Paris Bistro — Restaurant in Naperville

I booked our reservation 2 weeks in advance. To celebrate two very special milestones. My friend's 50th birthday and my daughter's Sweet 16!!! I informed the restaurant of this at the time I made the reservation (keep this in mind). We had a group of 14. None of us have dined at this restaurant before. However, I read some favorable reviews about the food and decor. Which is exactly what I wanted considering the occasion. When I arrived at the restaurant day of I brought 2 cakes and a dozen cupcakes. I was informed that the area I asked for in the initial reservation was being occupied for wine tasting. The hostess then showed me where we were set up. I absolutely loved the room more so than the requested area. It was elegant and charming with a beautiful chandelier and, best of all, it was reserved just for our party. The servers were nice, and the food was "ok." We all had an enjoyable time, especially the birthday girls... until the end, when I noticed an extra $65 on my bill. I inquired about the amount, and the server said it was the cake/cupcake fee. I was flabbergasted. No one informed me of this...when I booked, when I called, or when I arrived. The server apologized and sent the manager in. The manager, a short guy with a big belly, immediately came into the room irritated. I explained that no one informed me of this and had 3 opportunities to do so. He just stood there holding the receipt and saying this is what it is. I said, "What exactly are you charging for?" He stated $25 per cake cutting and $15 because the server set the cupcakes on a tower. I said, "Sir, that's ridiculous, and one of the cakes wasn't even cut." He then said, "Well, no outside food....again, I informed no one mentioned this to me. He replied, "Well, it's on our door." I said, "Sir, you as a manager should be trying to rectify the issue." I said good customer service, and the right thing to do is waive the fees because I wasn't informed. I brought a lot of business here tonight, and I do plan to return, and one cake was never even cut. He finally agreed to waive the cupcake fee and one cake but still charged me an extra $25. Very poor management move on his end. Everyone else was friendly and inviting, but he (the person in charge) was not. Which leads me to believe there may have been another reason for his...

To start off, my partner and I drove over 45 to the restaurant, for the sole purpose to try the big croissant. As we were ordering, that’s when we were told that the big croissant requires a day of ordering in advance. So we were pretty disappointed as there isn’t any clear indication of that anywhere. So we asked for more time to order something else off the menu. We then ordered the chicken skillet, Tiramisu souflee pancakes, and the strawberry basil croissant wheel (croissants and drinks were not on the menu at all btw which made things a bit frustrating). The coffee tasted a bit too bitter for our taste and the water tasted dusty (proper from the glasses being towel dried or collected dust). As we got our food, we got the wrong type of souflee pancakes (the server himself tried to tell us that we were wrong when that wasn’t the case), and as much as we had wanted the other pancakes, we would have to wait another 30 mins, which we definitely did not want to do. So we settled with the crème brûlée pancakes, which I will say the food itself was very good. The chicken skillet had great classic French flavors, and the pancakes were pretty decent. However, we were informed by the time we had gotten those two items that the croissant wheel we wanted was not available (even though we were told that is an option because we couldn’t order the big croissant). Very disappointed again, and on top of that, we eventually did get the tiramisu pancakes but it was way too late for that. We were pretty full and they took our coffee from us as we wanted to pay then leave. I would have preferred if we had gotten the pancakes comped instead of getting more pancakes that we really didn’t wanted at that point. Overall, the lack of proper communication between FOH and BOH, sloppy menu design and advertising, and not-so-great drinks really made us feel neglected and disappointed. The food itself is the only reason why I’d give 2 stars...

This place was HORRIBLE. The ONLY reason I am giving this place 2 stars was because the waitress we finally got (after waiting 20-25 minutes at table for service) was adoring our 2 year old daughter and being super friendly with her. Also we stated we needed to leave relatively quickly due to the unnecessary wait and she put our orders in relatively quickly. Interior is gaudy beyond belief, and yes I was aware this was in a location next to every chain restaurant known to man, but Naperville is a higher end suburb and I assumed the residents would support a place that somewhat resembles French food, but it doesn't. This place has to be in business still because there are a bunch of boomer residents in Naperville that still like cheesy 90s restaurants like Chilis and Applebees....this is just the 'French version'. 20 people were waiting in line at 4:50pm and 10 employees just walked past everyone and said nothing....most servers were in their 40s and 50s and god bless them but they looked soulless, unhappy with their jobs, but this is an upgrade from their job tip wise from TGI Fridays 15 years ago. The charcuterie board had ZERO presentation....the meat and cheese was most likely bought at Aldi or Jewel in the pre-packaged plastic container food section and it was presented like what you would give your 2 year old for a snack before putting on Disney channel because the kid will be putting their booger crusted fingers all over it in 5 seconds. One appetizer, one glass of cabernet, 2 adult entrees, and one kids entree....no dessert and it was $165 after tip. I'm sorry if I am being a pretentious jerk but this place might appeal to a pimple faced 16 year old taking a date in hopes of getting lucky afterwards for the first time....but god this place needs to leave Naperville. Do not go here, you'll thank me later. I would've rather spent my $165 on a group of 10 people seeing a box office bomb that nobody...