Restaurant Cafe de la Paix - Reims

Potentially a fatal encounter at this restaurant, due to a complete lack of care regarding food allergies. Although we don’t live in France, we speak good French and have travelled here frequently. The first potentially legally culpable party in this encounter is The Fork review site as I listed all the food allergies when making the booking, but the restaurant claims not to have received them. Upon reviewing my communications, I noticed that the confirmation email I received didn't contain the message I wrote at the time of making the reservation, which is a failure in the booking system implemented by The Fork. We arrived early as we try to book when a restaurant first opens, so it isn’t too busy and the kitchen can take extra precautions when preparing the food. After asking a few questions about the menu the waitress offered to bring us the list of allergens. It turns out the item we wanted to order included one of the allergens we needed to avoid and although we were offered to have the item removed in the kitchen, we said we’d prefer to order something which was free of any allergen we wanted to avoid. When the dish was delivered, there was a slight pink sauce accompaniment, which looked suspicious (one of the allergens we need to avoid is Shellfish). We asked a waiter what was in the sauce, and he went to ask a more senior member of staff. They came back and repeated the description given on the menu (cream sauce with citronella). I insisted that they check with the kitchen to see if there wasn’t any shellfish in the dish after all, they soon came back and confirmed that there was in fact Shellfish. I pointed out to the waiter that the allergy list doesn’t include shellfish in the list of allergens. I also noted that one of the other dishes (Foie Gras starter) apparently had peanuts in the dish. Unless peanut oil was used, it was clear that no peanuts are to be found in this disk, it was also wrongly listed. My suspicion is that the Allergy list at this restaurant is a fantasy – it was almost certainly put together by someone other than the Chef and without any regard for accuracy. The restaurant is legally culpable in this situation had anything gone wrong. The restaurant manager tried to approach us to discuss the situation, but we were too angry to speak coherently and walked out shortly thereafter, the severity of the potentially fatal outcome having started to sink in. I hesitated to write this review, but it could potentially save a life. The reality is that many people suffer from potentially life-threatening allergies, this is also true in France, which is why restaurants are now legally obliged to provide a list of allergens in the dishes they serve. My message to the restaurant is that you have comprehensively failed in your legal responsibility to ensure that you have systems and processes in place to enable diners to inform you of their food allergies, and that those are then communicated to the kitchen, where adequate care is taken. This was not a case of cross-contamination, which we understand is impossible to mitigate against and a risk we are willing to take in certain circumstances. This is a case of allergens being used in a dish which clearly states they are not present and then serving them to a customer who has clearly stated they are allergic to them. The staff in the restaurant are not to blame, the Management and the Chef of the restaurant are to blame for not taking this seriously enough. On several occasions when eating at similar restaurants in France the front of house staff acknowledged that the allergy information had been received and that the chef was aware. The waiting staff then acknowledged this information every time a dish was served, to reassure us that the circle had been closed. If the restaurant wishes to get in touch please do so and I would be happy to discuss this in more detail.

It’s ok but only ok. The service was good but tailed off pretty quickly. It’s a typical hotel restaurant looks good, feels good but somehow feels anodyne and with little oomph. The entrecôte was far from good. If you want a relatively cheap bistro meal in a bustle place it ticks the box but that is about the limit of its ambition or success.

1 star because it was clean and nicely decorated inside 1 star for the half bottle of nice wine 1 star because the food was edible We had a reservation at 7pm; we were seated inside. The restaurant was empty, we were the only table inside. Within 5 minutes, they seated another table directly next to us. The restaurant remained empty for another 30 minutes. We ordered the zucchini starter and the avocado starter. The avocado starter was ok. The zucchini starter was a pile of raw zucchini, cut into ribbons, with feta on it, a drizzle of olive oil at the bottom of the zucchini pile. We ordered the sea bass with balsamic cream, and the mixed grill plate. The sea bass was cooked alright, with a small drizzle of straight balsamic vinegar on it, and a pile of mushy zucchini noodles on the side. Except the balsamic, the dish had no flavor. The mixed grill meat was overcooked (all 5 different meats), and the side of ratatouille was not heated through (hot container, cold middle). We skipped dessert. The food is uninspired and poorly executed. Don't waste your time and money, go elsewhere.

We had dinner at Café de la Paix and it was good. The food was fresh and tasty. The service was extremely friendly and efficient.

The host of the coffee restaurant peace seemed stressed and warned us that since the kitchen was very busy, we would need at least 30 minutes before receiving food. We told him that we don't mind waiting. It turned out to be a very good choice. We were shown a sidewalk table, partially shaded by one of the giant umbrellas of the coffee. Given the warning, we were a little surprised when our server arrived almost immediately. she, with an assistant working in our patio section, teamed up to provide a fantastic service. We both ordered the roasted chicken breast in a garlic cream sauce with one side of fries. while we were walking around a carafe of home roses, the plates arrived after only a short wait. The chicken was perfectly cooked and very tasty. the fries were crispy and a beautiful golden brown. overall, a very good experience.