Botched reservation at Chez L'Ami Jean

[mzoler]

Having read so many raves about Chez L'Ami Jean in Paris here, I feel I need to pass along my disappointing and distressing experience there. I called about 10 days in advance to make a reservation for 12 people, clearly saying when I spoke that the reservation was for douze. I also asked (in French) whether reserving for this many people would pose a problem and was told no. As requested, I then called back the morning of the reservation day to confirm, and repeated that the party included douze personnes. When I arrived that evening, I was told that they had made the reservation for deux, and so could not accomodate us. This was remarkable in two ways. First, I was incredulous that they could have mistaken my douze for deux, especially when I took pains to emphasize the "z" both times that I called. Also, when we arrived, at 7:30 PM, there were serveral tables vacant. I asked the owner (the chef) to seat us despite the mistake that his staff had made and he refused. After all, the mistake was his staff's, and hence his, and not mine. He clearly placed a higher priority on seating his other parties than mine. To his credit, I suppose, he walked us to another place across the street, L'Agassin (8 rue Malar), which was decent, but I was very disappointed that my friends and I were unable to try Chez L'Ami Jean. My feeling is that since the tables for us were vacant when we arrived and because the communication error was entirely due to the restaurant staff they should have acknowledged that they were wrong and seated us. The people who arrived later could have just as easily been walked across the street.

[PeterL]

I have never in my life had an experience where the restaurant owner walked me over to another restaurant because he could not accommodate my party. That's just service beyond any expectation. Just based on that I'd give that place 5 stars.

[ccbweb]

Clearly you feel disappointed and why not? But even if everything played out exactly as you describe, it's not horrible service on the part of the restaurant; rather, it was an error.

Further, I'm always skeptical of first posts that take issue with a restaurant having nothing whatsoever to do with food and based on stories that are impossible to fully understand.

[jfood]

Noone knows for sure the cause of the first communication mistake, but between the lips of the OP and the writing on the reservation form, the mistake occurred. The OP obviously knew there might be confusion between 2 and 12 in a non-native french reservation since he stated he repeated it twice. First thing, you always ask if they speak English versus using high school or college french. Then if there is the potential for confusion, you always fax a reservation to a french hotel of restaurant. this avoids the situation the OP faced.

The issue of what happened upon arrival is the interesting question.

- The OP demanded that several other reserved tables should be given to him at the expense of other diners. Ah no, and the restaurant did the proper thing by not agreeing
- The chef walked the 12-top to another restaurant and found the party a table

Jfood would give kudos to the chef for handling the situation and jfood won;t comment on the OP's position.

[PhilD]

Why has this post been moved from the France board? At least there should be the courtesy of having a link back to the France board.

It is very useful for people who visit France as it has some good discussion around the difficulties of booking restaurants, and had some useful tips for ensuring your reservation is correct.

Mzoler had an extreme problem but I suspect it isn't an isolated problem.

[germain]

I too, while completely understanding your annoyance, have to join the others in saying that the restaurant did what it could, and the error was a mutual one, not just that of the person taking the reservation. My spoken French is not bad -- I wish it were better after so many years here -- but I will never forget the time I "accidentally" withdrew 12,000 francs (yes, it was a long time ago), same misunderstanding you mention here. and that was in a deux mille/douze mille construction, so there was no liaison problem, a detail that still gets me sometimes, especially when speaking to kids. The only moment when bells should have rung in the clerk's head was when you asked about whether a table of such size would be a problem -- but in this case, I fear your accent may have allayed any concerns over the implications of the question, as, in my experience, few French people would bother to worry about that, for a table of 2 or 12, so long as the reservation is being accepted.

And again I have to join some others in complimenting the restaurant for finding you another place that could handle such a large party. I am sure it was disappointing to you (and maybe to Chez L'Ami to lose such a big table, though I bet that, as usual, they were full all night) to have to settle for something else, but not a few other establishments would have simply shown you the door or at most given you a list of names, not even bothering to call.

Finally, it would have been remarkable (and, in my experience, often a sign that the tourists have taken over a place, and so anyone who speaks with an accent risks getting the tourist treatment) if the restaurant had been even close to full at 19h30.

[PhilD]

I agree with many others - it is a bit tricky to lay the blame on the native French speakers for not understanding a non-native speaker - accent is very important in France. There is also the problem in French pronunciation of "making the liaison," so if deux is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, the words are joined. So "deux euro" is pronounced "deuzuro" with the emphasis on the Z (and it still means 2 euro). Whilst "douze euro" is pronounced "doozeuro" with the emphasis on the OO. It is quite subtle and can easily catch you out.

Another tip when reserving is to pronounce your name with a French accent, thus I always reserve as "Philippe" rather than Phil. A simple but very effective strategy.

I really can't see the merits od the argument that "the communication error was entirely due to the restaurant staff they should have acknowledged that they were wrong and seated us" It would be inappropriate to disrupt 10 other diners meals when they were clearly not party to this misunderstanding. I would also think that the kitchen would find it very hard to cope with an unexpected party of 12 at the same time, it is a very small kitchen and so I imagine that the phasing of orders would be critical to its smooth operation i.e. the unexpected party of 12 could have impacted the service for the whole night.

Sorry for your disappointment - it also sounds like they really tried to help you - after all they took the effort to take you to another restaurant.

