Au Petit Paris Bistro

Dined here for the first time:
Ordered the business lunch option.
Beautiful food in a charming and intimate restaurant.
The house bread was fantastic — fresh and soft.
The cod was delicious, as was the leak soup. Be prepared for butter — I wasn’t.
I look forward to trying the tomato basil soup next time.
The desserts are stunning. I ordered the Lemon Choux — it is a large dessert, I couldn’t finish it.
I tried a bite of the floating island and the profiteroles.
I will definitely order the profiteroles next time — the sauce had a wonderful deep/​pure chocolate flavor.
The food is full of flavor and definitely a calorie splurge.
Room for improvement — for a Wednesday at 11:45: water service and drink ordering was slow. Parking isn’t great, but the food made up for it.

It is pretty clear that the chef (s) own this business. The food was excellent. Everyone in our party enjoyed the meal. However the front of the house ruined a great meal. Our first waiter was rude (he thought he was funny, but no …). His clear objective was to get us out as quickly as possible. Why this was I do not know as the restaurant had plenty of seating for a prime time on a Saturday night. When it was clear our relationship with the waiter was going downhill fast they did make a change. I will give them credit for that action.
My advice to the owners? A big change to the front of house attitude and staff. If not, a place is destined for a slow death. That is sad because the food side of your product is excellent.
Interestingly enough, prior to going last night I asked only one person if they had been. The response? You will enjoy the meal if you can stand the service. Apparently our experience was not unique.
Will I return? Maybe, down the road, if I hear or get a sense that changes have been made. A good wait staff is not that hard but you have to DO something to make it happen.

Went here on a date and the food was great. The service was even better and they took the time to explain the menu. Overall, the atmosphere is really cool and I would definitely recommend this place for a romantic date night.

This review is way past due. My girlfriends and I ate here for dinner during HRW. The food was okay. Our waiter and waitress were very friendly.
Service was about 20 minutes between each course. Not okay. And what’s worse… after waiting so long for our food… the hostess has the audacity to come up to our table and tell me that we have exceeded the time allotted at our table. Get out of town! You don’t say that to a patron. You don’t say that to women who waited 20 minutes on average for each coarse to arrive, no ma’am. First time there, last time there. Au revoir Au Petit!

This restaurant fell out my dining-​out list (Sorry guys! the servers there are very attentive) Again, the menu issue: the lamb chop they used to offer was real French style (baked with dill crumbs) but I called several times and they don’t have any more. The money bag dessert is artistic, not sure if they still have. With limited menu choices, just can’t go any more.

We had a nice romantic dinner at this restaurant. The food was authentic and reminded us of our trip to Paris. The members of staff were polite and attentive to us. We did not have any complaints about our waiter.

Had dinner at this restaurant 5 years ago and the bad experience has bothered me ever since. I finally decided to post this. The food was okay but the service was terrible. Our waiter was incredibly rude and disinterested in providing us with quality service. Needless to say, I never returned and would never recommend it to anyone.

I came here for HRW and was not disappointed! The lamb was tender and the mashed potatoes were flavorful. I got the floating island for dessert and it was AMAZING. Fluffy. Soft. Delicious. The restaurant is pretty small but really homey and quaint. Not much parking in valet since it’s rather small — so you most likely have to park on the street!

I went here for HRW and the place is like being in grandma’s house in France. I had never tried escargot and it was delicious. I had the pork ribeye and that was the most flavorful piece of pork that I’ve ever tasted. Give them a try.

We dined here for HRW for dinner. We had been here several times before and were disappointed on this visit. The food was not up to our expectations. The escargot in puff pastry was kind of bland. The sea bass was okay but seemed a little watery. The chocolate cake was a thinly sliced portion. Portions were okay but not as big as we remembered from previous visits. Overall only a fair experience somewhat disappointing.

Lovely, comely atmosphere and good service. Delicious onion soup and lamb shank but I wouldn’t say it was worth the price. Make sure to have a reservation. Parking is limited.

