Review: Le 1818, Paris

Reviewed by Ruman
There are few things that outrage us when travelling. After a long day exploring a city, all you want to do is have a sit-down meal at a nice restaurant. But what do you do when said restaurant serves you overcooked, overpriced and underwhelming food?
We walked in to Le 1818 during our first evening in Paris. Having seen a few London based bloggers share what seemed to be positive posts about the restaurant we didn’t hesitate to order one of the most expensive steaks on the menu. The restaurant itself was pretty standard in its decor with seating across two floors. The walls upstairs had images of New York on canvases and a few plants were dotted around the restaurant.

For starters, we ordered a dish which consisted of shrimp with avocado and grapefruit. Having visited a few halal ‘fine dining’ restaurants in Paris, it seems this is a popular dish on Parisian menus. I’m not a fan of cold food although this dish was better than we had expected. However, a wedge of lime instead of a slice would have been better so that we could squeeze it onto the dish. Without it, the dish felt quite bland. The sharpness from the grapefruit worked well with the shrimp and avocado but there wasn’t enough of it on the plate to satisfy our palates.

One of our main courses was the Filet de bouef (beef fillet) served with baby potatoes and perigourdine sauce. At €29, we expected this to be the star of the show. We asked for the beef to be cooked medium and were incredibly disappointed to find that it had been served well done. We called the waiter and he commented that that’s what they consider to be medium. This was such a let down as overcooking the meat had meant the flavour of the beef wasn’t there. The cut itself didn’t taste like a high quality piece of meat and was pretty dry. On the bright side, at least the potatoes were nice.

The second main was the Le 1818 beef burger. Given this was the only burger on their menu (and priced at €21), we expected nothing less than an amazing burger. Once again, we were disappointed. The burger that came to our table looked like a quarter pounder from your local chicken shop. The burger was made up of lettuce, tomato, red onions, gherkins, beef bacon and a ‘secret sauce’. The cheese on the burger resembled the plastic-like American cheese you get in fast food chains. Again, their version of ‘medium’ was overcooked. In terms of taste, it was nothing special – the bread overpowered the patty and the tomato placed under the patty resulted in a soggy base.

I had ordered my burger off a set menu (starter, main and dessert for €30) and opted for the French toast served with a salted caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream as my dessert. Thankfully, all was not lost as I enjoyed the dessert. The french toast was thick and the sauce made it quite sweet. The vanilla ice cream was a nice touch.

Overall, we felt that the restaurant was incredibly overpriced given the quality of what we were served. Our bill totalled €63.50 – as far as value for money is considered, this was the equivalent of taking a stack of Euros and setting them on fire. In case it wasn’t obvious, we wouldn’t recommend Le 1818 – there are restaurants in Paris which serve much better food for a reasonable price. If you’re looking for a fine dining restaurant in Paris, we’d recommend Le Crystal instead. The prices are similar and the food is much better.
RATINGS
Food: 4/10
Service: 7/10
Atmosphere/Decor: 6/10
Value for money: 3/10 (€63.50/£56.00 total bill // €31.75pp/£28pp)
Overall: 5/10
Halal Status: All meat served is halal.
Address: 2 Rue de Sontay, 75016 Paris, France
Nearest stations: Victor Hugo
You can view our guide to the best halal restaurants in Paris here.

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About Ruman

Ruman eats a brownie a day, but only with coffee. She struggles to eat more than 2/3 of an adult size portion of food, but always has room for dessert. When not exploring restaurants, galleries or cities around the world, Ruman is a Marketing Ninja at Halal Gems, where she also holds the title of Chief Chocolate Officer.
Forever consumed by a mixture of wanderlust and FOMO, her interests include all things social media, travel, charity, photography and food.
You can follow Ruman on Instagram and Twitter.