Kong Bar - Paris - Reviews & Contact Details

Please read this review and take heed of my advice. Let me first say that what I have written here is a complete and honest account of my experience at Kong in Paris. My girlfriend and I have travelled the world and have experienced culinary delights from all walks of life. We have dined in 3* Michelin restaurants as well as family run eateries known only by local tradesman. I would say that I have a well rounded view on what makes for a worthy restaurant…. And by worthy what I mean is worthy of existence! I was expecting a trendy spot serving haute cuisine with expert service. Unfortunately I received a somewhat overly tacky cafeteria style restaurant with sub standard food and terrible service. The décor of the main restaurant was gauche. It failed miserably to reach the level of style it was aiming for. Actually being in the glass walled room made it feel incredibly cheap which, given the prices on the menu was its first serious failing. I was particularly surprised by the fact that the view out the windows was relatively poor (part of the bridge and river, the rest was roads and non-descript buildings). The dining room is small, probably can seat no more than 50 covers. I would imagine that the glass walls were a way to make the room feel larger than it was and distract you from the fact that you are almost in the lap of the diner on the next table. Secondly what surprised me was the size of the menu, there were over a hundred dishes to choose from. If you are a fan of Anthony Bourdin you will know that a big indicator as to the quality of the restaurant is the size of the menu. A large menu indicates many ingredients, as fresh ingredients are expensive for restaurants those with large menu’s will re-use as much as possible or go for cheaper quality. I would argue that Kong’ management have opted for the latter. The wine list was adequate albeit expensive for the quality you get. I actually knew some of the wines on the menu and had visited the vineyards personally. The mark up on the wines that I knew were almost unbelievable, I am talking margins of 1000% in some cases! I started with the soft shell crab whilst my girlfriend had the fois gras with celeriac puree. The soft shell crabs were fine, possibly a little greasy. The fois gras was bland, poorly prepared and presented. Given that the starters were in the region of £20 each I was expecting something far better than that which we received. I have had much better for far less in many other establishments. For the main course I selected the fillet steak whilst my girlfriend opted for the tuna steak. We were asked as to our preference for the cooking time of our respective steaks. I asked for the fillet to be rare whilst the tuna was to be seared. When we were finally presented with our main dishes I was extremely disappointed to see that the Tuna had taken on the dull, canned, brown colour which was further compounded when cutting through the middle to find no trace of red whatsoever. The phrase seared was clearly not understood by the waiter, or acknowledged. The fillet similarly had been over cooked. I asked for rare and received medium to well. Again we are talking of main course around £35 and would expect a lot more bang for my buck. When we called the waiter over we indicated as to the problem, he apologised and took our plates away. Within a few minutes another waiter who I was informed was called Marc (or Mark) told me that although the tuna was over done, he had consulted the chef to tell me that the fillet was cooked rare. I literally couldn’t believe what I was being told, supposedly in a fine restaurant in Paris the gastronomic centre of the world I was actually being told that a steak which was clearly not cooked rare was in fact rare, and what was worse was that the chef has refused to cook another one! Regardless of your thoughts on whether a steak should be cooked as to the liking of the chef or the diner, I was so shocked that the waiter / manager was treating me so badly that I told him to take the steak away and take it off the bill. Whilst still regaling my girlfriend with the preposterousness of what had just happened, the waiter / manager (Marc / Mark) returned to the table asking us to leave, but not before we had paid €90 for the bottle of wine and two starters. We were then shown the door and I couldn’t have been happier to leave. I almost want to tell people to go there and see what it is like just so that they can experience what I am talking about. The type of people frequenting this restaurant are utter morons, I don’t mean that rudely either. I read another review on this page talking about how this restaurant is featured in sex and the city… for me that sums it all up! Now that I think about it… don’t go to this restaurant!