Pub Saint Germain, Paris

Stumbled across this place when looking for a place to eat, the menu seemed decent but maybe a bit over-priced. They did have a happy hour on cocktails which made our minds up to sit and have a drink and a bite to eat. On closer inspection of the menu we realised that it was more than just over-priced......and the worst was yet to come. The service was chronic, slow and unfriendly. It seemed like a place where the staff had no interest in being there and certainly didn't want to serve customers with any sort of common courtesy. This is an establishment that tries to give the impression of being up-market and classy, yet prior to the food being delivered you get a tub of heinz ketchup lashed up on the table as if you were in your local chippy, this place is clueless to it's pretentiousness and lack of class. Management clearly out of touch. The starters of fried Calamari was one of the worst meals i've ever had, think Birdseye's frozen onion rings with a string of calamari and you're in the right ball park, the steak (cooked medium rare) was cremated which i found unusal for France and it had more salt than the pacific, . Luckily the portions were big so I shared my girlfriends steak and starter. The whole thing came to €110 and I left with a sour taste (as well as a mouth full of salt!) in my mouth. Seriously poor venue....don't be fooled by the relatively cool layout, interior and cool music, make no mistake, this is a place to be avoided.

We stumbled upon this place by accident just strolling through the area. The space is huge and beautifully decorated, the music is very cool loungy electronica and the crowd is very diverse, gorgeous, fun and hip. It's a great place to meet friends for stiff drinks and good food.

We were initially drawn to this place as we had learned it was one of the few 24 hours establishments in the city and needed to kill time in between a night of partying and a 6.30 eurostar train the next morning. Initial impressions were favourable, at least the decor was nice. Things got off to a bad start when we discovered the waitress was the embodiment of the cold, snooty "parisienne" cliché! Despite being as polite as possible and ordering and speaking in pretty decent French (I'm doing a degree..) ALL of the drinks we ordered from her never came! We kept having to make a detour to the main bar area to try and order from the barman himself. The drinks were also hideously overpriced, by the way. That Pub St Germain clearly envisages itself as a well-to-do kind of place is frankly delusional, given that during the course of the evening we witnessed one of the male bar staff disappear off to the ladies toilets with a girl whom he proceeded to have sex with! (doors not soundproof!!) Hardly in keeping with the desired tone of the place! Indeed, hypocritical comes to mind. Also, the "24 hours" tag is somewhat false. At about 4.30am the place started to wind down and people began to leave. Still having quite a bit of time before we had to board our train (and a few more drinks to consume!) we stayed put, safe in the knowledge (ha!) that we had come here because it was a 24 hour establishment. When the bar staff began shooting us cold glares, we decided to admit defeat and leave. Before heading off into the night we got up to go to the toilet. What happened next was quite appalling. Whilst in the toilet there suddenly came HUGE bangs and shoves on the door, to the extent that I thought someone was trying to knock the door down, accompanied by a man screaming in French numerous profanities, all along the lines of 'Get out! Get out! Seriously frightened, and shocked, my friends and I opened the doors of our respective cubicles and were confronted with whom I assume was the place's massive and physically intimidating bouncer. We were made to feel like criminals as we washed our hands (despite being paying customers! The nightmare evening cost us about 40 euros EACH for drinks!) and were brusquely thrown out into the night, despite it still being pitch dark and us, as three young girls being vulnerable foreign travellers. NEVER have I been so badly treated or violently intimdated in all my travelling experiences. And that is saying something. Would NOT recommend to anybody.