Le Suprême — Restaurant in Detroit

A DISAPPOINTING RESTAURANT EXPERIENCE!!

This is a serious restaurant. Its intentions and realization are obviously serious and worthwhile. The menu and beautiful décor perfectly recreate an authentic French bistro. The food was excellent! The food's preparation expertly performed. Every dish we ordered was delicious; the presentations were simple and elegant. Obviously, the kitchen staff knows what they're doing. Our server, Anna, was well-trained and informed about the food. Arthur, the manager, did an admirable job placating my anger. I commend him for the calm and respectful manner with which he responded to my complaints.

Which leads me to why my experience at your restaurant was so disappointing. With all the successful factors in place -- the menu, the food, the wine list, the service, the decor -- the HUGE ELEPHANT in the room was the LOUD, PIERCING NOISE LEVEL. The painful noise level is damaging and detrimental to the possibility of having a pleasurable meal. When I entered the restaurant for our 6:00 PM reservation, I had to ask the hostess to repeat herself several times. I couldn't hear her above the assault of noise. We couldn't hear Anna above the clamor as she greeted us. (And we were seated in what was considered a "quiet" section.) The high ceilings and hard wall/floor surfaces intensify and multiply the abusive high volume of the music and guests. I complained to Anna, and Arthur interceded. He agreed that the noise level was intense. He told us that the restaurant is "working on" that issue. My guest and I debated whether or not to leave the restaurant entirely. Arthur suggested we change tables. He agreed to lower the soundtrack volume. Those changes helped a bit. Anna still had to stoop close to our table in order to continue speaking to us. It was the enticing menu that kept us from leaving.

Eventually, the restaurant filled up. Because of the overall noise, guests had to increase the level of their conversations to be heard. Someone turned up the sound track again. A vicious circular problem: the soundtrack is high so guests increase the level of their voices, so the soundtrack is turned up even higher, so guests have to shout at each other to be heard. I may be a dinosaur in an age when restaurant guests think that high-volume noise level is equal to having a fun, livelier, more "hip" dining experience. Some time ago, I read in a restaurant industry article that some restaurants intentionally increase the noise level because: 1) people drink alcohol faster when the noise is high; 2) they order more drinks which increases their bills; and 3) people eat faster so tables are turned more frequently.

I'm not suggesting that the managers of Le Supreme have those calculated intentions. But it does occur to me that EVERYTHING about Le Supreme is so well thought out, so carefully planned, the noise level, too, must be a conscious policy decision. For me - the very sad and disappointing part of my Le Supreme experience was that the ABUSIVE NOISE LEVEL diminished the serious, thoughtful and impressive elements that make Le Supreme a cut above other restaurants: the alluring menu, the delicious and well-cooked food, a masterful wine selection and the well-trained and professional staff. (The restroom is also to be applauded. It is gender-neutral AND reflect what is standard in restaurants in France and Europe.) Unfortunately, for me, all these positive factors that otherwise would have made dinner at Le Supreme a memorable and pleasurable experience were discounted by the intrusive and abusive noise level.

Perhaps Le Supreme will adjust the noise level to balance with all its other valuable factors. Otherwise, I'm not likely to recommend this restaurant without stating directly that the noise level is way too high for a pleasurable meal. Guests/staff are at risk of hearing damage after just 15 minutes when they're in an average nightclub. Perhaps Le Supreme needs to decide whether it's a restaurant or a night club. I would warn people: "Eating at Le Supreme May Cause...

Atmosphere: The restaurants aesthetic was gorgeous. You can tell the decor was really thoughtfully curated from ceiling to floor.

Service: The service overall was subpar, especially for the price of the restaurant. Our waiter was nice, but he was not around often. I finished my water after our appetizers and it didn’t get refilled until 45 minutes later when our main dinner plates came out. Would have been nice of him to check on us throughout, and not just when he was bringing the appetizers and main plates out.

