Au Vieux Paris

Décor: 8/10 Food: 2/10 Service: 0/10 As you pass a little charming street next to Notre Dame you cannot miss a beautiful looking restaurant where a charming waiter invites you to visit the upstairs room to see the décor. We happily decided to book a table for the evening. The menu looked promising and included a surprise menu for €45 per person. I was naturally excited with the thought of eating there and opted for the surprise menu. However, if one chooses this menu diners at the same table must have it as well according to restaurant rules. My wife and my cousin had to comply with it if I was to be a happy diner. The menu a la carte looked attractive enough and we assumed that the surprise menu would follow suit. How wrong we were. The surprise menu comprised of three starters, a main course and desert. The disappointment came with the first starter, six little, uninspiring pancakes with vegetables, some hot some cold, which had hardly any vegetable taste. Then came a tomato gazpacho. It tasted out of a tin. We couldn’t finish it. This was followed by a slice of terrine de fois gras. It was very cold, heavy and waiting to be dumped on any plate. After these three starters I was very disappointed not to mention my wife and my cousin who hadn’t chosen this menu. We, however, were still hoping that the main course would meet our expectations and lift our mood. It consisted of two small pieces of chicken and the end of a leg of duck mainly skin and bone and poor looking vegetables tasting already sour. The desert is not worth mentioning. It followed the category of the food we had.. As we walked downstairs to pay our bill, we decided to give our opinion to the waiter. This is when the second surprise came. He was not amused with our complaint and became very angry, saying it was our fault that we chose the surprise menu, knowing full well what he would serve us. We paid €209 for three people including 1 ½ bottles of wine. The food was absolutely appalling and sub-standard. We felt totally cheated and treated very badly. If you don’t want a bad surprise, just avoid this restaurant.