La Flamme

Restaurant déconseillé pour s’y restaurer. Mes collègues et moi avons été passablement déçus. Personnel indifférent à sa clientèle.

One of the things I wanted to do when visiting Paris was to see the Arc de Triomphe. I stated that I would like to sit down and eat at a café, while watching cars go round and round around the arc, to see just how it was done, and if the myths that roundabouts are so superior were true.
In the end, I witnessed lots of chaotic driving, people laying down on horns when tourists who decided to actually drive in a country foreign to them would crawl and try to merge into the traffic in the roundabout, fail miserably and piss everyone off, and the agony of tour buses and cabs stopping in the middle of the road for no apparent reason. So no, I’m not sold that roundabouts are really better than any alternatives, as long as different human beings are behind the wheels of automobiles.
What’s the point of this story in the context of a restaurant review? That I had a tremendous amount of time to formulate these thoughts, imagine them as words, and put them down onto a text file, because the service at La Flamme was really that slow.
I’m not entirely sure why I settled on La Flamme when I had done my research, and could have picked any other options of the things that I had notated on a notes file on my phone. Perhaps it was the fact that from my outdoor seat, I had a good view of the Arc and all the cars going round and round, or the fact that I was just really, really hungry, and it was time to stop wandering, and it was time to sit down and eat something. Little did I realize that what I was hoping would’ve been a casual lunch would have turned into a 90 minute experience where too much of the majority of that time, was spent waiting for the check, or not putting food into my mouth.
Like most places visited in Paris, there’s no language barrier for an English speaker like myself, which is always convenient. But also like most places visited in Paris, everyone around me smokes like a forest fire, so I’m always feeling forced to cover my mouth lest I inhale everyone else’s gross second hand smoke.
I ordered a tartine, because I heard tartines were a French thing, and I wanted to eat as many native things as I could. I ordered mine with smoked salmon, because any other meat with cheese just kind of reminded me of a croque monsieur. It was pretty tasty, but for what I had to pay for it, I don’t think the portion size was favorable, and that’s even with the understanding that portions in Europe in general pale in comparison to those that of fat America.
But like I said, I came to eat, and hopefully be on my merry way, so that I could indulge in more sights and opportunities to eat other food, but La Flamme definitely put a damper on that with just how slow and time consuming their service is. I’m not sure if it’s because they were busy on a Tuesday afternoon, or they were understaffed or something, but getting the attention of, much less seeing our server, was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, it just wasn’t going to happen in a timely manner.
Ultimately, the food was okay, a little pricey, and the service was way too slow. This might be the norm in Paris, but it’s simply not my cup of tea.

je suis allée dans ce café pour un verre, les prix sont pas donnés mais il y a un bon plan ici leur happy hour et ce de 17h a 21h c est une bonne tranche horaire, j’ai pris un planteur et c’était pas mal, en plus on a droit a une fraise tagada et il apporte des biscuits apéros ! plutôt sympa pour le quartier !
Bön quand il y a du monde ils sont un peu lents mais le serveur était sympa, pas froid.
et si vous prenez une bière vous aurez droit à un super verre (pour la pinte 50cl) hoogarden ‚)
voila après ca reste un bar proche d’étoile donc hors ce contexte ce n’est pas l’endroit ou j’irais boire un verre ou manger.

Les restaurants à côté de la place de l’Etoile regorgent de touristes.
Et c’est peut être bien pour ça que le service est aussi mauvais.
Et c’est bien le cas de la Flamme. C’est dommage, parce que les plats sont plutôt bons et pas chers (10 € le plat du jour) mais le service est catastrophique.
Lent, pas souriant, pas aimable … Bref, scandaleux.

Le service est inadmissible… Attendre et attendre et attendre et encore attendre… Mais pourquoi né mettent ils pas 2 serveurs en terrasse !

