Alcazar – Paris
62 Rue Mazarine
Paris , France 75006
08 99 65 50 91
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VdV Rating: 2.5
Food: French
PRO: Back of the house
CON: Front of the house
We’ve been coming to Alcazar and the uber-cool upstairs club A2Z Bar for years, people. We celebrated 2001 NYE here, soon after it opened for biz, and it was one of the first places we had dinner back in 
the day. It was and is a cool spot. Gotta love the dining downstairs, happenin’ bar/club upstairs gig. Kinda like a mullet – business in the front, party in the back.
This place has remained largely the same since it opened in 2000, with a modern, sleek, vibe. It’s basically two big rooms, with a white and red color scheme. The club is a mezzanine over the ground level dining room, and most of the roof is a huge skylight.
So we saunter in here last night, getting all Euro and deciding to have dinner at about 11:30. Actually for a Tuesday I think that was beyond most Frenchies dining time. They still had a decent dinner crowd, but most folks were well through their din-din. So we got busy and immediately ordered. Drinks, that is!
Ok, then we ordered food. And it kinda chapped my hide that although we coursed it, or at least requested they coursed it, the entire f’ing meal showed up at once. Salads, sides and entreé. I hate that! For some odd reason we let them get away with it. And that was the start of what I listed as our ‘con’ with Alcazar. The front of the house kinda sucked last night. That was example #1.
Anyhoo, we went for a traditional French dish but with a VdV twist – Steak Frites w/ Peppercorn Sauce (33 Euro), but with Filet instead of Entecote. Rare, bitch! With what had to be Duck Fat Frites. Holy crap. These were perfectly cook fries, not matchsticks, but the more meaty variety, with some nice burn on the outside, meaty and tender on the inside. JHC, these bad boys were rich, my blood pressure sky rocketed after just 3. But they rocked, especially dipping them in the peppercorn sauce or spicy mustard the French seem to know how to pull off like no one else. But hey, F the fries let’s talk meat! The filet was fairly small, about 7-8 oz, but cooked dead-on rare and tender as veal. Rockin’.
Nest, we had an Hericot Verte Salad (12 Euro), basically French Green Beans in a Tomato Mashe. Bam. Fresh, nicely blanched beans. Very good. But I’m not wasting my 15-word-per-minute typing (skills) on beans.
And, the Salade Verte (6 Euros). A green salad. Basic. Hey whatdya want for a measly 6 Euro?! It was fresh, with sundried tomatoes, some micro-arugula and a nice clean vinaigrette. Very good as well.
And then…the appy that never showed up! Example #2 of sucky front of house.
Then…crickets. No one asked us anything. And it wasn’t like we were in a dark corner booth necking. Ha. Necking. We saw our initial server scurry out the front door (busted, Emilie!), so I snagged a randon dude and asked (very politely) for two more drinks. He said fine, then we never saw him again. The case of the vanishing servers. Example #3.
So 3rd time’s a charm, we snagged another dude server that ended up being the most partonizing (“Oh, you know French”, when we basically said ‘Oui’) d-bag – Example #4 – but in the end did finally get us our drinks. The other J had some words with the manager Elody (Melody sans M) after the meal, and at least she seemed genuinely sorry and invited us back for some better treatment.
So as we have discussed, bad service can screw up an otherwise great meal. I mean, cooking is difficult; being somewhat organized and pleasant should not be that tricky. But anyway, maybe since we have had lots of good experiences here, and the food was pretty good, and the fact that after you eat you can dance your ass off upstairs, it still will get a slight VdV nod of approval. 3.5 for food, 1 for service. Pull it together Alcazar, we want to love you!
