SoHo Trattoria — Restaurant in Paris

DO NOT EAT HERE

We arrived early for our reservation but with the restaurant completely empty we thought we'd try get in early. The waiter offered an indoor table but with it being so humid we asked so sit outside. He walked us out and with only 2 women smoking in an area that could sit maybe 50 people, he sat us next to them, basically shoulder to shoulder. We asked to move and he said he needs to keep space for if a group of 4 or 6 come in, and i get that but we explained the smoking irritates my asthma so it'd be great if we could move anywhere, he directed us to a seat and gave us the menu.

He seemed quite annoyed but I understood that at this point we had asked to change seats twice once from inside and once again to not sit next to two people smoking. I didn't want to make his day any harder than it had to be so we were trying to be extra polite.

The menu said you could get a main from 9 euros but looking closer you can see that only applied to under ten years old. Nothing major but just one of those sneaky ways to pull you in that was another red flag.

He came to take our orders and I wasn't sure if he heard anything I was saying because he was looking around as if waiting for someone, very distracted, but having already been difficult with the seats I thought maybe he was just disinterested in us and wanting to get through the whole interaction.

He assumed we didn't want drinks, I said we'd a actually love a coke and wine, after he went in to get them he walked through the restaurant and out the front door to have a smoke and scroll in full view 😂 Of course we are making excuses like "ah jaysus it's tough being a waiter and in the middle of Paris too? Let the man have his smoke break". He came back drinks down, and the food was ready like worryingly quick 😂 didn't matter though, looked semi decent and I thought it's cheaper than most places, what we're we expecting, he forgot the cutlery and was not what I expected from our one dinner in Paris, but it'll do!

Until there was this curly black hair in the food. I went in to explain there was a hair and we weren't interested in eating. We hadn't touched the food bar a bite from the pizza I found the hair on and that we'd pay for the drinks but we're uncomfortable eating anything after finding that. Lads, I know maybe asking to not pay for four dishes sounds a but much, but the total cost of them was like 25 quid and we honestly were thinking of just running off once we found the hair but again we're like, let's not make his day any harder, we will just say it to him.

Anyway, the next thing that happened is the highlight of my trip. He looked really concerned and went to speak to the chef, after a moment he calls me over, I'm trying to be warm because at the end of the day, I've no problem with them just the food.

The waiter points to the chef, who removes his cap to reveal a balding head of stubly hair and asks me "How!? How there is hair in the food when there is none on him?!"

I wasn't about to debate how hair got in my food from a balding chef, I was maybe 95 percent sure it was the waiters hair but who cares, I just wanted out of there at this stage.

We ended arguing back and forth for maybe ten minutes before we agreed to just take that dish off and pay the remaining bill, fair enough I guess, but the entire time he's making comments about how impossible the whole situation is, and even as we are paying he mentions again that it's "amazing" How "its longer than anything on his (the chefs) head", totally ignoring that it could be his or the fact that two twenty something year olds on a one day trip didn't want to find hair in the food, we wanted to have a class dinner in Paris.

Anyway, we left the entire meal and place and paid through the teeth for a slice of pizza near the Eiffel Tower, kinda ruined a huge chunk of the trip, pissed we went but the reviews looked good 😂 let this balance the scales!

I think Paris is just expensive and if you want a deal, you'll end up paying the difference somehow.

Do yourself a...

WORST Restaurant Ever!!! The waiter was so rude and there was hair in our food! We booked ahead of time because we thought it looked like a nice place and at lunch time that day we passed it, it looked busy. When we arrived at 6.30pm it was empty other than two customers outside. The waiter tried to sit us inside on the closest table to the chef who was cooking in the empty interior of the restaurant. It was 28 degrees outside and even hotter inside, so we wanted to sit on one of the tables outside. We asked to sit on one of the tables outside, he said yes, leading us outside and pointing to a table beside the only other customers he had who were smoking, I wouldn’t usually mind but there were 10 other empty tables in this area alone and the one of the chairs on this table was so close to theirs, the seats were touching. We asked if it was okay if we sat on the next table, and he said no that he needed the tables in case more customers come in. We discreetly explained that one of us was an asthmatic and the smoke could irritate it, he just nodded and sat at the table furthest away from the restaurant. When we were ordering he kept looking behind him for no reason. Then grabbed the menus and started to walk away before we got to order something to drink. He said water to drink? And we asked if we could order a coke and had to ask for the menu back to order a glass of wine. As we waited for our drinking we seen him standing at the other entrance to the restaurant smoking and staring at us. Then he got us our drinks. The wine glass was filthy. The the food came out miraculously 7 minutes after ordering which is too quick for chips, garlic bread, pizza, and penne arribiata. He left us with no cutlery, eventually we got his attention and asked for cutlery which took 4 attempts to explain. It was as if he was pretending not to understand us on purpose. One look at the plates and we both agreed that eating this meal could make us both very ill. The chips were cold and stale. The pasta was over cooked in a pot that had 20% of the pasta in it as seen in the photos online, and it hadn’t be drained properly either and had barely any “arribiata” sauce on it. We tried a bite of the “garlic bread” which was actually just a pizza with pesto on it. And to our absolute horror there was a hair on it. We did not feel safe to eat this food, and genuinely worried it would be a risk to our health. We decided to do the right thing and go in and talk to the waiter instead of walking away from the table, which seemed easy to do, we had seen 2 tables leave in the time we were there, although they hadn’t received their food yet. To say that the conversation with this waiter was uncomfortable and nerve wrecking would be an understatement. We were shaking after we left the restaurant. We said that we are coming in to pay for the drinks (although we hadn’t drank them) that we hadn’t touched the food as there was a hair on the garlic bread. The waiter told us we were wrong and it was not possible that there would be a hair on the food even after we offered to show him on our plates outside he did not go to check. Eventually he said he would take of the garlic bread and made us pay for the rest. It was the worst restaurant experience of my life. We were happy with our decision not to eat the food even though we still payed. To anyone thinking of going...

A quite nice restaurant from the outside but once you get in you notice the uncomfortable chairs and unstable tables. There is really little space if the restaurant gets busy. So the waiter/waitress were very friendly but i dont know if its because of them or the kitchen, but we ordered our drinks, entry and main dishes. After 15minutes our drinks came and after 1hour our entry was still missing until the waiter asked if the entry already came. After he saw it was missing it came in 5min since it was only a Burrata for 14 EURO. Literally just a Burrata with some garnish and tea spoon of pesto for 14 EURO. After asking if we could get some bread guess what, you have to pay extra for bread....we got it for free though since we waited 1hour for the burrata. So let me ask you guys, in which italian restaurant or even french one you have to pay for bread. After the burrata the waiter said "dont worry your main dishes are coming". Yep they came after around 30min....so we waited 1.30h for all of our food. We ordered the Alfredo and carbonara pasta....worst choice of our life. Of course its pasta with a creme sauce but i never tasted a pasta with less taste then this one here and this for 18€. We had to ask for salt and pepper to at least taste anything but i would recommend you to not take any pastas. Every single guest in this restaurant who got pasta also asked for pepper and salt and even parmesan....which was totally missing in both our noodle dishes. So you literally paid 18€ for the noodles and some creme sauce. Regarding the pizzas i dont know but neither the pastas nor the burrata and most importantly the cocktails were really bad. I got a mojito for 9€, u get greeted by a 33cl glass which is way smaller then the usual cocktail glas. On top of it the mojito had 0 taste....you literally could only taste the lime and mint...zero alcohol nor sweetness of the sugar. Overall i would recommend you to safe your time and money and find a real italian restaurant where u dont have to pay for bread and at least do the...