I hate to give a two star review here BUT at the end of a wonderful meal, the waiter came to our table and told us that the hostess told him to inform us that the next party was waiting for our table! We had just finished dessert! Seriously? In all my life, that has never happened to me. We were appalled! And from reading the other reviews, I see it’s happened before.
On our way out, we did tell the hostess that she ruined an otherwise great evening. We left with a very bad taste in our mouths for sure. How rude! Insulting and embarrassing your customers because of your apparent inability to schedule reservations appropriately is no way to win repeat business. You should be embarrassed, not us!

Three of my coworkers joined me for lunch at this place on 8÷20÷15 and all but one of us had been there before so the place came highly recommended by one of the coworkers. Surprisingly the food was DELICIOUS!!! We did the Restaurant Week menu and the French Onion soup was PHENOMENAL!!! Actually, everything we all had was just great! They had me at the soup! Will be going back again.

Attended Au Petit Paris for HRW. When you walk into this bistro which is located in a residential neighborhood, you feel like you are being transported into a French grandmother’s home in the countryside. Very homey feel which was a cool experience.
You can order homemade sourdough bread for $ 1 which isn’t much but I guess I’ve become spoiled with the complimentary bread you get a lot of places. Four thinly sliced pieces of bread and butter. Parking is valet only but you can find parking on the street close to the restaurant pretty easily.
I started off with the escargot which is served in a puff pastry and was a nice treat. Not something you have every day and different than the usual escargot which is served with just a sauce. Next came the chicken fracesse which is flambeed in champagne and served with chive mashed potatoes and peas. Solid but not spectacular, tasted like something you’re grandmother would cook you for Sunday dinner. Finished things off with the lemon choux which is kind of like a lemon tart with the éclair outside instead of pie crust. Pretty good.
It took us forever to get our check which was a bit annoying especially since the restaurant is small. Au Petit Paris is somewhere I would go again for the ambiance but little things here and there took away from the experience.

This review is based on service.
We had a nice dinner between 5 friends. Meal was pretty good but I’ve had better. Waiter was nice and attentive despite there being a table of 18 seated next to us.
My friends & I decided to try this place for HRW. One gal wanted French cuisine & our 2 pregnant friends liked that their menu looked «safe» for their diet.
THE PROBLEM:
Our reservation was set for 6:15. A couple of us were running late due to the unexpected rain that slowed down traffic more than normal. We were all seated about 6:30. Everything ran smoothly until it was time for dessert. After our dinner plates were picked up, we waited at least 15 – 20 minutes before our desserts were brought to us. No biggie, we filled up the time with conversation. One of our friends was visiting from Arizona. We ate and paid our bills. At 8:15 the hostess came over to tell us we were running over our time and that WE NEEDED TO LEAVE!. The next party had their reservation set for 8pm and we were keeping them waiting. So, they gave us 1 hour and 45 minutes to eat according to the time they aloted us. We were in shock! We could not believe we were being kicked out! Not even 2 hours to eat a meal were they granting us.
My friend let the waiter know how rude the hostess was. He apologized but was so busy, he quickly went away. We didn’t care to talk to a manager. You’ve got to wonder who told her to come kick us out. We just wanted to get out of there!
I cannot recommend this establishment to anyone.

I am so happy I found this little gem of a restaurant.
Came here for lunch doing HRW and can’t wait to come back.
Everything I had and my co-​workers had was delicious. One of my co-​workers is fromFrance and committed multiple times on how the food reminded her of home.
I tried the escargot, croque monsoir, and chocolate moose… all delicious.
The restaurant is in a cute little house and has the feeling of a European bistro. Could be a great place for a date night.
Parking looks like it might be tight on a busy Friday or Saturday night.

To start out, we did not know that we needed a reservation but they went ahead and found us a seat anyway. Their food is a little bland but the taste is on par. However, the dessert was amazing. I had the floating island and it was amazing. Her dessert was delicious too! Overall it was a pleasant experience. Thanks to #hrw, so that we can try this place out.

