Restaurant David Toutain — Restaurant in Paris

The food was quite good, which is the only saving grace here. Each dish was great, and we were continually surprised and delighted by how delicious everything was.

The service was honestly awful for a restaurant of this caliber. Some highlights

We sat down at 20:10 for a 20:00 reservation. We were told there would be a few bites from the chef to start. Great—we love an amuse-bouche. We we served five bites over 50 minutes. They were all very good, but (close to) an hour is a very long time to wait before even starting your meal. At the very least, you should pour some complimentary champagne if you're going to do this. The table next to us was offered a glass of champagne to start—we were not. We asked about a wine pairing and were told "that is for later."

At 21:00 we were finally presented the menus in which we had to choose the eight-course or ten-course menu, along with any wine pairings and supplements. We chose the eight-course with cheese supplement and wine pairing.

From here things picked up somewhat. We finally got some wine a solid hour into our meal. The first few courses were quite good, and the presentation and service was honestly quite fine, if not amazing (lots of little fine dining touches were missing).

For two of our first three courses, our main server poured us our wine pairings. He was clearly not comfortable talking about the wines, not because he was speaking English, but because he didn't know anything about the wines. We clearly saw him asking other servers about the wines before pouring for us. Hearing about the wines is a big part of a wine pairing, and having someone uncomfortably tell us, "This is a 2021 Sauvignon Blanc," before walking away was very disappointing.

For our fifth course (a delicious and creative rabbit course), we weren't served a pairing. The pairings had been so haphazard at this point that we weren't sure if we were supposed to get one. We ate slowly, waiting for it to arrive, and at one point our server tried to take our dishes away before we were finished. He was eager enough to clear our plates but couldn't notice that we hadn't been served wine.

For our sixth course, we actually got the pairing, but it was halfway through finishing our food. It was just brought out on a tray from another room—not poured for us at the table. We got a very quick mention of the varietal before the server walked away.

Our seventh course pairing was also served halfway through our sweetbreads course—this had some small explanation at least.

And finally for dessert we were again brought a dessert wine halfway through finishing our food. It was not poured at the table. The server mentioned he would "go find the bottle" to show us what we were drinking, but he was never seen again.

Out of the eight wine pairings, one wasn't served at all, and four others were served halfway through the course.

Everything took so long, we finally finished everything at 23:50. I am definitely down for long meals as long as there is actual activity and service between courses. At 23:55 we asked for the check from one of the passing servers. After nothing happening for 10 minutes, we asked again at 00:05. The restaurant is basically dead at this point, with most tables empty, but we still sat for 10 minutes before a server noticed us enough for us to ask for our check for a second time.

At this point they brought the check, along with a menu and wine pairing list, confirming we did miss an entire wine pour for the the fifth course. We thought about mentioning it, but we figured it would take at least another 30 minutes to resolve and that just wasn't worth whatever discount they might have given us (if any).

To the restaurant—I'm not sure if you're reading this, but you really need to figure out what's going on in your front of house. The entire situation seemed like it was your first night. People kept (literally) running into each other, forgetting things, not being attentive, etc. The food is amazing, but your service means I will never go back and will actively recommend...

When Emotion Is on the Menu: My Visit to Restaurant David Toutain

There are moments in dining that move beyond taste — they reach into something emotional, something almost spiritual. My lunch at Restaurant David Toutain in Paris was one of those moments. Booked on a whim, it turned into an experience that brought me close to tears more than once — not from sentimentality, but from the quiet, humbling power of perfect craftsmanship.

Toutain’s dining room feels like stepping into the rhythm of nature itself — restrained, wood-toned, minimalist, and pulsing with calm precision. There’s no grand theatre, no forced intimacy. Just a sense that every glass, every utensil, every movement of service has been thought through to the second. Even the water glasses were different — an early sign that individuality reigns here.

I started with a champagne blend of 75% Pinot Noir and 25% Chardonnay, delicate and light, like early morning sun. We chose a Chablis Grand Cru 2016 to carry us through the meal — one bottle, rather than a flight. It felt right. The dishes arrived one by one, in quiet rhythm — each a surprise, each a chapter in what Toutain called the Menu Surprise.

The first notes came soft and surreal: raspberry and oyster mousse, a dish that redefined beauty in both texture and flavour. Then salsify with white chocolate mousse — hot, chewy, and bewilderingly good — followed by a buckwheat tartlet of duck and pickled verbena leaf, a tiny mouthful that tasted like the first breath of autumn. I could already sense the shift of seasons; every plate looked like the forest floor turning gold.

By the beetroot ravioli with sour caper and cured amberjack, I was already lost in emotion. The flavours were vivid, but it was the intent behind them that struck me. Food like this doesn’t simply please the senses — it tells you who the chef is.

