Naniwa - SAINT JACQUES

Solid Japanese comfort food. Ordered: Nabeyaki Udon: pretty good. Broth is good. Portion typical Paris (a bit smaller than US) Ohitashi (spinach): so so. But had low expectations Gyutan Shio(grilled beef tongue): better than expected. Better than man places in California And a beer. Overall decent meal. Not crazy price wise given location. 35 Euro.

Let's just say disappointed and don't bother. I had a bowl of soba and a onigiri (salmon), the rice is too soggy and too much. For the soba, it's overcooked and beef is over seasoned.

I've been here twice so far, both for dinner, and will probably return for more. I originally found this place on Qype while searching for authentic ramen. Its a small place and there is often a line going out the door. The ramen is pretty good. The pork portion is on the small side, and they only give you quarter of a hard boiled egg, but the texture of the noodles were great. The broth was not too salty. We also got the katsu curry and the tempura don. The portions are not large but definitely enough to fill you up. The sides are great. The agedashi tofu was amazing! They also had takoyaki which is always fun to eat. There was only one tiny piece of octopus in each ball, but the texture and favor was good. The gyoza are also quite good. I think, pork and leek. They also have free tea (self-service) and water. I tried to order the green tea, but the waitress directed me to the free tea, which was adequate for me on my tight budget.

I came by early (5:00) on a Saturday, and was the only customer present. The staff outnumbered me 5 to 1, but the service was still extremely slow. I ordered the tuna sashimi and miso soup, expecting the soup to come as an appetizer, but it actually appeared after the sashimi. The sashimi texture was fine, but whoever prepared it didn't quite cut the pieces separately, so I had to use my utensils to separate the individual pieces. I followed up with an order of gyoza. Not only were the individual pieces attached to each other, the entire order was presented upside down. I won't be back again.

At the time of this review this place has 4.5 stars. WTH? Maybe the other dishes here are better but what we ordered was junk. All I have to say is, I should've known better than to try to find udon in france but we were a bit hungover from drinking wine and a bit short on time before our show to Moulin Rouge so we thought this place was the cure. We ordered two versions of their udon and it blew chunks. I mean, the broth was okay at best but the noodles were pure garbage as it was soggy and lacked any kind of texture. My instant Nongshim bowl of udon would have easily beat this place. Avoid. On a side note, the french lady next to me found a piece of foil in her tempura udon. She said something in French to the waitress and simply boned out. Quality control at it best aye? FAIL.