Maison Rostang — Restaurant in Paris

Our unwanted guest, Mr.Fly.

Table for two, 7:30pm service, champagne and 8 course tasting menu.

Service was average, but if we want to rank it based on what service should be for a two Michelin star restaurant, it was really subpar. Reservation desk required me to pull out emails to confirm my reservation even though they found our name already on the reservation list. Why? There were two times we tried to wave down a server but both times our 3 minute long attempts failed so we just sat and waited until they came with our next course to get help.

Food was good, not much to complain here. Portions were very generous compared to other tasting menus. You will definitely get full.

Environment, the restaurant is a very traditional one, from wall to wall. We found the room to be really cosy vs grand. Most tables can enjoy a nice conversation without needing to scream over echoing silverware. We were seated in the dinning room to the left which comprised of five tables. For our night, it was two tables of two, one table of three and one table of 6. Each table was candle lit accompanied by a small fresh flower centrepiece.

HERE COMES MR.FLY. From the beginning, we had a fly in our corner. I shooed away the little guy two to three times and hoped he got the idea. Unfortunately he also wanted some food. He started off with our butter, gave it a good licking all over. Next he moved over to my breads and also decided to not miss an inch. May I remind you that this was during one of the failed attempts to get a server over to our table. So without any luck to flag down a server in our cozy dinning room, Mr.Fly enjoyed an undisturbed meal for 10 mins. I snapped some photos of our extra guest and showed it to the head server. He apologised BUT said “sometimes this happens”. So I replied “so this is normal?” along with my shocked face. And he says “we can’t control it, normally it is because of the fresh flowers”. Now now, I would of settled for an apology. It was what he said after that really bothered me. Is it “normal” to be at a Michelin starred restaurant to have to shoo away a pesky fly during your visit and have them taste your bread and butter, on top of you trying to get help without success? Plus, how many countless restaurants are there that have fresh flower arrangements that don’t have this problem? You be the judge. The head server amazingly did not offer to replace the bread and butter so we had to request it. He did it happily but I would of liked for him to have the knowledge to remedy the situation on his own.

-J A very full guest that wished they didn’t have to break an arm flagging down a server and an...

Catch A Falling Star - A Michelin Star

Welcome to a Las Vegas Terrace. For that is the shock you encounter on entering what use to be a fine, calm and elegant restaurant.

I have dined at Maison Rostang many times but have been absent for a while.

Last night, being back in Paris, I had made a reservation for myself, and my wife and we were both anticipating the normal fine dining experience at Maison Rostang. WOW what an absolute let down in so many ways. Ambience, Food and Service.

First ambience. Some crazy decision has been made to replace all of the furniture with faux marble, mostly white, round tables that are an assault on one’s senses. Accompanied by equally garish, plastic or laminate chairs. But the melting icing on the cake was the plastic charger and bread plate on the table. Absolutely horrendous. The décor is dull, very little color and a totally lack of imagination. Finally on the point of ambience the lighting is turned up way to bright destroying any chance of an intimate dinner with friends or loved ones. Additionally, if you were placed at our table you enjoyed the glare of the counter down lights from the kitchen. Whoever made this decision and implemented this monstrosity should be banished from any form of future design

Second Food. Overall, the food was acceptable but NOT a two star level. There was no wow factor to any dish or side dish. So sad that this kitchen is descending from great to something very less. Additionally, the restaurant has decided that any diner should have only one of three choices. The ubiquitous 5 course truffle offering - boring, the seven course tasting menu or an extremely, almost nonexistent alacarte option. The only real option on the alacarte is pressed duck for a table side show. Chef – the restaurant is not La Tour d’Argent. Third Service – pleasant staff who appear totally bemused by the happenings surrounding them. The wine sommelier was incomprehensible, wine glasses remained unfilled, standard of dress of staff needs improving. Start with shoes and work up.

I am sad to share this review for what was a favorite spot of ours when in Paris. It is now OFF the list.

The maitre’d asked how we enjoyed our evening, and I shared my views which I hope he passes onto the chef. I overheard a snippet of conversation that the chef was hoping for a third Michelin star in the future round of awards. If true, it is pure delusion, based on the performance last night, for which I paid 825 euros for two pax, he will be lucky to retain his two stars and I predict that he will not. The restaurant is at best one star, barely. A sad decline that...

I would say I expect better service at a Michelin 2 star restaurant, based on the experiences I had in other Michelin restaurants. We had dinner at New Year Eve in this restaurant. And we spent around 907 euros in this restaurant.

In summary, food tastes are good. But I want to point out below issues I had for my dining experience:

First and most important one: for the dish “blue lobster”, I found and ate one lobster shell in the dish. This is very dangerous: it can damage your tooth and even your throat/stomach if you swallow. So I pointed this out to the service staff, after long time waiting, finally the service manager came. The first reaction of this manager is, (here I quoted what he said), “this is normal, it is fresh”. — this answer shocked me… I don’t see the logic, freshness is irrelevant here. Even not fresh lobster can have shell, this is more about their food handling, this remaining and hidden shell in this dish can cause serious issues. And their first response is “this is normal and it is fresh” ??? The manager in the end apologized about this and said to give us free champagne as compensation. But I’m not comfortable with this whole process.

Second, the major service person who served our dish, became more and more sloppy when introducing the dish. In the end, he even did not finish one sentence when serving me the dish😂 I mainly used the new year eve menu as my reference.

One last small issue is that when we asked if the water or sparkling water is complementary in our booked menu set, one of the service person said “yes”. But in the final bill, we found it is not complementary. So we want a clarification. But the manager attitude is quite impatient, saying “this is impossible, I give you free champagne, but not free water”. — the champagne you gave, is due to the poor food handling and your apologies. We already spent 840 euros as dinner reservation, do you think we really care about 20 euros of water?? So I lost patient and don’t want to argue anymore. The manager saw me and then said he will...