Tomy & Co — Restaurant in Paris

I really expected to like this place, it also came recommended by friends, so it made it even more disappointing to encounter such an apauling service, and nothing except for the gnocchi with truffles, particularly memorable. Yes, the tasting menu at €69 is good value, and each of the portions is rather large, too large even, but a number of dishes were bit bizarre/inedible, so probably just as well. Firstly, I booked well in advance, coming from abroad, exchanged a number of emails, indicated it's a reunion dinner, asked specifically not to be seated next to the toilets or front door. What do you think do I get? Not a normal table with normal chairs, but rather weird tall table with uncomfortable tall stools, right next to the toilet, so much so that at least two of us look straight at the little galley leading to WC and all the people heading to it to relieve themselves. After all the email exchanges, really?! My friend, a Parisian, arrived first, the welcome she got left a lot to be desired, nobody really said hello to me either, and I got a feeling that servers treated diners as a nuisance. We asked be moved from tall stool table to a normal one, as there were at least 9 empty ones, the waiter rolled his eyes, moved us to a standard table, but still in the unattractive back end of the room. So, I still ended up staring at big WC letters all night, people going in, leaving the toilet area entry door open, waiters never bothering to close it, so I had the joy of watching people wash and dry their hands after the toilet all night long. We were really rushed about the menu choices, when we spent first 10min of our getting there having bubbles and the aforementioned reunion. They literally harassed us about the order...at 1930 (?!) None of our servers knew about the dishes being served, or could explain them, even in French to my French native Parisian friend, I won't even bore you or how poor it was in English. Nor did they seem to care about what's on the plate. As to the food, the starter of course ceviche was at best bizarre, at worst inedible - so overspiced, both of us lived and worked in Asia and love spicy food, but all one could taste is chilli, killing the beautiful raw fish, and as to accompanying red vinegar pickled cauliflower with it, I have no words... Besides the course of the 3 huge gnocchi, and the cheese, nothing else stands out food wise. Besides the excellent sommelier guy, who knows what a smile is, unlike the rest of the waiters at Tomy & Co, and who was the only service highlight on Friday the 5th April, we felt unwanted there when 2 different waiters came and flipped the bill holder open, with questioning looks as to why it remains unpaid, and that is AFTER they brought us the bill we did not ask for at all, we still had plenty of wine left in our bottle, and restaurant had at least 12 people in it! I only had unsolicited cheque brought in michelin dumpling place in Hong Kong, but at least they are honest about their desire to turn tables. Why one would do that to a table of 2 in a restaurant that has a single seating, before 10pm, with plenty of people still in the restaurant is a question mark still. Definitely not 1 Michelin star level, I mean go to AT Paris, Semilla - no star and a star respectively - at least the food will bowl you over, and service is top notch. Definitely wont be back, and will not recommend to others just for reasons of such unprofessional...

It's been over a year since my wife and I had visited Tomy & Co., and yet I still owe them a review. This is simply outrageous, because Tomy & Co. was probably the finest culinary experience in my life to date, so let's fix this injustice right now.

Tomy & Co. was our second ever visit to a Michelin star restaurant, the first one having occurred just the day before that. And while both restaurants shared some traits you would expect from such exalted establishments, like culinary excellence, delightful atmosphere, and impeccable service, the two experiences couldn't have been more different otherwise.

Our first Michelin star restaurant provided a wild ride, full of wonder, thrills and excitement. Tomy & Co. did something much more difficult to pull off, at least in my opinion. They managed to make our experience relaxed and comforting in the extreme. Do you, by any chance, remember the famous scene from Ratatouille where food critic Anton Ego relives sweet memories of his childhood upon sampling the eponymous dish? I always took that to be an exaggeration for effect, and perhaps it is. But what I lived through at Tomy & Co. was, in a way, the exact same thing.

It all really started with the smallest of things. My wife and I, on our honeymoon, were visiting a posh restaurant in Paris on a hot summer evening. Of course, we wanted to look the part. But the first thing the maitre d' asked me after leading us to our table was whether I wanted to ditch my blazer. You bet I did! That tiny detail set the tone for the whole evening for me. Starting that moment, the posh restaurant felt like "home".

They took us through a lengthy tasting menu, accompanied, as you would expect, by a parade of amuse-bouches and tiny interludes, crowned by a special dessert the chef came up with upon hearing that we were on our wedding trip. A year later, many of the details have faded from my memory, but I definitely recommend ordering the wine pairings, as the sommelier's choices were simply out of this world.

The dish that made the greatest impression on me was, perhaps, the simplest of them all. It was a cheese plate, and it was as simple as a chunk of delightful goat cheese, accompanied by some grape jam and microgreens. It may have been the tastiest thing I ever ate in my life, and washed down with a little bit of fine tawny port, it was pure bliss.

Sadly, or thankfully, perhaps, I'm no food critic. I can't describe the whole experience as it deserves, or give it proper praise. I just wanted to make it known that Tomy & Co. provided one of the greatest evenings in my life, and in my wife's, and I hope that some day, perhaps for one of our anniversaries, we will be...

It makes me sad to write this but the experience we had here was terrible. The six of us went here to celebrate our friends’ engagement and ordered the six course tasting menu with multiple bottles of wine and beer.

When we first got there, everything was pretty smooth and the food was quite good but as the night went on, our server stopped explaining the menu to us, would ration the wine in a way that left out the engaged couple from receiving champagne from the bottle that the two of them paid for, and finally, gave us a bill that was incorrect in multiple ways and then gave us a second bill that was also incorrect. When we finally got the right bill, it was almost €100 less than what they originally quoted us (pictured below). They originally charged us for 10 beers even though we only had 7, €170 for a bottle of champagne that was €130, €70 for a bottle of wine that was €55, and €60 for TAP WATER for the table even though our water glasses were empty most of the night (we had 1 medium glass of water each the whole night). I think they thought we were too inebriated to notice and that we were dumb tourists who they could scam. When we brought it to their attention, they didn’t even apologize, and instead said “oh that was my colleague..” and gave us no real explanation. It was honestly quite sad because we were there for a celebration and they not only didn’t make it special but actively made us all upset. If you’re wanting to go to a Michelin star and do a tasting menu, choose a different restaurant if the experience is...