La Cigale Récamier

My recent visit to Le Récamier left me utterly disappointed and frustrated with the abysmal level of service I encountered. Despite the restaurant's reputation, I had the worst experience I've ever had in my life, and it is something that I simply cannot overlook or dismiss.

Upon arrival, my excitement quickly turned into annoyance as we were left neglected and abandoned at our table. No waiter bothered to come over to attend to us. No menu, no one asking for drinks, no one to take our order. After 15 minutes, we flagged down the maître d' to get a menu. We thought she would also get a waiter to attend to us, but no. Another 20 minutes pass and still no one came to take our order or ask for drinks. The lack of attentiveness and initiative from the waitstaff only compounded our disappointment.

To add insult to injury, the level of neglect and indifference continued even after we placed our order. While the food arrived promptly, we never received our drinks. We had to ask the person bringing our food for our drinks.

Throughout the entire duration of our meal, not a single waiter bothered to check on us or inquire about our satisfaction with the food or service. We were essentially left to fend for ourselves, resorting to visiting the bar to request a refill on water.

After we had been finished with our meal for 20+ minutes, no one was around to bring us our dessert. We had no choice but to flag down the manager to get our check, since we didn't want dessert anymore at this point. He still brought out the dessert and he took the cost of the dessert off the check due to the bad service, but the entire dinner had already been spoiled by the awful experience.

Rather than expressing genuine remorse or acknowledging the inconvenience caused, the manager seemed completely apathetic and unaffected by the situation. The lack of empathy displayed by the manager was striking and left us feeling unheard and unvalued as customers.

Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that Le Récamier's reservation system is shockingly archaic and outdated. Instead of utilizing a modern reservation service, they rely on an antiquated contact form/email-based system.

To exacerbate the problem, the lack of responsiveness from the restaurant when it comes to alternative reservation options is deeply frustrating. In the event that your preferred time slot is unavailable, there is no effort made to suggest or accommodate an alternative time. The absence of proactive communication demonstrates a disregard for customer satisfaction and further highlights the restaurant's disorganized approach to customer service.

Overall this is the worst experience I've ever had, and would highly recommend you go elsewhere.

Wow! This was probably our most favorite place to eat during our Paris trip. A bit of a walk from our hotel, but we'll worth it! Nice quiet spot down an alley and since we ate early no one was there to slow service. The wait staff was friendly and knowledgeable.

We started our night ordering the cheese ravioli and the marbled ham as appetizers. We hoped both were hot, but once again the ham was cold which was fine because you eat cold ham on a sandwich. Both were really good, with the ravioli being one of the best things we ate all weekend.

Then came the soufflés! I ordered the Charles the IV and she ordered the goat cheese with black cherry jam. Mine was supposed to have roasted chicken but it was very hard to find if their at all. My wife loved hers and it looked delicious.

Then the dessert soufflés came out. I ordered the preserved fruit grand marnier and it was tasty. My wife ordered the pistachio and it was heavenly. Had I known she was aiming for the pistachio I'd of gotten the dark chocolate but too late now. Great experience all around!

Best meal in paris, I got three souffles here - escargot souffle, cheese souffle, and chocolate souffle. Each was cooked to perfection and I could have this everyday. I don't like souffles usually, but these changed my mind completely. The savory souffle was a perfect dinner option, while the sweet souffles were the perfect dessert. Even after having both, we were not completely stuffed and felt great :)

This was my favorite dinner in Paris! The service was friendly and the soufflés delicious.

I was thrilled with my escargot soufflé! Everyone loved their choice of soufflé and we finished with sweet soufflés for dessert. Yum.

This is my favorite place for soufflé in Paris! We landed in the pm and wanted to grab dessert before they close at 10pm on a Thursday night. We got there at 9:45pm, and were seated right away at the outdoor patio. Service was great. At a little after 10pm, chef came out and hang out with "the regulars", we made eye contact and he came to our table, kissed our hands and gave a a very warm welcome. Beautiful local gem.

