Sweet Paris — Restaurant in Houston

I went to this place with my sister for lunch. It's a small restaurant located in rice village so of course parking was a pain. They have outdoor seating and indoor seating. We ordered at the counter and had a chicken carbonara crepe and smores crepe. I will say the chicken carbonara crepe was excellent. Cheesy and fillings were well composed and the plate itself was quite pretty. It was enough for both of us to share.

The s'mores crepe however was a disappointment. It was sickly sweet and not very cohesive. I had about four bites before I decided I had enough. You cut in the crepe and there's chocolate, Nutella and this huge jumbo marshmallow not melted. Everyone knows any respectable smore has toasted marshmallow that's brown and creamy. This was not that. For shame sweet Paris creperie and cafe. For shame. My sister asked me if I wanted more and I turned my nose up and said no. It was too sweet and something was missing. As she took another bite though (now the crepe over halfway gone) I see there's these golden crumbles that come spilling out. Graham crackers! I hadn't even seen or tasted it! So I seized my fork to try this dish with a renewed sense of hope. Meh. Still disappointed. Graham crackers did improve the dish as it made it taste more smore like but still sickly sweet. This dish just filled me with bitter regret in more ways than one.

Finally, the price. Kinda steep guys. 9$ for the chicken carbonara and 8$ for the smore. Chicken carbonara was delicious so I eont say anything about that, but the smore man...$8 dollars is a fortune for a dessert that fails in...

I'm compelled to lead with, "you insist on a French theme, even invoke Paris in your name, but not a single person on your staff...in TWO locations...speaks French!" Sorry, may as well name it, "Sweet Houston," for lack of authenticity. Even "La Madelene" touts French staff, and that's a large chain (more than 80 locations). Seriously...even Au Bon Pain, in the airport locations around the US, are more authentic, and that's a massive franchise.

Fine, now that's out of my system: breakfast for kids consists of sugar and ... er...sugary starches. Chocolate crepes, chocolate with marshmallows, chocolate with strawberries or bananas. Wait... kids menu also boasts ham and cheese. Even in Paris (France) - not exactly the most kid-friendly place when it comes to restaurant food - I found crepes with beef, turkey, chicken, fish, cheese only (multiple styles and cheeses), veggies crepes and more. The very last thing I want, at breakfast, is for my first-graders to become so high on sugar they cannot calm down for hours.

If you're going to tout your restaurant as family-friendly, then offer an actual kid-aware selection of meals! And, what child needs a chocolate crepe breakfast that even an adult has a hard time finishing? I like the staff at Town Square in Sugar Land, for at the very least providing decent service. The staff in Rice Village were too busy chatting in the back and surfing their cellphones to engage me the day I was there for a...

The wait: Order pick up for Creme Brûlée waffle, lemon and sugar crepe, the Feast crepe with some alterations, and a chai latte and was told it would be 10 minutes. Got there a little quick (about 5 mins) since I was in the area, but waited in line (they don’t have a separate line for pick up orders or if they do it is not well communicated) for about 10 minutes, order wasn’t ready. Waited for another 10 minutes while half the people ahead of me that ordered in the store got their food.

The food: Finally got the food and I guess they made the chai latte first cause it was slightly above room temperature when I sipped it. It tasted good with strong cinnamon and clove notes. Creme brûlée waffle was delicious, especially the cinnamon apples. The lemon and sugar crepe was super super basic, not enough lemon and not enough sugar, I think putting a lemon curd or some sort of lemon sugar spread would be a huge improvement; it needs some actual flavor to go along with the crepe. The feast crepe was bland, too much egg and/or not seasoned well altogether. They did remove what we wanted substituted but then didn’t add the sub ingredient.

Overall: All in all, some good things and some bad things. Definitely room for improvement. Might try it again in the future, to see what else they...