Restaurant brasserie Grizzli Café — Restaurant in Paris

TLDR: The only star is for the location and the beauty of the terrasse. Worst service we have ever experienced in the entirety of France. Condescending and rude. My boyfriend worked at the Mairie de Paris a few years ago and the place was incredibly welcoming back then. I am afraid today they are only surviving on the prestige and notoriety that was carefully built by the previous owners, and on their tourist-trapping location.

We arrived to this place with a terrible desire for comfort food one Tuesday evening at 7PM. We told the waiter we wanted to order a mixed dish of finger food and maybe have dinner afterwards (we were not sure we were gonna have the time). He had us sit at a table right outside the door. We would have preferred the terrasse in the plaza but we figured they gave us the spot that would be most convenient to them. Waiters walking in and out kept bumping on my chair, so I decided to move a bit to the side to make it easier for everyone. At that point, the manager tells me that I am blocking their passage and their access to other tables by moving. I immediately move back and apologize. He drags the conversation along with an unpleasant tone even though I was nothing but cooperative and apologetic right away. But okay, so far so good. 25 min have passed by and our food has not arrived yet. We figure they forgot about it or we weren't clear enough. So we ask the manager if we can order the mixed dish (again). In return, he asks if we are gonna have dinner. We tell him that we probably will but we are not sure yet. He asks again and again, insistently. It appears clear that he does not want to serve us unless we have dinner. He gets down at our level and leans towards us with his arms crossed on the table. And, as if talking to children, he says "Je vais être très franc avec vous, si vous venez occuper une table pour toute la soirée et vous commandez qu'une assiette mixte... ça ne me va pas." Then he adds "C'est pas bien pour le business". Shocked by his condescending tone and his assumptions, I point out that there are other people just drinking and not having dinner. He answers that these are people that are going to have dinner eventually. This is ridiculous because, while I was waiting for us to be served, a man sitting behind me (hence "occupying a table") left after having a drink and smoking a cigarette. Moreover, many tables around us were still available. He asks us to move to the terrasse in the plaza, supposedly where people sit for aperitifs. The solution seems reasonable enough, but we really didn't want to stay after being treated like thieves. The message that we would have to move to another table if we were not having dinner could have been delivered without accusing us of wanting to take advantage of them. I do wonder if they think it's "good for business" to treat their clients like sh*t.

Donc voilà nous sommes...

Le Grizzli: A One-Star Adventure in Paris

My friends and I stumbled upon Le Grizzli with high hopes for a delightful dining experience in the heart of Paris. At first, we were charmed by the waiter's friendly demeanor as he welcomed us to our seats. Little did we know, this was just the appetizer to a comedy of errors.

As we perused the menu, I dared to ask if my burger came with fries, to which the waiter replied with a sarcastic quip that would make a stand-up comedian blush. We chuckled, assuming it was all in good humor, but little did we know it was a foreshadowing of things to come.

After placing our initial order, we had a sudden craving for escargot and attempted to amend our selections. Cue the waiter's dramatic eye-roll and exasperated sigh, as if adding an extra dish was a Herculean task. From that point on, his demeanor resembled a grumpy grizzly bear rather than the friendly server we initially encountered.

But wait, there's more! As if the evening couldn't get any more absurd, we attempted to salvage it with a dessert labeled as 'Tonka Bean Pear,' tantalizing our taste buds with the promise of exotic flavors. What arrived at our table, however, was a sad excuse for a dessert—a plain pear drowned in what seemed like whipped cream straight from a can. The promised tonka bean flavor was as elusive as our waiter's hospitality, leaving us with a tasteless conclusion to an already flavorless experience.

When it came time to settle the bill, we found ourselves in a game of hide-and-seek with our elusive waiter. Eventually, we took matters into our own hands and approached the front, where we paid our dues sans tip, given the less-than-stellar service. However, our change seemed to vanish into thin air as the waiter disappeared into the abyss, never to be seen again.

In summary, Le Grizzli provided us with a memorable evening, albeit for all the wrong reasons. If you're in the mood for a side of sarcasm with your meal and enjoy a disappearing act with your change, then this is the place for you. Otherwise, I'd recommend exploring the culinary delights of...

DO NOT GO HERE IF YOU ARE AN AMERICAN. They are really rude to Americans. I went here in November 2022. I am just now getting to write a review because I have been so busy. Nevertheless, this was my first solo international trip and I accidentally forgot my portable phone charger and it turned into a big ordeal and my phone was about to die... like I said, this was my first time traveling alone and I hadn't used any taxi service ever in my life. I was relying on public transportation. I had a horrible day that day... I spent most of the day trying to find the write parts for the portable phone charger I had bought. I stopped in Le Grizzle Bistro for some coffee to warm up. I asked them if I could use their phone charger and they let me but it was up where the bar was so I couldn't have my phone with me at the table- understandably so, the outlet is by the wall. I still had to figure out how to get the charging parts I needed and get back to my Airbnb. I was exhausted and I was ready to get a taxi. But I was scared to rely on a taxi service because so many people told me the risk involved and so I was so nervous. So, I asked if they knew of any reputable taxi service and I think they took this the wrong way and I think it gave them the impression that I was rich or something and that I needed a "Nice taxi service' not a "regular taxi service.' Which was not the case, I just was concerned about not getting stolen or something! and then they handed me my bill and my coffee was 1 Euro and I did not have cash on me at the time. I was using my card cause I was not being charged foreign transaction fees and so I wanted to keep using that rather than being charged 50 Euros at the ATM. and they were SUPER rude and were like "A card will be 10 extra Euros for a card payment" and then the other waiter was like "Just go, I will take care of it" and they were like "Ciao" and I know they were just being rude because I know the French don't say that. Really bad experience and they really wanted me out of there after I asked about the taxi. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND...