Marie Akaneya — Restaurant in Paris

I don't understand how ratings for this restaurant is so high. Our experience definitely did not meet such high ratings. As others have said, the dinner starts off with the host introducing us to the various certifcations, melon award, etc. This entire introduction just seemed very cringey and awkward, especially when every time another diner arrives and rings the doorbell to enter, the host has to stop doing the intro and go answer/open the door, then come back and try to find their place in the intro again. It felt forced and unnecessary.

Right off the bat we noticed the staff just didn't appear properly trained and were noticeabily clumsy. They all appeared off sync, as if it was their first day (more on that later), or were all in training. Unconfident when presenting the menus and options, a lot of awkward pauses as if they were trying to remember their script. They didn't appear to know how to move around the restaurant, sometimes awkwardly moving around us to place items and settings. Othertimes reaching across the table or even reaching over my friend to place items. Very amateurish, there was no consistency at all, like they were just trying to figure out how to operate on the spot.

Now onto our terrible experience. When one of the servers came over to start our grill, he knocked over my friends wine glass and it spilled all over her. Then instead of immediately trying to clean up and help with the stain, he just froze there and kept apologizing but not actually doing anything to help. We had to keep asking him for napkins, towels, anything to help with the stains that's on her clothes now. The wine was on her chair, all over our table, and the only thing our waiter thought of to do was clean up the table instead of trying to help her. He just didn't seem to know what to do and didn't take any action at all. Other servers came out to help, and someone finally brought the host over. We had to keep explaining to them that we need more napkins or wet napkins, lemon, something, to help with the stain because the only thing they were doing was trying to clean up the table area while ignoring my friend. This is supposed to be a fine dining establishment where menus are over 100 euros, yet they were just completely useless. After my friend came back from the bathroom trying to clean up (didn't work), the host came over and explained they would comp the wine and would pay for her dry cleaning. That's honestly the bare minimum they could do. Not over yet.

Still haven't gotten to the mains yet and still in the beginning of our meal, another waiter came over to pour us water. I have no idea what's going on but when he was pouring water for my friend, he completely over filled her cup and water spilled out everywhere. I don't mean a bit of a trickle or slight overspill. No, the water pretty much exploded out as if he just completely zoned out and forgot what he was doing. This is just absurd. His explanation was "it's my first day" (refer to my earlier comment). I'm sorry, first day in life? How do you not know how to pour water? The water was everywhere, onto her plates mixing with grease/oil and on her clothes again, my side of the table, just a complete joke of an experience. By this time we were fed up and I honestly just wanted to leave. The only reason why I'm giving 2 stars instead of 1 was because at this point the restaurant offered to comp her meal as well. Tbh, our entire meal should have been comped with this clown show, but we were starving at this point. Angry, frustrated and hungry. Rest of the meal, we were just observing how all the servers just didn't seem to have their act together. Again, no conformity or fluidness with what they were doing, bumping into each other, dropping other guests' utensils.

Food was fine. It's good, but nothing exceptional especially if you've already had good quality japanese wagyu/steak. At the end as we were leaving, one of the hosts actually had the nerve to ask us if we had a good meal. Honestly this place seems...

Overall, an extremely disappointing experience for a restaurant that wants to appear high end. If you didn't try Wagyu or overall japanese high quality ingredient, you might consider going. However, you have to be able to handle extremely salty dishes with pretty much no break. The restaurant basically offers high end ingredient, but that is basically it. There is no prepared food beside basic grilled edamame beans or some claypot with mushrooms.

We had the 180€ course menu, which was okay at start. Everything was pretty much salted, with some dishes so salted that it was aggressive to the mouth. Worst offender was the claypot that had mushroom in its sauce, which was so salty we had to openly complain.

The chef didn't had anything prepared to break out the saltiness. Which is extremely unprofessional. A chef should have prepared a balanced menu, with balanced flavor and texture, but this was clearly not the case.

The fact that I had to suggest anything in the first place shows how the chef was unprepared to meet any meaningful critique.

Moreover, the fact that the chef didn't even taste its own dish, to prevent an issue on the taste on what she serves, is also extremely unprofessional.

Regarding the menu, it felt very pricey for what we had. While the menu states that we will have different cut of Wagyu, most cuts will be low grade cheap Wagyu, with only 4 small pieces being actual A5. It's honestly hilarious as they make a full show on stating how they are the rare restaurant that serves a5 Matsusaka, only to serve low grade meat throughout the course. All the meats has to be cooked by yourself as well, which is very weird considering the type of meat that is being used.

They also try to make you taste a high grade japanese crown melon. I do not know if they all are like this as it was my first time trying this one, but the melon was very mushy and very stringy. Clearly not to my taste.

In the end, the chef didn't even come to apologize as they would in Japan. The personnel felt a bit out of place during the situation and offered us a free reservation, which i do not really understand since the booking are free in the first place.

Overall, there are better places to try Wagyu. This is not...

the guy who welcomed my party took five minutes to introduce the restaurant’s ethos, which did not bother me as we all agreed to listen. but i was frustrated that he spent much time emphasising the significance of the melon they served in their menu which only produced one (1) fruit per vine. making it a highly exclusive flavour. i could tell that this was going to be a terrible experience because anyone who knows melon could tell you that most vines produce 2-3 fruits on a good day. 1 fruit per vine is the standard experience for many growers of melon. the man must have never touched dirt in all his life.

the actual dining experience was subpar. the restaurant smells strongly of charcoal smoke with little to no ventilation. in such a small place, the stench of it seems to accumulate, reducing the true tasting and smelling of each plate in what was an extensive menu. perhaps the chefs were also constantly nose blinded by the smoke themselves because every dish was either too salty or too sour. it doesn’t help that the cuts of meat were not only stingy and small, but thin and difficult to manoeuvre on the grill. the heat was also uneven on the surface as the charcoal were not evenly placed.

the service was quite terrible. in a dimly lit restaurant, the servers move with the stealth of trained operatives for some reason? they will deliver a massive contraption of burning charcoal behind your back without so much as a sound. when my party is caught in conversation we do not see the servers even with all our glasses on. whilst i commend them for their agility, i must say that spending the whole time clenching my whole body out of worry that a server might dive for the table without a sound whilst holding an immensely hot plate again is too tiring for what should have been a dinner, and not, an interrogation.

i wont speak on the authenticity (of which is it severely lacking) because i do not believe that the lack of it is the problem. i believe that this restaurant has fallen too deep into the very allure it is attempting to sell us and instead focused on the experience to maintain the reputation when it should have been focused on the food. for which it...