Le Café Grand Louvre

Hit the spot!
After my 3 – 4 hour tour of the museum, I stopped off to get a bite to eat before continuing.
I got a ham and cheese sandwich and a Coke. It totally hit the spot. I have braces and thought the cold sandwich would be too tough to eat. However the bread was chewy and delicious. Just like other bread in Paris. Yum! About 7 euros. Good museum café lunch.
The sitting area is clean. Almost being kept up by staff. Plenty of seats. Would love to eat here again.

9÷7÷15: Wow, totally didn’t expect this restaurant to be so good (relatively speaking)! So, it’s right next to the food court where there are, well, typical food court type fast food counters. I’ve been to cafes and other food outlets at other museums and they’re all super over-​priced, serving mediocre food. And this one, not looking all that special really through the glass, didn’t seem to be any different. But, my gf was in a rush to go to a class she booked elsewhere, and I thought leaving the museum to have lunch would cost too much time, so we stayed. And I was SHOCKED at how affordable and high quality the food was for the money!
Before I get to the food, let’s talk about Their Service… next to us was a Korean family complete with 2 little kids. The tables here are covered in black construction paper, and their little boy took a salt shaker and basically played with it until the whole black setting was covered with white salt. The dad then caught a server, looked at him, then pointed to the salt and said very firmly, «CLEAN,» his eyes beaming. One word. My eyes widened, and the server stood still shocked for about 1s. Then he woke up and clearly a little shaken, started to move the salt with his hands towards the middle… then he really perked up and in one motion folded and swiped the whole setting off the table in a fancy flourish. Then he started to smile huge and looked at the kid and said a very eloquent joke to him and the dad, and finally after all that the dad cracked a little tiny smile! The little boy though kept playing with some other toy and never once acknowledged the server. He then came back with a new setting.
That family was hideous, but man, that waiter was just awesome.
The food: we both got the «stater /​dish» menu «Grand Louvre Formule» for 18.10 EUR each. I put the single order price next to each:
1. Marinated salmon with green peppers 7.50 EUR: I would say this would be better titled as a smoked salmon salad, cause that was sorta what it was. I can’t remember the specific details, but I remember it was good. 6.5÷10.
2. Duck Terrine 7.50 EUR: By now I have had a few foie gras terrines in France, and I think this one was still delicious to me despite having a semi-​over-​dose on the stuff by now, ha ha. This wasn’t a straight foie gras though, and had duck meat and other stuff mixed in. It was served on a salad. Pretty good, especially for the price. 7.5÷10.
3. Flank steak, chips/​fries 16.50 EUR: The portion was small – I would guess this would be like a 6−8oz or so steak, but damn it was really good. Great flank taste, and very juicy. ⁷⁄₁₀.
4. Sea bass fillet «a la grenoblaise» 16.50 EUR: Flavor and seasoning was good, but the fish quality wasn’t – not very fresh. ⁵⁄₁₀.
So, the food is quite decent, and all priced normally! And they got some great waiters too. So, forget that food court crap – come here. Sit down and relax for a bit, so you can enjoy the huge amount of art in this behemoth of a museum!
⁴⁄₅
#france #french

My wife and I were sitting in front of this restaurant having a cup of coffee after our afternoon visit to the Louvre. The entrance to this restaurant has glass doors so we could see right into Le Grand even though it was closed to the public. My husband is the first to see the mouse on the floor of the restaurant running under the tables and chairs. We watch as the employees (we saw three) go back and forth from the kitchen, register, bar area seemingly unaware of this mouse for a good 15 minutes. We finally go to the glass door and knock to get an employee’s attention. We finally get a female employee to look over and we point her towards the mouse on the floor. She rolls her eyes and goes back to her paperwork. Assuming she didn’t understand, we keep knocking to get someone’s attention again. Finally a male employee looks over at us, notices the mouse that is still running around and looks back up at us to smile and give us a two thumbs up.
Please note, that we did not eat here and that this is just a review of our experience with their staff and restaurant sanitation.

Delicious seafood broth that was fresh and well-​presented. Plat du jour was a ground meat dish encased in a light flaky pastry exterior– also well-​presented and delicious.
Would definitely recommend after a day at the Louvre. Friendly although somewhat spotty service– occasionally seemed as if all waiters were on the floor, then mysteriously simultaneously disappeared.