Restaurant Responds to Serena Williams After She Was ‘Denied’ Table in Paris

Serena Williams called out a Paris restaurant on X, claiming she was “denied” a table, and now the eatery has responded.

The tennis legend posted, “Yikes @peninsulaparis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places but never with my kids. Always a first. #Olympic2024,” adding melting face and eye rolling emojis.

The Peninsula Paris replied to her post with an apology and explanation, “Dear Mrs. Williams, Please accept our deepest apologies for the disappointment you encountered tonight. Unfortunately, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked and the only unoccupied tables you saw belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was fully reserved.”

The restaurant added, “We have always been honored to welcome you and will always be to welcome you again.”

The establishment also told The New York Post in a statement, “In response to Ms Williams’ tweet, for whom we have the utmost admiration and respect, as we do for all our esteemed guests, we reiterate our deepest apologies that we were not able to offer her a table at our rooftop bar when she arrived with her family and without a reservation,” adding, “We do always try to make space for walk-in guests but sometimes this is not possible.”

The statement continued, “On August 5th, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked, and the only unoccupied tables at that time belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was also fully reserved. As an alternative, Ms Williams was offered an outside table downstairs at the hotel’s La Terrasse Kléber.” The restaurant confirmed they had also “reached out to Ms Williams directly.”

Back in June, “Extra” spoke with Serena at the 2024 Tribeca Festival premiere of her new docuseries “In the Arena: Serena Williams.”

The athlete, who is married to Alexis Ohanian, gushed over their daughters Olympia, 6, and Adira, who turns 1 this month.

Williams told us, “They’re like my biggest love, so I’m obsessed with those kids. I think I put all that intensity that I had in tennis into my children because I’m super hands-on,” Williams added.