Chez Cécile

Made a reservation through the restaurant's website; an email from the booking system they use (uniiti.com) quickly followed stating that the reservation would be confirmed shortly. That confirmation came an hour later.

Fast forward to the evening of the reservation, where we're arriving to a dark, closed restaurant. On a Saturday evening, no less.

Unacceptable incompetence.

We just had dinner at Chez Cecile. The service was bad, the setting is worn, and the food was bad. The bill was wrong. And it was expensive as well!

None of the reviews on Yelp or Zagat are recent. It must have changed ownership a while ago. I feel foolish I didn't vet the restaurant better.

John A., Denver

We had dinner at Chez Cecile as they were open late enough to accomodate us for a dinner reservation after attending the ballet/opera at Palais Garnier monday night. Tiny and homey restaurant, Staff was very hospitable and our waiter spoke spanish, french, and english and was very knowledgable of the menu and made some great recommendations when we were torn on dishes.

We ordered from their 3 course menu for 39euros/pp. For appetizer, I ordered Tartare de waabi bleu, mouillettes "Pont-Neuf" au beurre d'algues which was essentially a serving of conch meat "tartare" on buttered bread. Think butter with a side of bread. For my entree, I ordered L'agneau des Pyrénées dans tous ses états, farandole de haricots aka Lamb served three ways: lamb chop, curried or cumin? lamb in a ceramic pot, with a side of beans. For dessert, I chose Sabayon aux fruits du moment which happened to be Sabayon over figs. I love figs and the sabayon was pretty warm and delish.

Manfriend ordered the Mandoline de légumes craquants et "glacés", vinaigrette citron vert et gingembre aka mandolined veggies consisting of beets, carrots, etc in a tasty lemon vinagerette. For dinner, he ordered Belles gambas "Qwelhy", riz sauvage créole et crème au saté (creole stew with shrimp and sausage that had tons of spices and quite hearty). For dessert, he ordered Le retour du millefeuille croustillant aux trois crèmes (more like a SPIN on the millefeuille dessert where the "millefeuille" pastry was more like towers of crackers with creme in between. Interesting now CRACK and eat.

Gastronomic generosities to titillate your palate
During my multiple visits I have always been impressed, both by the quality and the inventiveness of the food. Mr. Pitré is without any doubt an excellent and passionate chef. This translates into well presented dishes to tempt the most fastidious taste, into gastronomic generosities to titillate the palate. Madame Cecile is a wonderful hostess, a true professional of the restaurant business. With her one feels the ambition to become one of the better addresses in Paris. If the décor might somewhat seem less inspirational, please do not hesitate and enter, bearing in mind that the value for money is fantastic. All this makes Chez Cécile easily my favourite restaurant when I am in Paris.