Brasserie Les Enfants Terribles

We were a party of 6 in our early 20s and had a reservation for 8:30 on a Thursday night. We were speaking English to one another but all of us are fluent in French. Upon entering the very crowded and cramped restaurant at 8:25, we were told that our table wasn't ready yet. There were no seats for the 6 of us and we had no choice but to stand in the narrow passageway between tables, making it difficult for the servers to pass and unintentionally uncomfortably hovering over customers who were already seated.

By 8:45, our table still wasn't ready, and upon inquiring, the hostess said that the party was taking a long time to eat and she couldn't do anything about it. She added that there was a note in our reservation that we'd be willing to wait, which she was sure to point out by the word "dattendre" under our name on the screen. We were told there could be a five minute wait upon making the reservation, not a half hour wait! Finally, we left the restaurant at 9:00, but it is certainly not easy to find space for 6 people on Bernard without a reservation.

About 5 minutes after leaving, we received a call saying our table was now ready and returned to Les Enfants Terribles. As the busboy was setting the table with wine glasses, the waiter said in French "no wine glasses for them, they won't be needing them" as if we didn't understand. Three of us did in fact order cocktails (at $12 a glass, may I add,) but two of the drinks had no alcohol whatsoever in them. When we told the waiter there was no alcohol in them, he didn't even deny it, and instead said "I'll get you a new one."

As the waiter was taking our orders, I told him that we had waited over half an hour for our table and said I hope something could be done. When he returned, he said that he was told that we were told that there would be a wait and consequently there was nothing that could be done. There was no apology whatsoever and the blame seemed to be put on us. This is absolutely absurd, given that we were told that there could be a 5 minute wait, not over a 30-minute one. That long a wait is simply unacceptable for any establishment, much less a restaurant with Les Enfants Terribles' jacked-up prices.

The food itself was good, and once we were seated, the service was prompt. Nevertheless, one could find the same quality of food for a cheaper price elsewhere in the city, and certainly with better service.

Overall, it was a "terrible" experience (pun intended). I sincerely hope that the management of Les Enfants Terribles reads this review and realizes that a paying customer is a paying customer, whether they are young or old or speak English or French, and deserve to be treated with the same amount of respect. All customers also have the ability to tarnish the restaurant's name by writing a negative review online. Guess I just did that!

It was the worst dining experience I've ever experienced. The service was terrible and charge was ridiculous. A glass of champagne for $21!!! The owner should be reported as the worst crook and all travelers should warned of this location. They overcharged my credit card, etc. I really left feeling horrible about the experience and then to find out that they completely screwed on my credit card charge.