting in seemed to be clarified as it was very clear and made the dish feel light instead of heavy and greasy which is what I have usually experienced back home in Canada. The amount of garlic and herbs was yummy and I soaked up all of the butter with the bread provided.

The souffles were delicious! Fluffy, creamy and lightweight, there was always ham or roquefort wherever you stuck your spoon and my husband loved the "crust" of the souffles quite a bit! The portions are quite large and all three of us left Le Souffle feeling very full! I wanted to try a dessert souffle too, but I was just too full and took it as a sign that I will need to come back to Paris again!

Thank you to the Le Souffle team for having us! We...