$ 5 valet parking or plenty of street parking. It’s in a small house. Tight seating but very quaint. One bathroom for each gender. Service was on par. For HRW I had the escargot croquettes (3), Chilean sea bass on lumpy sour cream potatoes, & floating island dessert. Food was good, portion wasn’t large nor was it too small. I was perfectly full by the end probably bc everything was buttery and creamy. It was tasty though. I tasted my friend’s lobster bisque. Very small portion but creamy and slightly bitter lobster flavor. I don’t know what the floating island was but it had a soft marshmallow like consistency but it’s surprisingly not too sweet. I enjoyed my meal!

I visited for restaurant week. In short the exciting presentation of the food was far, far better than the taste.
I would give the restaurant 2 to 3 stars on that, but the service was incredible. I arrived near closing time for the kitchen and was okay with nothing. However, The server insisted that he could go to talk with the kitchen and makes sure I get something off the menu. That was enough to make me want to visit again sometime. Plus, the place is extremely cute and cozy. I love how it is a small, rustic house nestled in a neighborhood, and the inside décor is even better.

Incredibly tiny intimate nice setting, but a little too cramped — one can’t help but overhear every conversation going on in the place. The waiter was absolutely AWFUL. Forgot about us repeatedly. The food was OK but nothing special. Far from Texas sized portions. My boyfriend had the salmon and was still starving after the 3-​course restaurant week menu. With dessert we each ordered a cappuccino. Mine had no espresso in it at all — literally just a cup of foam. His came 20 minutes after mine. Will not be going back.

This place was pretty adorable. It’s small, in a house type building, and is really romantic with warm lighting and decorated like an old Paris metro stop. Lots of French photos complete the décor. Not overly trendy– just very warm and cozy.
I really really wanted to like the food here. I do think the flavor is authentically French… but one thing about French food is that the portions are typically balanced and reasonable (allowing you to enjoy your food.) Not so here, unfortunately. With food this rich, even though it was tasty, the portion sizing was easily double what is reasonable in my opinion. I think they could make the sizes smaller, halve the entrée prices, and then people could order a couple things to try as opposed to eating one gargantuan entrée. Either that, or balance the large rich entrée with lighter fare. Just my two cents.
The highlight here was the dessert. The seasonal strawberry tart was delicious. The light crust/​shell was just perfectly done.
I don’t doubt that the chefs here know their stuff, and I agree with all the reviews that this place serves very authentic French flavors. I just think it could be portioned in a way that wouldn’t make me simultaneously feel overly full and also guilty for wasting food! (And I am not one who usually has any issue finishing off delicious food.)

HRW: Leave it!
Au Petit Paris Bistro was my first stop of HRW 2014. So the point of restaurant weeks (besides being for a great cause, of course) to me is that you try new places you wouldn’t ordinarily go and hopefully find some places you’d like to try again, or that are worthy of your business when it’s not discounted. I would not ever in a million years come back here.
APPB is a house converted to restaurant (like Just Dinner, except this is the only similarity between the two). The inside is cramped. My bf made reservations for a Friday night at 8 pm. It was crowded, I imagine because of HRW and we were sat at a 2 top, smooshed in a corner between a 4 and a 6 top so it was incredibly loud. There was also track lighting above us that made it sweltering. We were literally sweating by the end of dinner. Not cool.
The service was slow and impersonal. We also ordered a bottle of white wine and our server didn’t even bother to put it on ice. Probably because it was so cramped and there was no room. This left our wine sitting under the hot lights getting warm, fast.
Then the food. Escargot was good, lobster bisque was the worst I’ve ever had. Chilean sea bass was good. The lamb was flavorless. The lemon choux was pretty good. Probably the best part of the meal.
Basically an all around sub par experience at any price point. No way I’d recommend.

I was on their email list and received an email regarding their Christmas specials and hours. No lie, I was super excited because I wanted to take my parents to a nice Christmas dinner (especially when they work all the time and never get to have a nice meal). So I made reservations to take them out.
To my DISAPPOINTMENT — 10 minutes before our schedule dinner reservation they call to confirm. A bit late?!? Anyway, I told them we were running a few minutes late since my parents live in the suburbs and there were some traffic. GUESS WHAT? They told me they not to bother going since I’m a few minutes late. They were not going to accept my reservation. What. The. Duck. Ugh! I was super upset! Really? We were running 5 minutes late! I would completely understand if we were half an hour or so late.
NEVER COMING HERE AND WOULDN’T RECOMMEND THIS PLACE. PERIOD. If there was a negative star, I would give them that.

