Chez L'Ami Louis Restaurant in Paris?
 

We've been given this name as a great bistro, but I haven't seen anything about it on this site. Has anyone been there, and can you comment on it?

It's well known and a celebrity favorite in some circles, but evidently quite expensive.

I think it is hard to get reservations there also. One of my husbands clients once offered to call and get us a table when we were on our way to Paris-their roast chicken is wonderful, the room has not changed since it was first opened. It is very small and it is a little on the expensive side.

http://clinton2.nara.gov/WH/New/Euro.../990616-8.html

You can get an idea of what it is like from this photo..

I had a wonderful dinner there. It's a very simple restaurant but very expensive and it's always full with politics and jet set people.You have to book well in advance and at the time we were dinning, a family who was a regular at the restaurant, from what I understood, had reservations but when they arrived they were told they would still have to wait for an hour or so. It's a very small restaurant. If you are staying in a good hotel , ask them to make reservations for you right now. We did them through the Ritz and did it by the time we booked the hotel. The food is superb.

annieladd
Last time I was there a few years ago, 5/6 reservations where as said and additionaly they did not take credit cards. So check before going.
The food was very good.

Chez l’ami Louis

This place is clearly a tourist trap, designed for the American tourist. It is more what a Hollywood producer would create to imitate a 1940’s style French restaurant, a la Hemmingway. It is a complete rip-off. The fois gras was bland, at 28 Euros a pop unbelievably overpriced. The jambon was tasteless. The chicken was greasy, the ‘French fries’ were cold. Again, the cost of 120 euros for the main course is at least 10 times what it should be!
No country style French restaurant charges this much. Real ‘country cooking’ style restaurant serve fresh food and are reasonably priced. The overpriced restaurants in Paris are very luxurious affairs, where you are treated like a star (at a price), not country style cuisine places. A roast chicken is NOT gourmet food. It should be crispy, succulent and not more than 10 euros. Otherwise you are being taken for a ride.
You can go to any corner bistro in Paris and get very nice French cuisine for a reasonable price.

Have a look at this food critique. It seems way over the top, but unfortunately I agree with every sentence:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/fe...i-louis-201104

and seven years later the point is ?

Hi socal,

FS had nothing to do today and resurrected a very old thread to slam a resto.

A competitor, perhaps?

((I))

Interesting.

That Vanity Fair article first made its appearance here 4 months ago. Why bring it up again now?

Well, I didn't see it previously, and thought it was a riot. Best (worst) restaurant review I've read in a long while.

I love this place. Been there 4 or 5 times. Yes it is overpriced but almost everything you eat is good. The foie gras especially so.

Most of the patrons are French.

It opens about 8PM.

I have never seen anyone wait for a table for more than a few minutes.

Go splurge have fun.

"<i>FS had nothing to do today and resurrected a very old thread to slam a resto.</i>" . . . After he first took the time to register.

jeeze -- and how does a Fodors virgin even <i>find</i> a 7 year old thread??

People are allowed to comment on whatever they want, as long the place isn't closed, I don't see how it isn't relevant. And that article wasn't written by a competitor. I serioulsy doubt if French restauranteurs go around posting on Fodors to slam "competitors", which in this case, wouldn't even have a reasonable definition as to who would be in direct competition with that restaurant. There was another thread recently by someone asking for expensive restaurants and if they were "worth it", so this would seem to fit right in with anyone searching for those type of comments and for remarks on this restaurant.

I read that article in VF and enjoyed it. I wouldn't eat there anyway, but I think people are entitled to know about it.