alt Hacker NewsFrench have rather specific relation with food, in some aspects better and in some worse than most of the world. Spending on and off there last 15 years so I have a bit of experience with that.
The simple fact is, french restaurants are aimed at french people and not really care about anybody else. So you are conditioned for your style of experience you keep expecting, for anybody else its rather uninviting experience that leaves you at most tolerated, if you know the language and its local aspects and food well enough (which is rather high level and properly sucks for foreigners).
Or to put it in other way - food itself is often superb, as long as its more traditional one and not some copy of foreign one (ie dont try south/east asian stuff its rather disappointing). The human part of experience will leave a lot to desire compared to literally anywhere else in the world.
Replies
Not that there's not a lot of standardization in Japanese food, but if I order most French dishes, especially in France, I generally have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to get.
One things I've heard about French food (and food supply chains) is that it's something of a monoculture which has both good and not so good aspects.
> Or to put it in other way - food itself is often superb, as long as its more traditional one and not some copy of foreign one (ie dont try south/east asian stuff its rather disappointing).
Hah, I was thinking this as well while reading the parent - maybe this explains why non-European food tends to be especially bad in France. Even compared to places like the UK or the Netherlands which aren't exactly known for their food and where too most non-European food isn't great.