Le comptoir - Relais Saint Germain

It has been a while I wanted to test Le Comptoir - Relais Saint Germain, and every time I went there, I would find a big waiting queue;
Since they don't take bookings except for week days at night, you need to arrive early or late to get a table without waiting, and in week days for diner, you need to book in advance; No bookings in week ends;

Le comptoir du relais became very popular since the Chef and owner, Yves Camdeborde, is one of the 3 juries of a very famous cooking in France. Besides that, he used to be the Chef of famous French gastronomic tables such as the Crillon Hotel;

Le comptoir serves a typical yet creative french cuisine, called Bistronomie; A mixture between Bistrot (Tyipical/tavern) and Gastronomie (creative-refined), a popular new style.

I must admit that I was a bit disappointed. First of all, the service is all but friendly. Between the 5 waiters of the restaurant, there was only one who knew how to smile; The rest seemed to have forgotten what is the meaning of smiling and being nice.

The decoration is traditional, but they can do some efforts considering the price they charge. No table cloth, old and ordinary tables and chairs, super close tables,...

The food is good though; They serve good quality products, good bread, the main dishes were well prepared, well presented and very tasty. The only bad point was one of the deserts, a creme brulée à la Lavande, who was simply un-eatable to my taste, the lavanda flavour being way too strong, giving you the impression that you're eating soap.

For 50 EUR per person, you could expect a better service. Less