Restaurant Eels — Restaurant in Paris

We currently spend three months a year in Paris, and eat out almost every night. We have dined at Eels six times now, and until our most recent visit, considered Eels one of our favorite dinners in Paris, because of clever and beautifully executed dishes, excellent professional but cordial service, and a good (if fully priced) wine program. Our dinner last night failed on all three measures.

SERVICE We arrived on time for our reservation, the room was about half full already. We were promptly seated, but no one came to our table for nearly fifteen minutes despite there being plenty of staff, so we couldn't order an aperitif, or get a carte to consider our meal. When staff finally came to us, it was only to ask what kind of water we wanted. We finally got our cartes and the wine carte and ordered an aperitif. We had only a little time to consider the carte before staff returned, wanting our food order. We much enjoy the leisurely French pace of dining, but the entree was excruciatingly slow in coming - there was no amuse, and we don’t relish subsisting on bread for an hour - as was the main. The dessert was served very quickly. (The staff seemed preoccupied with a couple of favored tables all night.)

FOOD The dishes we had were only average at best; the St Jacques had entirely too much salt in the seaweed salad under the scallops, which overwhelmed the delicate shellfish. The smoked eel was very nice, but the four tiny portions offered for 20€ was inadequate . The grilled porchetta was nicely prepared, but very bland. The chestnut crunch dessert was enjoyable, but the quince dessert was unfocussed and forgettable.

WINE. We had two glasses of champagne to start. It was the end of the bottle, and the wine was nearly flat and lifeless, tasting a bit oxidized. At 21€ a glass, that is shameful. We had a discussion with the sommelier resulting in a Santenay Vieilles Vignes 2020 by Pillot. We do not claim to have a professional knowledge of Burgundies, but we drink mostly Burgundies when in Paris, usually in the 80-100€ range on restaurant lists. This wine was acidic, and had little fruit, and little complexity to our tastes. It listed for 118€, which seems to be about three times markup from retail, based on a quick internet search.

BOTTOM LINE We have wonderful memories of our first five dinners at Eels, but we will not be returning, and cannot recommend it any longer. A waste of time and money at 316€ for...

We made a reservation and had the tasting menu. The food was amazing and better than our expectation. Definitely, the chefs here are amazing. We really enjoyed the food here. However, actually we had a very bad experience at the beginning, because two waitress/waiters ignored us and served several other French/white people until we told them not to ignore us. Probably because we are Asian, they ignored us until we speak up. After we spoke up, the floor manager treated us very well and made us very comfortable and made our night great again. So, in the end, we really enjoyed our night here. However, definitely there is a room for improvement in training their employees especially the lady who kept ignoring us. I hope everyone can be treated equally no matter skins, nationalities, languages we speak, how we look and so on and can share an enjoyable night with the great foods here, thanks to the chefs and the floor manager.

Update Note: We came here at 10pm and some customers already finished eating and were about to leave, as our slot was the last slot we could book on the day. We did not passively wait to be served by the waitress/waiters but actively asked them to give us menus. Then, we were ignored until we told them not to ignore us. The other customers (French/white people) who came to the restaurant after us were served with wine, water and menus and also the waitress/waiters greeted them, while we were there without water, menus and greetings from the floor staffs (the floor manager gave us a warm welcome when we entered the...

We ordered the dinner tasting menu and wine pairing. First of all, the overall food is phenomenal. Michelin star level in my opinion, even better than some of the Michelin restaurants I went. Appetizers, the fish main, and the mochi dessert are all very impressive and well balanced. The pork is not good - too much fiber and too tough. Although I had low expectations on the pork to start with since it is a meat that’s hard to cook well with. Wine pairings are great too - all on the natural wine/slightly fermented experimental side.

Secondly, let’s talk about service. They’re extremely busy, so as much as attention to detail they wanted to be, it’s impossible. We had to ask for water several times during our meal. They forgot about the bread until we asked for it too. Also waiters dropped the entire tray of utensils, broke one glass around the kitchen - both were loud enough for everyone in the restaurant to hear it. It was just chaotic but I understand they’re just very busy. One small detail: the chef himself passed by our table and noticed the sauce dropped on the table and wiped it which I appreciated.

Thirdly, atmosphere - very cute place with open kitchen. You get to see how food is being prepared. However, it was too hot. All my friends and I were sweating like crazy during the meal lol.

Overall, with such a reasonable price and high level tasting menu, I shouldn’t even be complaining about the service and atmosphere. Just some genuine opinions for room for improvement. Will...