[MikeG]

It does seem unlikely it was intentional - if they have "attitude", they would probably have refused the reservation with a snippy comment, not taken it and then turned the reserver away... and they certainly wouldn't have made what I think is a fairly major gesture of actually walking them across the street rather than simply offering the name...

Linguistically, I have to agree with those who've said you usually can't blame the native speaker, especially over the telephone, when there's a misunderstanding. Misproonouncing the initial vowel would be a very common anglophone error, and also, "douzaine" might have been what the listener would normally expect, adding to the confusion. What is "correct" per the dictionary may not be normal colloquial usage. On the other hand, it doesn't sound like the resto is falling over itself to please customers, you'd think the inquiry about whether such a reservation were possible might've clued them in to the possibility of a misunderstanding... who would expect a reservation for two to be a problem anywhere?

As for seating them anyway, I also agree, unless the place was having a bad night to begin with or doesn't normally have most tables reserved, one wonders if it would've been physically possible to seat that large a group at all, and it's certainly a major disruption. To do that for a group of non-regulars who are unlikely to become regulars is asking too much, IMHO.

[PhilD]

"....unless the place was having a bad night to begin with or doesn't normally have most tables reserved.."

I don't think it ever has a bad night, it turns the tables 3 or 4 times a night right through from 7 until midnight, and you need to book generally a couple of weeks in advance.

[Brunella]

That is disappointing and your feelings are understandalbe but I cant blame the native speaker for not understanding the foreigner. Its unfortunate that places like L'ami Jean are not set up for faxing or e-mailing reservations, where its all in writing and there can be no dispute.

On the other hand, dont be too disappointed by l'Agassin. Its an up and comer among many foodies in the know. I was in Paris in May and really wanted to go there but my schedule wouldnt allow it.

[butterbutt]

We just got back.. We did get our reservation at Chez L'ami Jean..but had a friend living there make it..We had two other reservations however that she said they just could not get our name.. luckily I spied their list and saw Gaary.. my husbands first.. the other the owner was very rude when we tried to confirm.. very confusing..it should have been a clue.. we went.. unfortunately she was like that all through the dinner.

Hard to do from afar..

[tmso]

This sounds like an unpleasant experience, but I wouldn't blame the restaurant. Anglophones have a tendency to butcher certain bits of the French language beyond comprehension, and this sounds like such a case (I'd bet you were pronouncing the vowel sound as neither clearly eu nor ou). In the future, ask the person you're talking to to repeat back what they think you're saying. For numbers, you can use math to double-check understanding ("pour douze personnes, ça veut dire deux fois six"). It sucks that you didn't get your reservation, but *no* in no case should they have given away 10 other persons' tables just because you accidentally asked for a two-person reservation.

[rrems]

I don't think it is fair to make that assumption. Even if the OP's accent may have made the vowel sound slightly different from correct French (and we have no way of knowing that) the fact that the "z" sound was pronounced should have at least prompted the person taking the reservation to ask "douze ou deux" and not make the assumption that it was "deux", especially when the OP asked if so many people would be a problem. This is a restaurant that deals with many English-speaking customers, and therefore should be smart enough to make sure they understand the request. The solution is a more difficult question. I agree with you that turning away others who reserved doesn't solve the problem but only creates another problem, so the responsibility unfortunately does fall to the customer to make sure the request was properly understood. It is also a good idea, even if one speaks French, to ask if they understand English (they probably do) and repeat the request in English. You can be fairly certain they will know the difference between "two" and "twelve".

[tmso]

I don't see how that's "unfair". One of two things happened : either the person taking the reservation was being intentionally nasty and wrote down the wrong number ; or they misunderstood what the poster was saying. Given that this is a common thing for anglophones to have trouble with, the latter seems entirely reasonable -- it would be unfair to assume that the restaurant was screwing with him on purpose. It's no fun when the person you're talking to misunderstands you (the two years I lived in germany were "hilarious" this way), but it's generally not the listener's fault. If you're making an effort, it's not your fault either. It's just a communications challenge.

Where I would fault the restaurant is if they didn't repeat back the details of the reservation, which is a good idea even with native speakers, but with a foreigner even more so. Or maybe they did and the poster wasn't paying attention, in which case I'd fault him. But that's something we don't know. Either way, my point was that this is obviously a case of "boy, making yourself understood in a foreign language can be tricky sometimes", not "that restaurant sucks, they're jerks, screw them."

[rrems]

<I don't see how that's "unfair".>

Obviously it was a misunderstanding. How it is unfair is that you ASSUME that the misunderstanding was the OP's fault, not the restaurant's.

<Where I would fault the restaurant is if they didn't repeat back the details of the reservation, which is a good idea even with native speakers, but with a foreigner even more so.>

My point exactly.

[Lizard]

I don't think that tmso is trying to lay blame or fault on the OP, but to mitigate the OP's claim that the restaurant was in the wrong and obligated to seat the.

Given how many times I've heard anglophones butcher pronunciations of 'lieu' and 'Depardieu it seems quite possible that such an error occurred thereby making this an unfortunate error in communication (admirably resolved by the Chef on the fly-- well done!).

tmso's post is quite thoughtful so I am probably not adding anything too significant. Just support.

p.s. to a poster below: Not all names have a French equivalent. I have a foreign name that when pronounced with a French accent, offers a different meaning. Not a bad one though, so my family has a bit of fun with it.