This is an awful place. I thought it looked very nice & fun from the outside but we had to wait over 30 mins for someone to even take our order. Also, at the end of the night I left a bag full of souvenirs at the restaurant and came back to get it and it was gone. Literally, I think they stole my bag. Honestly, I speak French and adore French culture, and like places like this normally, but this place is rude, inefficient and they steal things… Please take your business elsewhere.

Bar testé pour ses cocktails alcoolisés: de ~9 à 14EUR
La qualité des jus utilisés n’est vraiment pas terrible en revanche on sent bien l’alcool qu’ils ont mis dedans.
Mon cosmopolitain avait un gout de flotte. Service sans plus, déco sans plus.
Au global ça donne quelque chose de très moyen mais d’encore abordable pour le quartier.

My friends and I went here on our first evening in Paris and enjoyed ourselves so much we went back. As my buddy Dave H. says it’s a very chic spot for evening drinks. My friends and I grabbed a table all the way in the back so we had our own private little area. Good music was playing, good service we received and good drinks were-​a-​flowin’. La Flamme is a cute little lounge type of place near the Arc de Triomphe and can get pretty full during the evening. For a place so close to tourist spots, the prices are quite reasonable.
La Flamme has quite an extensive drink list and decent prices on bottles. We had a bottle of Alsace for 30 euros that we shared. It was put on ice and poured for us in the most classy way possible. They also have a surprisingly good list of eats. We tried the crème brûlée (6,50 euros) and all found it to be a tasty dessert. I liked the bright colors on the walls and dim lighting which made for some very cute pictures. Our waiter was more than willing to help us with these photos!
If you’re looking for a place to have a few drinks in the area, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend La Flamme!

Terrible service. Mediocre food. Very expensive drinks. Our experience was one of the worst we’ve had anywhere. With so many great places to go in Paris, don’t waste your time & money here.

Oh, non.
Un service pourri comme ça, ça né s’invente pas. Sérieusement.
On entre, le serveur nous voit, et puis… Ignore totale. Mec, un peu d’attention? On sera bientôt installés ?
La réponse est non. Mais vous né le savez pas encore, on vous fait d’abord bien patienter.
Une fois assis, tout le monde a l’air beaucoup trop débordé pour faire attention à nous (on voit d’ailleurs les pauvres gens des tables voisines se faire apporter des plats qui né sont pas ceux qu’ils ont commandé), le serveur sus-​nommé est hyperactif (mais pas dans le bon sens: beaucoup trop pressé /​bourru, casse des verres, bouscule des gens,…), et on attend encore pas mal de temps avant de pouvoir passer commande.
Pas de bol, c’est le serveur-​pourri qui s’occupe de nous. On né nous apporte pas de pain même si on en demande plusieurs fois, et on a droit à une mini carafe d’eau (potable ?) au goût très douteux pour tout le repas.
Et bien, pour être honnête, l’ambiance générale du lieu m’a tellement déplu que je suis incapable de noter ce que j’ai mangé. Ca né devait pas être renversant.

Polyvalent
La Flamme brûle à deux pas du soldat inconnu du matin au soir pour un café, un déjeuner sur le pouce ou un after work. Les tarifs et l’accueil sont corrects pour l’Etoile. Le décor est dans les normes des brasseries à la mode.

Sind heute Abend spät auf 2 Calvados hier eingekehrt. Dieser ist sehr gut. Kann die schlechten Beurteilungen nicht nachvollziehen denn auch das Personal war sehr freundlich.

Mauvais.
Je né recommande pas du tout ce bar. La première fois que j’y suis allée, rien de spéciale a signaler sauf peut-​être un seul cocktail en after work. Les deux fois suivante, les serveurs étaient très moyen et la dernière fois, c’était le comble ! Méprisant, désagréable (j’ai même du signaler au serveur qu’une femme attendait pour commander et qu’elle lui faisait signer depuis plus de vingt minutes !)… Je n’y retournerais plus jamais !

