Our experience at Pierre Sang Oberkampf started off well, with friendly smiles and welcoming faces as we arrived. The cozy environment and delicious bread and butter made for a promising beginning. However, the rest of the evening quickly went downhill.
The concept of guessing the ingredients with the waiter revealing them afterward was a fun touch, but it couldn’t make up for the overall experience.
As an Asian couple, we found the food to be uninspired and lazy. While some dishes had elements of Thai and Korean (just slap some gochujang and call it a day), the starters were okay but ultimately forgettable. The fish dish was good, but a coconut-soup-like dish tasted more like a curry and wasn’t to our liking. The main course was chicken breast — probably the most tender chicken breast we had yet, however as mentioned before, the sauce and gochujang for this dish felt underwhelming and uninspiring. After mains, we were given a large chunk of cheese that we could not finish. Dessert was the star of the show: tasty pastry matched with a lemon-like sorbet. I’ll be honest: the food may excite some people, but it didn’t work for us, and that’s okay. Unfortunately, the service really let the evening down.
We were given the wrong bill twice — first with 4 drinks instead of 2 — and waited 15 minutes while the waiter served everyone else (felt like we were forgotten). We were the last couple still seated for the 7pm session, and when we reminded him about the bill, it was wrong AGAIN, with only 1 drink listed (which we were nice enough to remind the waiter again).The entire process of settling the bill took about 20 minutes. When I asked what went wrong, the waiter blamed his colleague, saying he was “only a servant.” I was disappointed with that response, and I reminded him that they should take accountability as a team, not shift the blame onto one another.
While the food gets an okay pass overall, the real issue was the frustrating service. The repeated billing mistakes and lack of accountability from the staff turned what could have been a decent evening into a disappointing experience. Unfortunately, we won’t...
Read moreConfusing and disappointing dining experience. It’s supposed to be a restaurant that trains their staff to explain the food—but not even knowing what they’re serving feels pretty unprofessional.
First issue: food allergy. When we were first seated, they asked about allergies. I told them I’m allergic to mustard. Later, when the second course was served by a different waiter, they asked again about allergies. I repeated “mustard,” and they said it was fine—so we started eating. My friend had already taken a bite when they suddenly came back and took both our plates away without a word. At that point, I assumed the dish must’ve had mustard in it. But then they just returned the exact same plates and told us it was okay to eat. Like… what kind of service is that?
Second issue: the vegan mix-up. We never said either of us was vegan. But when the main course came, they brought one beef dish and one tofu dish. We were confused, but the staff only explained after we’d finished eating—because that’s apparently when they choose to explain what’s on the plate. So we asked: why did we get one meat and one vegan dish? They said one of the waiters thought we said one of us was vegan. We never said anything like that… Maybe put that energy into remembering my allergy instead? They offered us another steak to make up for it, but we declined. With food this mid and service this bad, I’d rather grab a kebab afterwards.
One last thing about how they explain the food. Imagine if the food were actually good and we finished everything on our plates—there’d be nothing left for them to point at. That’s how they explain the food: after you’re done eating, pointing at scraps. I don’t like wasting food, so my plate was clean. Luckily for the waiters, my friend leaves whatever she doesn’t like, which gave them something to point at. That kind of sums up how mediocre the food was. And yet, they carry themselves with this strange overconfidence, like they’re serving something groundbreaking. If you’re going to act like your food is next-level, maybe make sure it’s actually good—and that your service doesn’t undo the...
Read moreThe moment you walk into the restaurant, it does not look like anything special. According to your initial expectations you won't be deceived. The food is really average, although the effort of the waiters to make it seem you are having the time of your life is insurmountable. As a starter we had ( party of 5) a too sugary "watermelon" gazpacho with some white fish and cucumber. The dinner continued with the "quiz night". the restaurant does not announce the dish by itself, but makes you guess the ingredients and gives you merit points. For the very weak amongst us this is a passable pass time. The most excruciating feature of this occurrence is the insistent interruption of the waiters to preach the dish. No normal conversation is complete without an insistent, additionally interminable, explanation of the dish at hand. As a second dish we had two shrimps with quinoa, cherry tomatoes and some edamames. Nothing bad, but also nothing special (given the price and fuss). Afterwards the only special dish was glass noodles served with an interesting and tasteful salmon cream sauce. Interesting combination and fusion at this point of unexpected ingredients. Not bad, but not enough to make up for the whole theatre and the supposedly immense culinary experience. As a main dish we had a quail with a rice crisp and some pepper powder on it as well as some aubergine sauce. Let's be honest, in the end it is some elaborated chicken with a rice cracker and some very suspicious grey sauce. "Caviar of aubergines" is how to define it apparently. Before we go into the picturesque discussion of the dessert, I would like to introduce to you the cheese to finish off. A little triangle of very salty Cantal drenched in orange and ginger marmalade, though apparently arranged with asian spices. To be honest nothing more than a pound land cheddar with some marmalade, though the cuisines fantasy on its description has not yet reached its pinnacle. The dessert. An island of pannacotta drenched and drowning in a chemically flavored melon sauce trying to find its way among unevenly cut pieces of green apples....
Read more