Le Bistrot Paul Bert

Lovely night at this bistro celebrating my boyfriends birthday. I had been before 2 years ago and loved it. It did not disappoint and really enjoyed our meals. The wine list was a little overwhelming and big we had no idea what to order, but our waiter helped us. The 4/5 score as and the fish was very expensive for simple fish with boiled potatoes (nearly the same price as steak for 2 persons) it was really nice but the comparison was significant. Scallops were 10/10. Lastly they wouldn’t give butter with the bread, which was strange.

My friend and I were walk in. We were lucky to be seated, although super busy for dinner. Amazing food!! We loved the steak and potato dish. For desserts, it was hard to pick just two. I will come back ! Most staff spoke English too.

If you really know good food from poor then don’t - just don’t do it. Everyone else won’t notice, and unfortunately that is why we have the below experience. 1. Ordered foie gras and received country pate, got it corrected (however that is a classic tourist trick). 2. Oeufs dure with Caviar $35 euros - was served with cheap lumpfish roe, which is a substitute for caviar. Market price is $5 per $50g, as opposed to the real stuff which is $400 for 50g. Another tourist trick. 3. Fries that came with filet mignon - hard and overcooked. Filet mignon itself was good, but they gave the tourist very old fries instead of fresh. 4. Pari Brest dessert did not meet expectations unfortunately. Crème was not flavored.

First, let me say that I gave Bistro Paul Bert a bonus point because we did not research the menu ahead of time. Bistro Paul Bert serves mainly beef dishes, and a pork item for variation. This did not serve us well for two reasons - two of our party are only sporadic meat eaters, and to the American pallet (at least mine) French beef is usually inferior in quality to restaurant beef found in the United States, and in this case that was certainly the case. I evaluate a restaurant based on 3 factors. They are, in order of importance, meal quality, service and ambiance. The ambiance in Paul Bert was fine. It’s a comfortable place to eat, tables are arranged nicely, and you definitely get the feel of a French bistro. Service and meal quality were not so good. My daughter asked our waiter for a wine recommendation, which he provided. However, when the wine arrived it came as a single glass, not the bottle that we expected. When we were finally able to capture his attention, he brought the entire wine list back for another go and took away the untouched glass. This went from minor to irritating when the mistakenly served glass showed up on the bill. Then, when we placed our food order, one steak was ordered “bien cuit”, but arrived more like medium rare. To be fair, this may have been an error in the kitchen, but we had to send the steak back and the second time around it had been cooked all the way up to medium. Come on. In addition to being prepared not as ordered, the steaks were just not very good cuts of meat. They were drowned in a pepper sauce that was overwhelming and the meats were very gristled. The tomato salad was made with some pretty mushy tomatoes. The artichoke starter was well-prepared and tasty. By the end of the starters and mains we were done with Bistro Paul Bert, and declined desert. When we brought the issue of the charge for the glass of wine that was brought by mistake, the restaurant did remove the charge. Sorry to say, it’s one and done for Bistro Paul Bert as far as we are concerned. Bistro Paul Bert is in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. Dinner for 4, including wine, a bottle of sparkling water, starters and mains, but no desert, was 151 euros.