Déco sympa et carte pas mal mais les prix sont scandaleux, même pour le quartier!
Niveau accueil, à part le responsable un peu plus agé et le barman qui sont à peu près souriants, nous sommes tombés sur un serveur très désagréable et une serveuse débordée avec ses 3 tables
En 2 heures nous avons réussi à avoir un verre, mais toujours pas de menu, et impossible de changer de table malgré les courants d’air insupportables Du coup nous avons réglé nos conso et sommes parties diner en face!
Et sans regret car à la table juste derrière nous, une des quatre personnes a reçu son entrée, puis au bout de 20 min avec son assiette terminée les 3 autres n’étaient toujours pas servis
En bref, si vous voulez juste boire un verre et n’attachez pas trop d’importance à la qualité du service, n’hésitez pas
Sinon, passez votre chemin :)

Bottom line: Moderately pricey drinks, great pizza (a moderate-​sized one for 10 – 12 euros), a good location but a little off the beaten path of the Champs Elysees so it’s not tourist-​central or overly crowded
In response to H.L.‘s review of «horrible service,»: don’t go to a French restaurant and assume everyone will speak English to you. Also don’t go and expect to be in and out. The French take their time, and the waiters aren’t working for tips so they don’t constantly come to your table. This isn’t just the case at La Flamme, where I have actually experienced great service on multiple occasions, it is just a cultural aspect of French dining.

We arrived on Dec 30^th, 2011. And, we were pretty aware that if we don’t stuff our stomach, for New Year’s Eve, it will be just awful to go to bed later with an empty stomach.
So, while we were entering Triumph area, we decided to eat at a decent place.
This place, La Flamme, was busy with French tourists, located just the first block of the 12 dial roads, at the small Hotel crowded tourist street. First, we thought it was a safe bet to eat in this «popular» place-​wrong.
Unlike the first waiter, ushering us in, the actual table server was nothing but a night mare.
The drink menu wasn’t clear about what would be a draft or bottled beer, and, when we asked, he looked at us as if we were cheap bargain hunter, and ran out to serve another table. He came back later, and when I asked about how the certain dishes were cooked, he ran off second time. leaving us altogether over 20 – 25 minutes, And, he came to walk away one more time, without excusing himself.
I stood up and looked for a manager.
Unfortunately, an older guy behind the bar, wouldn’t speak any English, and I had to rant it out to another English speaking server. Then our rude waiter came up to tell the manager in French, justifying his actions. NO EXCUSE for being rude in any language or gesture, I said. He did not mind upsetting us but he minded his management getting the complaint from me.
The other English Speaking waiter, instantly apologized, but, the the first waiter came back to our table for the rest of the night, with the agression you will never imagine to deal with.
Now, the food, It is truly tourist food price and quality.
We ordered Grilled chicken Ceasar salad, and Salmon, and blue cheese steak. I could hardly believe that Ceasar Salad could be that terrible.
We have figured that wherever you are in Paris, the main dish is priced at around 16 – 22 Euro for a bistro level. And, the steak and the salmon were not simply a restaurant quality. I even thought a supermarket frozen meal would taste better.
The draft beer from a tap was watered down. And, the drink price is unusually higher.
We did not leave much tip, but the service fee was already included at wopping 13.25%.
What a shame. Their manager will never learn to fix the staff training or the food issues, as long as he stands behind the bar, never communicating with the unhappy customers.
Their mindset is not paired up to the global trotters’ yet. Of course, I am talking about the tourist locations with easy access sorts. But, I don’t lower my bar for such.
Bad manners are universally from ignorance and arrogance. Stay away from this place, everyone.

Pour prendre un verre
Je recommande cette brasserie principalement pour prendre un verre, un café ou juste pour un petit creux. La nourriture est passable mais les cocktails sont bons. Le service est assez rapide et le cadre est sympathique, il y a toujours beaucoup de monde le soir et une bonne ambiance. Assez cher.

