Parisian Bistro

My husband and I went to this restaurant on a Saturday night eager to see a new venue here in Dearborn. Walking up to the restaurant, two employees were hanging out near the back entrance apparently on a break – drinking sodas and having loud conversation. Upon entering the restaurant, the décor was nice (that’s where the ½ star is derived). That’s about where it ended. There were skimpily clad teenagers milling about in what appeared to be dance clothes (at 7pm), not one patron in the restaurant – other than my husband and myself. I had a $ 25 gift coupon toward our meal which they refused to honor saying that «they weren’t accepting them anymore as of May 1^st» but the coupon had been purchased May 12^th – after their alleged cancellation of the coupons. The owner said that he was losing business because of these gift coupons and that he would only give us 10% off our meal rather than honor a purchase gift coupon. Well, needless to say, he lost our business and if the empty restaurant at 7:00 pm on a Saturday night is any indication of this establishment’s success, Dearborn will probably have another spot on Michigan Avenue to lease to someone who knows the restaurant business.

If I had written this review 6 months ago, this would have been a 4 star review. It saddens me to say that things change, and not always for the better.
My party walked in, got seated, and was promptly greeted by a smiling proprietor who was, admittedly, very gracious. He thanked us for coming and informed us that the place was under new management and had a new chef from one of his other establishments. *Alarm Bells!* He returned several times during the meal and informed us that Ford employees receive a discount and gave us some cards for a deal on our next visit. «Cool!», I thought, «A restaurant owner that cares about his customers! Maybe they fixed the sometimes slow service!»
Sadly, such was not the case. In fact, his greeting should have been «Welcome to the Parisian Bistro! It’s under new management so we decided to change everything you used to like! But we kept the crappy service! It’s on US!»
First and foremost, I give you, the Cream of Broccoli soup. It used to be the best I’d had. Cream of Brocolli soup is normally not my favorite, but this, THIS was something different. It wasn’t a thick stew filled with chopped broccoli stems and overcooked floret remnants. It was a smooth, creamy, almost white soup base, deliciously salty, with chunks of whole, fresh, broccoli floret. It was the REASON I went to Parisian Bistro. THE FREAKING REASON! The «replacement» was everything I dislike about most Cream of Broccoli. Cooked to oblivion, all stems, floating in a thick mélange of dead floret bits.
The second change? Bread. Parisian Bistro used to serve a basket of hot, crispy, buttery, heavenly bread with their meals. It was the perfect compliment to the soup and I would often ask them to hold off bringing the soup out until the bread was coming too. Part of the slow service was the fact that the bread was often not ready when we ordered but we accepted that as a sacrifice for fresh bread. Now there IS no hot, crispy, buttery, heavenly bread. In fact, there is no bread at all. And they’ll get it out to you at a half past never.
Lastly, the meal. I used to enjoy their entrees immensely. My friends normally went cheap and got sandwiches or wraps. This time around I got a sandwich, which was probably the right choice. I’m not sure WHAT the menu wizards have done with the entrees but considering their other changes, I’m sure it wasn’t good. I ordered the Philly Steak sandwich and fries. The sandwich itself was tiny and had shredded CHEDDAR cheese on it. I don’t know what world this restaurant exists in, but in MY world, Philly Steaks don’t have orange, shredded, cheddar on them. Unless I’m at Veterans Stadium and it’s cheddar flavored Cheez Whiz, the only thing orange on my cheese steak should be NOTHING. Failing that Eagles Football scenario the cheese should just be provolone. This wasn’t that kind of cheese steak. It was a sandwich. And it had steak, and it had cheese, but Philly it was not. It wasn’t bad for what it was, it just wasn’t a Philly Steak Sandwich and it was small. To top it off, the heavily seasoned fries neglected to include SALT as one of the seasonings. Tasteless. I could barely finish them and I’m the sort of guy who FINISHES HIS FREAKING FRIES.
But the worst part, the absolute WORST part of the meal, was the flat screen TV in the bar area stuck on the «Smooth Jazz» station. I HATE SMOOTH JAZZ. I felt like I ate my entire meal in an elevator.
It sucks to have to give such a horrible review to a place I used to really like. It especially sucks because the owner seemed like a nice guy who genuinely wanted to keep our business. Unfortunately, the changes are killing his new restaurant.