Not sure why there are negative reviews. This place is a gem! Also, the service was above and beyond outstanding. Literally everyone working there was polite and attentive. My friend and I kept ordering more dishes and each was better than the next. I truly loved the snail soufflé. I also had the cheese soufflé, Grand mariner soufflé and chocolate soufflé. All were epically delicious.

I liked this place so much I came back the next night. It was a very chill atmosphere and if you aren't uptight or needy you'll very much so enjoy it here. And this is coming from a New Yorker.

It was raining, cold and February but i wanted to sit outside, as did others who were there. The heaters gave ample warmth and the tent kept the rain out. It was actually pretty poetic. I will most certainly be returning when I'm back in Paris in a few months.

On our first night in Paris, we went for a stroll around the neighborhood looking for a place to eat. We found La Cigale Recamier a few blocks away. It was actually a bit comical because the restaurant was pretty empty when we arrived around 6:30. We asked if we could be seated, and the woman told us, "I can give you a table, but you have to leave by 8:30." Staring at the totally empty restaurant, I kind of went, "OK...." We were in and out well before the deadline. That weirdness aside, we did have a nice little dinner here and committed death by souffle. We ordered a bottle of pinot noir and the foie gras for an appetizer. The plate came to the table with two thick slices of foie gras and some sliced bread (note we later learned that it is NOT OK to smear your foie gras on the bread... you are supposed to cut a piece and place it on top of your bread). Then my husband ordered the mushroom souffle and I got the classic cheese. Both were excellent accompanied by awesome sauces. They were poofy and high when they hit the table and warm and moist in the middle. For dessert, our waiter basically told us we were getting the Grand Marnier dessert souffle, which came to the table perfectly caramelized and served with the entire bottle of Grand Marnier and a "serve yourself" type of attitude. It was all delicious - though in retrospect, it was a pretty rich dinner. We would go back again!

I went here a few years ago for soufflé and only soufflé because it servers the most variety. I couldn't remember the name until now when I went back to Paris.

Although these soufflés don't come in a frying pan they are very well done. It's a lovely treat for those that are soufflé lovers!

My friend and I were surprised that it was so busy on a Monday evening when typically Paris is dead. We made a reservation so we could experience it.

Atmosphere: classic white tables and traditional Parisian service

So glad I found this little gem as it is perfect to pop into after hitting Hermès! Just thinking about the pastry encrusted chicken in a mustard sauce makes my mouth water and the little dessert soufflé was perfect! And where else can you find a place with good food and a display of good books to read! Nice tucked away location, too!

We went specifically for the souffles.

It turned cold tonight and while we didn't have reservations, we were seated immediately in the outdoor patio area. No problem - except the outdoor heaters were not working. There was a 4 piece band playing about 10 feet away, which made it almost impossible to hear anything else.

We asked a few questions of a food runner, who spoke english and answered our questions, up until our server arrived and immediately shooed him off dismissively.

At this point, I'd like to specifically call out our actual server, for her exceptionally abysmal service, attitude and attention to detail. After she told the runner to leave, she took our orders, including the 4 dessert souffles that she insisted we order at that time.

Three of our dinner orders were correct, but the 4th was completely wrong. This shouldn't have been a problem at all, had she cared enough to actually check in with us at any time during our meal, but she never did. The best view that I had of her, was of her picking her teeth while grabbing silverware.

Sadly, I don't know the name of this particular blot on service workers, but I can tell you that her ponytail swished back and forth with urgency, entirely unlike her service. She would be better as a dominatrix.

On the flip side, credit is due to Tanya, who reseated us from the cold, loud outdoor area to the inside.

Credit also goes to Tanya, for expediting our dessert souffle orders, after we asked about them following a long delay and she said they were never entered into the system by Madame Ponytail.

As far as entertainment goes, Ponytail spent most of her energy, sneering at the other restaurant workers, rather than attending to what she should have been doing.

My only wish, is that she worked for me, so I could kick her to the curb, where she belongs.

Food good.
On a scale of 1-10, 10 being best, our server rated a negative 37. Utter crap.