Food: We started out with the french onion soup, escargot, and the mushroom tart for appetizers. The French onion soup was subpar, there was way too much cheese in comparison to all the other ingredients that it just overpowered the soup. The escargot was just okay and pretty bland as I wish they used a little more garlic butter to give it more taste. The mushroom tart was really good and I would highly recommend that. For main plates, we ordered sea bass, mussels, beef bourguignon, and the filet mignon. The sea bass was pretty good and seasoned well. The mussels were okay, but we definitely found some hard sediments in a few of the mussels which was really disappointing. The beef bourguignon was overcooked so it was really dry and chewy, which I’m not sure how that would even be possible as the beef is cooked in a stew. Lastly, the filet mignon was so salty that I had to wash every bite down with some bread and water. Not to mention the portion sizes for everything were small and left our group of 4 people hungry despite our waiter saying that the 3 appetizers and 4 main plates that we ordered would surely have us stuffed by the end of the meal. So after having already spent $350, we ended up going to McDonald’s on the way home.

I was really excited to come here since there aren’t a lot of French restaurants in Detroit. We saw how much work went into the decor and were really hoping the food quality would match, but unfortunately it fell really short during our dining experience. Having worked at a restaurant for a good part of my life, I understand all the hard work that goes into running one so I really do hope that Le Suprême reflects on the reviews from their customers.

EDIT

I gave Le Suprême another chance after a General Manager (shoutout to Kris Peterson) invited me and my wife back to give them another chance which I am glad he did. The service this time around was impeccable, we were being attended to by both Kris and our waiter frequently. Our waiter was also a sommelier who recommended wine pairing with each of our dishes which was really nice. We ordered the mushroom tart as a starter and the lapin la moutarde (rabbit) and the steak frites for our mains. The mushroom tart was something we got last time and we loved (still do). The rabbit was really nice and it came with a mustard cream sauce which I was skeptical about at first but it wasn’t an overpowering mustard flavor, instead it was more savory and creamy, and paired nicely with the rabbit and pasta. Lastly, the star of the show was the steak frites which my wife said “this might be the best steak I have ever had” so needless to say that was exceptional and cooked perfectly. Overall, we had a really great experience this time around and it seems like management has taken the constructive criticism from their customers and turned things around already so quickly. We will definitely be adding Le Supreme to our...

I dined here on 2/17. My friend and I came here on a whim. It was 10pm and surprisingly we were told that we could get a table. The staff we encountered were all very welcoming, helpful, happy and friendly. Five stars to all of staff that we encountered. Our server was Maddie and she was a sweet girl. We ordered the $30 cheese tray to start. One of our cheeses was so hard and cut so close to the rind it was inedible. We ended up questioning it. Maddie told us that cheese is used with a grater which made no sense to me. Then why serve us that? However someone from the kitchen did bring us another slice of something different which we did appreciate. We then ordered our meal, my friend ordered the French Onion Soup and Burger and I had the Steak Tartare and Moulee Mariniere Mussels. While we were waiting we noticed everyone had a bread basket but us. We thought maybe Maddie would bring it when she severed our starters. When our starters arrived no bread was delivered. We again thought maybe it will be served with the main meal. My friends French Onion soup was to die for according to her. My Steak Tartare was over salty and had far too much mustard in it. The mustard and salt were so overpowering that I drank two glasses of water to just eat half of it. I ended up leaving the other half. I had to ask Maddie for more water which never came. I also expressed my dislike stating it was overly salty and Maddie response was “really”. I took that as she did not beleive me. No apology saying “sorry that you did not enjoy that” either. I ended having to flag down another tables server just to get more water. We again asked about the bread which finally arrived. The bread was cut so thin for the I believer cranberry rye bread, the baguette was the butt end of a loaf and there was no butter served with it. At that point it was clear this was not a priority on the servers side. Our main meal came which I would give an easy five stars to. My friend said her burger was very good and my mussels were easily the best I’ve ever had. My Pomme Frites were served after the main meal and they were a tad cold. I think they were left in the kitchen in error. The atmosphere is loud and noisy however the decor is lovely. My biggest quip is the restroom situation. I am not opposed to gender neutral bathrooms. However normally you still see a Man’s and a woman’s restroom and each will have a sign stating gender neutral. Cool with me. Here it is just one big restroom for everyone. Which isn’t that big. 4 stalls and two sinks. When I opened the door there were two men walking in which immediately made me uncomfortable. I can hardly use the restroom in front of my own husband how am I going to relive myself with strange men? I found that to be off putting and for me very uncomfortable. That statement is not meant to offend anyone, it is just how I feel. As a woman sharing a bathroom with multiple strange men is not a comfortable feeling. Over all the main meal was excellent and the staff for the most part is great. I felt the issues we had were hardly addressed and came with no apology. A huge misstep by this...