The place is nice and clean, and well decorated. In hindsight, it would have been safer to order some middle eastern dishes, but I didn’t. The seasame seed enrusted tuna was over-​cooked, despite the waiter having asked how I’d like to have it done. There was only one waiter for both the dining room and the lounge, he was trying hard to provide everyone with service, but totally out numbered.

Where to start… A friend and I came in for lunch to check the place out since we heard it had been redesigned and the menu updated since we visited last. We got there around 11:45 and there was only two other groups there. The waitress came over quite promptly for our drink order, so that gave them the one star. We did get our drinks quickly and then ordered. We got to talking and then both of us started glancing back towards the kitchen and other guests (there were only about 6 other groups at this point)…no food had come out of the kitchen since we had been there, and it had almost been a half hour at this point. We had ordered salads in addition to our meals, so we were starting to wonder about those… but the one waitress was no where to be seen. FINALLY after about 35 — 40 minutes our entrees came out, that’s right, the main meal, no salads. We both said something at once about the salads and she got all frustrated and said something to the effect of someone else screwing up and then she stormed off to get our salads (which promptly arrived). #1 — she’s our waitress, she should have realized we didn’t get the salads even if the kitchen messed up, #2 — a waitress should never express her disappointment with other staff members to her customers, it is very unprofessional, we didn’t come here to hear about your coworker issues, we came for a *quick* lunch. Now for the food, I got a California Turkey Avocado sandwich which seems simple enough, but it was horrible. The menu stated that it came on grilled wheat bread, but it was on thick pumpernickel that was perhaps waved in front of the heat register for a second on it’s way out of the kitchen. There was zero toastieness or warmth to the sandwich and the shredded cheddar (seriously, shredded?) didn’t even even hint at being melted, proving that the sandwich was never warm. Now I like pumpernickel, but the thickness of it was way too much for the sandwich and the flavor did not compliment the other ingredients at all. The Fattoush salad I had on the side was pretty good, but I’ve had better. My friend ordered a chicken entrée which came with a TON of food… chicken, rice, veggies, tabbouleh (an entire salad plate full), hummus (an entire salad plate full), pita AND her salad. She said it was good, but we both agreed that the hummus was less than spectacular, too much tahini we guessed. The waitress came to check on us once during our meal and my friend needed a drink refill, so she said she’d be right back. About 5 minutes later a bus boy came by asking if we needed more water and she mentioned that she was waiting on a lemonade. He promptly brought her a glass. Then the waitress showed up with a lemonade and got all pissed when she saw that it had already been refilled, she was like «they are messing up my system!!». Well lady, refer to #2 above and then realize that his system seems to work better for us than yours does! Overall we were there for almost an hour and a half, which is WAY to long for lunch. Needless to say, I am certain that we will not return.

First-​timer. Walked in to a clean and well decrorated establishment. The server was quick to greet us and take our beverage order. I had initially wanted the Zesty Lemon Chicken but was informed that «They were out.» I ordered the Sauteed Chicken Marsala which consists of a Sauteed chicken breast with marsala sauce, mushrooms, spinach, roasted tomatoes and served with whipped potatoes. Upon arrival, It was three very small strips of sauteed chicken over a huge helping of string beans. Barely any spinach, lots of mushrooms and a few tomatoes. Oh and lets not forget the HUGE helping of whipped potatoes. The small portion of chicken was very juicey and delicious. All the veggies had a nice bite and savory flavor. Everything was fresh and tasty, but not worth the price of all greens (hope you’re a string bean fan) and barely any poultry. A bread basket would have been nice too. The service on the other hand was a total MISS. After taking our order the server checked on us once for a beverage refill (after our glasses had been far from empty) and again for the check. You could find the remainder of the wait staff hanging out around the bar and kitchen. Maybe second times the charm?