Bar Tabac — Restaurant in New York

One of my talents is that I have a very sensitive palate, along with a strong sense of smell. My mother always said “one must have an educated palate”, so I take great pleasure in delicious food and never settle for less.

We came in for a late lunch, after 3pm. We ordered escargot (snails), goat cheese salad, and the moules frites (mussels and fries). Unfortunately we were served stale bread and the butter had a fridge taste. When ordering Escargot 🐌, you would expect to have fresh bread to dip in the sauce. The bread was hard as a rock, and so was the bread served with the goat cheese salad - it is an accompaniment toasted with a goat cheese spread, it was so hard we could not bite into it. After we mentioned to the server that the bread was too hard, his response was "no one else complained", but it was obvious they knew the bread was not fresh, toasting it did not help. The bartender who came to our table as we mentioned this to him as well, simply played it off, and we were eventually provided a bread that was soft, but it was obviously old as well, and by that time, we had finished our escargot and salad. This really made our lunch experience unpleasant. We did enjoyed the moules frites, salad, if you exclude the hard rock toast, and escargot, but the bread played a large role in our meal and was not the fresh bread one would expect. They were very busy with many tables, and understaffed, and when they brought us our moules frites and did not take the empty plate i was holding in hand to allow enough space on our table, I was left with the plate in hand, that I brought back to the service station. As customers we look for an experience with food and ambiance. We did not feel very welcome. If some of your staff is francophone why the lack of enthusiasm when another francophone comes to your establishment and converse in French?!

If I can give some advice, honesty goes a long way. I would have understood if we were told in advance that you did not have fresh bread so we could order accordingly. We would have been a bit disappointed, but we would have appreciated the proper advice - sometimes delivery doesn’t make it on time. Was that the case with your bread?

So, for the hard rock bread, butter that taste like the fridge, and not so welcoming staff, I regretfully give your establishment a thumbs down 👎🏼 Thankfully the moules were fresh and delicious, and the salad and escargot were good. I would be happy to give your establishment another try for an improved...

When we first entered bar tabac yesterday, we found the atmosphere to be very charming and cute. The music was good and the decor fun. We sat at our table, ordered drinks and a bread basket (what respectful French restaurant even charges for bread) and that’s where the story begins. The waiter brings out what looks and tasted like week old, stale bread that was heated in the microwave. It was chewy yet crumbly and even the tiny drop of butter that came with the $4 basket, couldn’t soften it. I sent it back. The waiter brought us a new basket with bread cut from the same loaf as the previous. We didn’t touch it and let the waiter know, again, that it was inedible after we finished our otherwise decent meal. He didn’t take note of it and left it on the check. We called over a different waiter with long blonde hair tied in a bun (didn’t we leave man buns back in pre-pandemic times?) and told him we had no intention of paying for the week-old bread they brought us. He proceeded to make a snarky comment under his breath like a hormonal teenage girl. I asked him to repeat the comment and like a teenager who’d just learned what customer service means, he said “I’m glad we are customer service first at this establishment,” which clearly wasn’t the same as his first comment. We paid and exited and as we walk on to the street, him and his coworker both send us a look and a fake smile while waving over-enthusiastically and saying they were happy we had a great time. How French, HA: passive aggressive to the bone and without the capability to handle any sort of criticism. If he had just politely taken the bread off the check, I wouldn’t even had thought to leave a review (mostly because it was just an ok experience—nothing wow about this place). But here we are. Don’t go to Bar Tabac who clearly does NOT know what customer service is and should be taught...

Bar Tabac is a wonderful bistro, truly reminiscent of and modeled after a real Parisian bistro, in large measure due to the fact that the owners are French! Indeed, Bar Tabac, although a bit more casual than Bacchus on Atlantic Avenue, which I have reviewed previously, is related to Bacchus, in that the owners of both restaurants are French. The two restaurants celebrate July 14th, the French independence day, and Smith Street, on which Bar Tabac is located, is partially closed on that day, so that players can celebrate by playing the French equivalent of bacchi ball, pataque (?), which is a big game in French.

I love Bar Tabac because you do truly feel as if you are in Paris, due to their decorations and their menu, which is quite French, with delicious French fries and poulet and caffe, etc. There are bistro style tables surrounding the restaurant on the outside, for they have a license for an outdoor cafe, and it is truly fun to sit outdoors on Smith Street, or on Dean Street, and while away the hours on a gorgeous Brooklyn sunny Sunday afternoon!!! Their wine and beer list is wonderful (as is the wine list at Bacchus, which is very special. I am not certain whether Bacchus serves beer). Also, to add to the ambiance of sitting outdoors on Dean Street, there is an adorable bakery and coffee/hot chocolate/hot apple cider in the fall, shop right next door to Bar Tabac, entitled "One Girl Cookie". Suffice it to say that one can while away many magical hours in "One Girl Cookie" reading or working on the computer. I will try to review this place separately.

Since this is a review of Bar Tabac, let me just reiterate that I love it here dearly, for its style and its food, especially on a Sunday afternoon, either indoors or out, and recommend this very special bistro...