Wine Therapy Bar à Vins & Bistrot Paris 9 — Restaurant in Paris

Huge Disappointment, Very Unfriendly Wine Therapy, more like wine trauma. Just kidding…I want to preface this by saying, that I came here a year ago and had a wonderful experience. The evening really went sour because of one specific woman who was extremely rude. My friend and I made a reservation, we arrived and there was no table available. Okay, no big deal, it was a holiday weekend, extremely busy, and we didn’t mind waiting. We were sympathetic to the fact that it was probably very stressful for the couple running the wine bar. While we waited, the woman working there asked us what kind of wines we were interested in. My friend and I described two different kinds of wine. She proceeded to have us taste the exact same wines (which more so fit my friend’s palette than mine). I didn’t really care for any of them, but the woman said we could only try three. Okay understandable, it’s a small business and they don’t want to waste inventory. Eventually a couple left (there was no reserved table for us), and we were given theirs. We sat for a few minutes, then I told the woman I was interested in buying a bottle. She said she would ask if it was available. At the same time, she asked us what food we would be ordering. We said we weren’t really planning on ordering food. At this point the mood shifted, she said we really shouldn’t have made a reservation if we weren’t planning on eating. This is how things work in Paris. But that’s just not true, I’ve lived in Paris for quite some time, made many a reservation at a wine bar, and never been told that. Additionally, it’s not a restaurant, why would we be expected to order food? This wasn’t indicated anywhere when we made the reservation. Also there was no table reserved for us, hence us waiting until the first table opened up (there weren’t other people waiting). At this point, it was very clear that she didn’t want us there. I told her that we would finish our glass and leave, and she rudely replied that, well, there was no one waiting for a table so we could stay. Although, none of the above was so offensive on its own, the attitude of this woman, and the fact that it was one thing after another made it clear that we weren’t welcome there, so we promptly paid and left. Honestly, there are so many wonderful wine bars, with great service in Paris. Skip this one and choose...

Want to enjoy nice French wines? Go absolutely anywhere else!

The ‘owner’ here pretends to be polite and ‘offers’ to help you find a wine you enjoy. So we grabbed two seats at the bar. In reality there is no 2 way communication - he tells you which wines are ‘great’ and he doesn’t actually listen to feedback.

He doesn’t seem to understand that two people might have different tastes - (actually he might) but it’s clear he just doesn’t care - he will keep pushing the the same wines by the glass on two people regardless of tastes very likely because it increases his profit margin.

We tried a sampling of wines and whenever we tried to explain what we liked or didn’t we were met with condescending remarks and insults. So much for making people feel welcome or actually finding a wine they enjoy. It’s possible others wouldn’t have actually said anything, put up with the insults and wasted money on wine they didn’t actually enjoy.

Do yourself a favour if you are reading this and want to enjoy nice French wines go absolutely anywhere else.

After being insulted at Wine Therapy we were ready to just call it a night. Thankfully we didn’t and found a wonderful place very close by where the staff was wonderful and the wine was truly amazing!

For completeness we didn’t order any food which made leaving a no brainer. If you’re tempted by the positive reviews and still want to give this place a try I recommend starting off only with wine so the evening can still be salvaged...

Extremely rude customer service. Let me start off by saying I do not usually write bad reviews about small businesses but I was so shocked at this mans manners that I just had to. I would not recommend that any foreigners visit this bar because the staff are very impolite and lack customer service skills. As we were walking past, we asked the young staff member if I could use the toilet to which he agreed and showed me where it was. It was very obvious that we were not planning on sitting in and ordering anything yet he still agreed. Whilst my friends were waiting, they were contemplating ordering a drink. However, the man pictured, approached them very rudely and and made some very patronising comments due to the fact we had used the toilets without buying anything. If the young staff member had refused us when I asked, we would have walked off with no complaints. I understand that small businesses have policies that only allow paying customers to use the toilet, but if he had approached us politely then we would have brought something out of courtesy. He asked us ‘where do you come from?’ with a very aggressive tone of voice which was so racist due to the fact we are people of colour. Places like this do not deserve business and the boss laurant has some very bad karma...