Petit Paris — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

It was shortly after six pm on Sunday, May 4 and we (My wife and I) had gone to five restaurants and waited just to be told that nothing is available and there are no waitlist or plans at all such as having a drink at the bar or outside until the table is ready. I literally asked each place if there is a plan and found there is no plan. There is no standing around. Basically you just leave because they are full and try again some other day.

In America, this would never happen. Money rules. You don’t lose business like this. You would be seated outside at the empty tables and given a drink and a tab started until a seat or table was ready.So we were rather expecting more of the same treatment at this, the Petit Paris Restaurant.

The first floor was completely full and no one was sitting outside as it was chilly. It was less than 50°F, with the wind, perhaps even colder.

The manager? Owner?, a very pleasant and quite lovely woman invited us to wait two minutes or less for a table.

I didn’t know how she was going to make a table available, but to my surprise, we were taken downstairs where there were two tables left that were four tops, and she invited us to sit at one even though we were only 2 people.

The clientele were all clearly enjoying themselves. The seats and tables were comfortable and clean, and the decor was very well fine.

Our waitress Emily was just fantastic. She was very knowledgeable about the menu and was quick at bringing us our drinks and bread. She was so pleasant and always smiling. We needed to leave on our tour and she was able to get us our check quickly.

It was amazing to see her and another student studying politics and law from France. I believe her name was Aaliyah? The two of them worked so well together checking on each other’s tables. They didn’t care if they had served the patron or taken their order or not they were willing to help each other. It was very, very nice to see. I have waited tables for years in my youth. This is not always the case. Often there is competition and poor cooperation.

And I also noticed that the manager (or owner?) came downstairs to check on things and that was very impressive.

My wife had the French onion soup, which was simply delicious.

She had the cider which was top-notch.

We both had some tapwater. As Americans, of course we missed having ice.

I had a Heineken zero which was quite good

I had the ribeye steak (medium) with potatoes, which was quite nice. It was cooked perfectly. The cut wasn’t excellent or perfect by any means, but it was good.

We didn’t have time to try other things or dessert, but we will be back as we are spending the next 10 days in Edinburgh.

So very impressed!

I will be writing a Google review likely identical to this email.

Thank you for a lovely evening!

I hope to share this with the owner!

The manager (Owner?), the staff including the cooks, but especially the wait staff were the penultimate!

Highly recommend !!!

Five...

We realised we'd been here before and it was good, and a good friend re-recommended it to us, with a special mention of its lamb en cocotte, which has oddly disappeared from the menu.

I see lots of good reviews on here; nice guys, great location, great service, but oh dear, the Moules marinières....not good.

To be fair, we both had Moules marinières (and 'traditional french onion soup...more of that later), but come on guys...have a word with the chef? The recipe included Steamed Scottish blue shell mussels, white wine, butter, thyme, onion and lemon. If this were a 'tic-the-box' review, only two would be ticked: Scottish blue shell mussels and hot water. The sauce was completely 'thin' and tasteless.....absolutely no hint of wine, thyme or lemon (and this recipe should probably have a little garlic too). AND, this is traditionally served in Paris (and Brittany) with pommes frites, so the 'side' of sautéed potatoes in the form of chunky lenghways pieces served with the dish were a bit of a surprise, forgiven however, as they added the only hint of flavour to the dish. Yes, it was Fringe time in glorious Edinburgh and they were very busy, but no excuse for dishing out tasteless food. Regarding the Traditional French onion soup, well, it was 'brownish' and had onions in it and it was sort of OK, but again, not a lot of flavour (and yes, the French aren't great on too much flavour), and having said what I said regarding the Moules sauce consistency, There was more than a hint of (cornflour) thickener in there.

All in all, great service and nice people, but again, guys, have a word with the chef. The stuff the other diners were eating looked good...I nearly ordered some of that. Can one mess up Roast chicken supreme with a blue cheese and bacon...

(TL;DR not a horrible experience, but definitely a tourist trap)

Very attentive staff, but the food was unfortunately quite unimpressive. I stopped here for a Saturday lunch right as it opened, so I was fortunately able to snag a spot (the place was completely full within ten minutes - a combination of walk-ins and reservations). I was looking to try the escargot and then also got the French onion soup at the server's suggestion. The food actually came out pretty quickly (there was complimentary bread and butter as well), which was a pleasant surprise.

Thoughts on the french onion soup: The extremely mild (mild as in plain, not delicate) flavor of the soup was easily overpowered by the roughly chopped parsley used for garnish; the initial soup otherwise simply tasted like boiled onions... not caramelized The textures of the soggy baguette and clump of melted cheese also did not mesh well with the whole of the soup; this may have been better if the serving bowl wasn't as wide

Escargot I can't say much about the taste or quality of the snails because I've never had any before, but the garlic butter sauce was honestly quite flat; it tasted only of strong garlic, salt, and butter, and lacked any sort of additional depth or dimension. So much for the vibrant green color... On the bright side, the presentation of the dish was quite cute!

I'd suggest anyone visiting to try some other options on the menu, because I'm convinced there's got to be tastier...