I came here for Houston Restaurant Weeks with my sister and it was one of my favorites! Everything I ate was delicious. It was kind of hard to find. It looks like a house and is located in a neighborhood off of Shepherd. Parking was valet only but we just parked on the street across from the restaurant.
I started off with the Warm Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese Baguettes and it was so good. I would come back to this restaurant just to have this salad again. The Salmon with Risotto was buttery and melted in my mouth. The Lemon Choux was good but it was a little too rich and sweet for my taste. It might have been because I was stuffed from eating a three course meal though.

Seulement le Français peut transformer la nourriture en art, et ce restaurant fait l’art. This restaurant is the quintessential dining experience that merges fine dining, French recipes, and that special Houston «it» factor — the added quirk of twisting a recipe into a new level of art in a fun, formative way.
Au Petit Paris has everything — and more — that one seeks in great food. I have enjoyed, on two occasions the French Brie Cheese served with Mesclun salad with walnuts and red grapes and this, along with their richly delicious Tomato Basil soup, are fabulous openers to what will be one of the most delightful food experiences ever — a healthy balance of care and herbal craftsmanship awaits your tastes buds. The tomato basil soup danced on my tongue, and hit that sweet spot of neither too rich nor too basil, and this is what so many restaurants gets wrong.
As for main courses, I have had both the farm raised duck leg confit served with the oven-​baked white beans (with a side of garden vegetables, tomato & bacon and a delicious little spring mix salad) and suffice it to say just when I thought the genius award-​winners of Vegas’ Comme Ca restaurant could not be topped, alas the local genius Chefs Eric & Dominique have done it. Cooked to thorough perfection, the duck was to die for. It was a symphony of heaven in my mouth, and nestled against the oven-​baked white beans on the side, a total dynamic flavor profile develops in short order. Indeed, the world outside could go to hell in a hand basket, and you will not care — in fact, you’ll order another bottle of wine as the rapture outside continues and dogs and cats start living together in mass hysteria.
On another visit, I enjoyed their roasted Australian half rack of lamb, brushes with a delicious Dijon mustard (that was applied with perfect precision, like a master artist would apply with a brush) and covered in a fresh herb crust and served with a Regiano parmesan polenta. The lamb fell off the bone just so, and as I consumed this slice of greatness, and all I could think was how happy I was that Little Bo Peep lost her sheep, because I was in flavour heaven. The Dijon mustard was not at all liberally applied, which worked in perfect sync with the herb crust. Complementing each other, they elevated rack of lamb to something more than just typical French menu fare.
I have enjoyed also their sauteed garlic French green beans, and to be frank, you have not had green beans like this — or in the common parlance «yo momma didn’t make no green beans like this!» — I love it when they are sauteed to perfection, as these were, between soft and crisp.
Perfection, it seems, goes all the way through every aspect of the menu of Au Petit Paris — right down to the dessert so nice, I’ve had it twice — The Key Lime Crème Brulee. You read that right — never in my life have I seen the eloquent combination of two of my most favorite desserts on earth: key lime pie & crème brûlée — and this was a unique fusion only possible in the Houston restaurant scene. That bit of bold quirkiness that can only come from the creative third coast, from a Texas based institution that has that old Texas do-​it-​our-​way know-​how. I wish I could describe in detail the pure symphony of flavor this dessert had on the tongue. I can do this dessert no justice other than to go eat it again, and ask that you do likewise.
Pair it up with any of their most excellent wine selection, and a meal at Au Petit Paris will transport you to a place that is part France, part Texas, but all elegant food made with love, care, and a level of craftsmanship that one can only find in the Houston dining scene. Pass on the valet parking, there’s plenty of street parking, and don’t behave like a Friendswood, Alvin or Pearland Luddite that just shows up to their local Olive Garden — make a reservation, please.
Be prepared to enjoy some of the best cuisine tucked away in the inner loop of Houston — like so many before me, I found this place quite by accident and what a serendipitous thing it was.