Great location for a bar/​restaurant. Right beside the Arch de Triumph.
I popped in one evening last week whilst on a business trip in Paris. I had the classic moules mariniere, which was pretty good. The mussels weren’t overcooked, and were plentiful.
Good selection of beers, but as with the rest of Paris, they aren’t exactly giving the stuff away.

Les prix sont très élevés et même pour ce quartier. Le serveur était très désagréable. Je n’avais pas vu ça depuis 2008 dans un café de St Michel.
Je suis passé avec une amie pour partager un Redbull, le serveur nous en apporte deux. On dit qu’on veut en partager un seul et il nous oblige à commander autre chose. On a quitté le bar sans rien consommer ni payer.
Je n’y retournerai plus jamais.

Oi!
Worst food I ate in all of France.
Waaaay over done seafood (try picking that out of your teeth!)
Disgustingly dry escargot.
No ashtrays. Even the churches have ashrtrays.
Good Service though.
Do go here for drinks, and too watch the hustle and bustle of the Money crowd, near the Arc d’Triomphe.
Drinks = Oui!
Food= NON!

La flamme est un restaurant/​bar conforme a ce qu’on peut attendre d’un tel établissement dans ce quartier. Pseudo tendance, service en dessous de tout et prix des consommations exhorbitant.

Ce café est terrible, né va pas ici!
We are Australian and live in Paris part of the year and spend a lot of our time in Cafes this would have to be the worst in Paris that I have tried .
We ordered a cocktail that came warm with big ice blocks in it and my husband ordered a cappuccino that came cold when he asked the waiter we had to wait whilst he said goodbye to his boyfriend, he said that it was cold because of the milk on the top we said that all the other coffees in Paris where warm he shrugged his shoulders, when we said we would just have a espresso he made us pay up front instead of just replacing the cold one, we told the waiter he had attitude and then he told us to get out of his café. Its a pity such bad staff can give a café such a bad report we probably would have been better at Mcdonalds at least they have a smile
and hot coffee

Chic spot near the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-​Élysées. Good for people watching, drinks, or lunch. Or lunch with drinks.
Their classic club sandwich is light, fulfilling, and doesn’t need extra condiments. Try their croque provencal, or the salmon salad — both are fresh and delicious. Desserts are underwhelming — the chocolate moelleux isn’t anything to write home about, and the crème brûlée’s too disappointingly burnt — but the sandwiches are where it’s at.

Un vaste bar, où se retrouvent à la sortie des bureaux cadres et autres travailleurs du quartier, ou font également une escale amateurs de shopping et touristes, en allant ou revenant de l’Arc de Triomphe tout proche.
J’y suis allé à plusieurs reprises, pour des pots entre collègues. Bön, pas la peine de faire la fine bouche, la carte des alcools est impressionnante, et les cocktails absolument délicieux. La carte des plats est elle aussi fournie, mais n’a, en revanche, rien de particulier. Malheureusement, la situation géographique semble ici se payer, puisque les prix pratiqués sont prohibitifs, et même plus ! Dommage…

Mon Dieu … Comment réussir a combiner l absence d’ atmosphère, d’ ambiance avec l une des plus effarentes médiocrité de qualité de coktail de la capitale… Fuyez cette attrape nigaud faussement tendance, mieux vaux presque se retrouver au macdonald d’ en face.

Bön emplacement
Proche Champs Elysées et Arc de triomphe sans avoir les prix de ce triangle d’or est déjà bien. Le service est sympa sans plus. J’y vais souvent quand je suis dans le coin pour une balade.

Le quartier de l’Etoile est très beau mais très cher. C’est donc avec un grand plaisir que j’ai trouvé ce bar ! La déco est chaleureuse, le service sympa et la carte assez riche pour que tout le monde trouve son plaisir. Les tarifs né sont pas excessifs pour un bar parisien (8EUR le coktail) et les préparations sont excellentes.
En bref, l’endroit idéal après une promenade sur les Champs Elysée.