Maceo — Restaurant in Paris

I booked our table at Maceo months ago after reading on Paris by Mouth that it was a good choice for vegetarians. I had a friend visiting, who, unlike the carnivorous household in which I reside, dislikes meat and doesn't think bacon goes with everything (weird I know, still each to their own ;)). Our excitement was slightly dampened when a fellow foodie reported back to say that they had not enjoyed Maceo as much as they had expected and had found it a bit stuffy. We forged ahead all the same, the appeal of the vegetarian tasting menu too strong for my friend after a week of living on nothing but cheese and bread - being a vegetarian in France is tough!

I'm glad we did, as Maceo turned out to be lovely. A charming ground floor dining room (with slightly less appealing room upstairs) welcomed us in from the unrepentant rain. The warm red tones felt most inviting from the outside and the artsy lamps and sculptures, and little mezzanine-come-library make it feel like someone's home. It felt high end but slightly more casual than I was expecting - little things like the uncovered chairs, and varying sizes and shapes of table, gave it a more laid back atmosphere.

The food turned out to be delicious too, and although there was no vegetarian tasting menu, there were two starters and two mains on the menu designated 'V' (V is for Venus at Maceo, and Mars for dishes containing meat - draw from that whatever gender conclusions you wish!). We ordered from the Prix Fix tasting menu (2 courses for 30 EUR, 3 for 39 EUR) and found it to be mostly delicious. All the dishes were very seasonal and I have to say the prices, especially given the quality of the food, were very reasonable. The highlights were the carpaccio of cepes as a starter and quinoa risotto with beets and goats cheese. The pear poached in cassis for dessert was pretty damn good, as was the cinnamon and speculaas ice cream served with another dessert.

Some people have commented on the service but we found it to be pleasant and efficient, and they even have English menus if you are concerned about ordering in French. All in all a lovely dinner and I would...

Sadly a mixed experience when we visited on Thursday 7th March. I'll start with the good. Superb: Roscoff onion cacio e pepe. This dish almost perfect. It was delicious and presented beautifully.

Excellent: Beef cheek. Another really tasty dish. The beef was cooked perfectly, with a beautifully tender texture and the fat rendered down perfectly for a wonderful mouthfeel. The sauce was lovely and rich and the celeriac puree also excellent.

Good: Cauliflower. A nice dish with subtle citrus hints which were nice. It was however a bit bland otherwise and could have done with more seasoning. Wine. We had a very tasty and fairly reasonably priced carafe of Jurançon.

Terrible: Fish. We ordered the fish dish on the menu which was cod with mussels, kale and a tarragon oil sauce. What arrived was cod with fennel, samphire and green apple. If that was on the menu we would not have ordered it. Furthermore, the fish had an incredibly pungent aroma and taste of ammonia which overpowered any other flavours in the dish. This is strange for cod which is generally quite neutral. In fact the dish was actually quite unpleasant. The waiting staff kindly offered to switch the dish to another on the menu as we explained that it wasn't what we ordered. We therefore asked to switch it to the lentil dish, which was supposed to be lentils cooked in stock with vegetables and a chimichurri. What we got was bland, completely unseasoned lentils with the fish placed on top. There was absolutely no taste to the dish other than the ammonia of the fish. By this point we just wanted to leave so we finished the dish and paid.

Sadly what could have been an excellent dinner was ruined by one quite frankly awful dish. I'd hesitate to recommend Maceo based on this and the feeling that it wasn't particularly good...

My children invited us for an anniversary dinner at this restaurant, which also serves vegetarian dishes.

The restaurant interior is impressive and has been set up with sufficient space between the tables. Also, the service by the sommelier and the waiters is impeccable. Another strong point from this restaurant is that the dishes are all nicely presented in an arty way.

After all these well-deserved assessments, unfortunately, also some critical notes.

The starters that we ordered were nicely presented and tasted reasonable, although a bit bland for our taste. This was a good start of the evening.

However, as a main course for the vegetarians, we choose their pumpkin soup with special panis bread. The portion of soup served, which tasted good, was even not of that of a starter and completely inadequate to be considered a main course. In addition, the piece of special bread was undigestable, and we left that on the plate.

The food ordered by the others, see photos, was also too small in portion, bland of taste and unimaginative.

For a restaurant of this calubre, we expected larger portions and better main vegetarian dishes.

The dessert of pears and cream was nicely presented and tasted good as well as their cheese and the creme brulee. Luckily, this was a good finish of our dinner.

Overall, it was quite a mixed rating of this restaurant that, in my opinion, has a lot of potential. Once better, vegetarian dishes are added to the menu in appropriate...