The courses built like a symphony. Brussels sprout with Douglas fir sabayon — assertive and pine-green, a punch of forest energy. Cauliflower with guinea fowl and meadowsweet, ceps three ways with quail tartlet, and a bread and butter course so pure it could be a masterclass in simplicity: brown bread lighter than air, Normandy butter golden as hay.

Then came a show of genius — celeriac with white truffle and a “meat jus” made entirely from celery. It shouldn’t work, yet it sang. Comté foam and crisps followed, fizzing on the tongue like a prelude to laughter.

The fish course — cod cooked precisely to 46°C — came with a prawn and pepper croquette and bisque foam. The croquette was a touch heavy, the only moment where the balance wavered, but the cod itself was flawless — silk and sea.

Lobster three ways restored perfection: a barbecue-kissed tail, a head foam laced with grapefruit and lovage, and a claw paired with wilted greens. It was followed by hare with cocoa, potato mousseline, and Israeli couscous, a dish grounded in comfort but lifted by imagination — the kind of plate you eat slowly, almost reverently.

There were supplemental moments too — a sweetbread and mushroom Kiev, playful and nostalgic, like a wink to childhood dinners; chicken from Brest with girolles and compressed apple, tender and delicate; and a Comté cheese course for two, served with red pepper jam and toast, rich enough to silence a table.

But it was dessert that broke me. Vanilla and caviar, salted caramel, sea salt, cocoa nibs, and a sable crumb — and in the centre, something golden, something heavenly: a crème pâtissière so perfect it almost made me laugh. It was, without question, the best dessert I’ve ever had.

The closing act — a trio of rhubarb clafoutis, roast plum cheesecake, and onion bonbon petit fours — brought everything full circle. Sweet, savoury, nostalgic. The coffee, like everything else, was faultless.

As I left, I realised what made this meal so moving. It wasn’t the luxury or the precision — though both were there. It was the honesty. David Toutain cooks with emotion. His food isn’t just seasonal; it’s alive with feeling, curiosity,...

It was my second time dining at David Toutain on the evening of November 4th, 2018. I was there attending a birthday dinner at the privatized dining room right next to the restaurant.

The food itself was fantastic, so unapologetically innovative and refreshing, so daringly different and eye-opening. The use of uncommon ingredients such as Douglas pine was brilliant! If I were to rate the food on its own, I would have rated it 4.5 stars.

However, a great dinner experience doesn’t just revolve around the taste of the food. Another key point that makes a dinner experience pleasantly unforgettable is good SERVICE, which sadly, we didn’t get that evening. It was the opposite, really, my dinner experience is indeed unforgettable but highly unpleasantly.

The waiter/server (didn’t catch his name, unfortunately), was extremely rude and rather uncouth. We were a large party of 19, and so they served our amuse-bouches in plates of 4 or so, to be shared with the people seated in our vicinity. When we were in the middle of eating the second (or third, can’t remember exactly), we discovered that we lacked one amuse-bouche. We notified the waiter/server about that and instead of trying to come up with a solution, he blamed it on us.

“The kitchen brought out 19 amuse-bouches, so if you’re lacking one, someone at the table must have eaten an extra one,” came his response.

At this point, I couldn’t believe my ears. How could he accuse his guests of sneakily eating an extra amuse-bouche?! But fine, don’t make a scene since I wasn’t the host of the birthday dinner.

In the midst of the confusion, another member of the service team (a charming woman) seemed to have the common sense of bringing an “extra” amuse-bouche, so all of us could rightfully eat it.

Another thing, the lock on the restroom door was broken and several people including myself locked ourselves in. When this was brought to the waiter/server’s attention, he simply told me that the door would simply unlock if it was pressed from the outside (how do we do that if we’re locked in on the other side of the door??), and he shrugged like it was no big deal. No apologies.

Throughout the dinner, the rude waiter/server placed cutleries and plates roughly, often interrupting conversations and almost hitting our heads without even saying “excuse me” or anything at all.

Until one time, he really did accidentally smack the head of one of the other guests while trying to put some cutleries. This particular guest lost her patience and yelled at him, in French, berating him for his rude manners and even accusing him of drinking from the bottles of wine our gracious host decided to have to accompany our dinner.

His reaction? Nothing. He was simply nonchalant, didn’t even utter a single “sorry” or “excuse me”. Unbelievable.

At the end of the dinner, the host wanted to take a photo with all of us, and asked the waiter/server to take a photo of us. He muttered “this isn’t my job” (in French and when he thought nobody would hear him, but some of us did) and took the photo of us while being distracted, talking to someone else at the door.

I debated with myself if I should give a lower grade for this review, but I remember how good the food was. So 3-star it is, for the efforts of the chef and other employees who work hard at David Toutain.

I was so looking forward to that privatized dinner as I had a great time dining there the first time. Instead, I left feeling very frustrated and disappointed. To me, the atrocious service ruined an otherwise pleasant...