The quality of the shellfish, and the presentation, are the best you’ll find.  The ambience is perfect.  The wines well matched.  The menu well balanced.  Quality in every course, from entre to dessert.  In fact every aspect of Le Bar a Huitres is perfect, except for one fatal flaw.  The service is angular, unhelpful, poorly trained, distracted, ill timed, and unattenuted to even the most obvious aspects of service.

I have dined at two different locations (Ternes and Place de Vosges) of Le Bar a Huitres on at least five separate occassions, in groups size ranging from one to seven, over the course of the 11 months following its acquistion by Gary Dorr, hoping for a different experience.  The consistency is remarkable – fabulous food, comfortable atmosphere, and a staff that is respectful, polite, even eager to be helpful, but utterly clueless about how to serve a meal.

This is not my opinion alone.  I have sat quitely, enjoyed a wonderful time with friends, and listened to the same comments from friends of threedifferent nationalities with the same comment (English, French, American).  The unanimity of opinion is as remarkably as the consistency of bad service.

If you can look past that defect, and dine with others who can laugh off poor service, this is the place for seafood.  I will return, but, sadly, my friends will not.  Until the management trains the staff, however, that aspect is hopeless, and I cannot give my wholehearted recommendation.

Le Bar a Huitres
112, boulevard du Montparnasse – Paris 14ème
33, boulevard Beaumarchais – Paris 3ème
33, rue Saint-Jacques – Paris 5ème
69, avenue de Wagram – Paris 17ème

Our three course menu (EUR 39 per adult) started with perhaps the single best white truffle infusion gnocchi I’ve tasted. The broth was light in texture and weight on the palette, yet packed with dense flavor of parmesan, truffle and cream and a heavenly aroma the equal or better of many a fresh truffle. It is simply difficult to imagine how the chef packed so much aroma and flavor in a nearly weightless emulsion. A masterful gravity defying performance. And that was before tasting the featherly light layerred gnocci.

The pumpkin soup rivaled the gnocchi – wafting aromas that would tempt even the most doubtful.

The Bavarian Sirloin was the highlight of the second courses. As beef lovers can attest, European beef is often a disappointment to Americans, as raised, aged, and prepared, but Caïus is a pleasing exception.

The strawberry rhubarb completed the picture well.

Wines were reasonable priced, with some good Languedoc bottles the highlights.

Well recommended. ****

CAÏUS par Jean Marc Notelet
6 RUE D’ARMAILLÉ
PARIS 17EME
+33 1 42 27 19 20

Follow-up: several subsequent visits have confirmed the first impression.