Hmmmmmm...
This restaurant was listed as a Michelin *'ed restaurant in our guest house guide. Perhaps this was a long time ago because it certainly did not deliver as one would expect.
Located on the edge of the Gorge de Cesse in the pretty village of Minerva this is an idea setting to establish a reputation for exceptional dining. The restaurant looks good, the views from the terrace are great but everything else lets it down from being an exceptional experience.
On arrival the wait staff seemed unorganised, or unprepared for anyone to arrive. Once we were sat at the table which was a bit of a clumsy and awkward affair we had an aperitifs to start with. The kids had orangina in bottles, the problem being that the tops were not removed.
Throughout the evening wait staff seemed to have a lot of trouble remembering who had what. This does not happen in Michelin *'ed restaurants.
When it came to le fromages, it all fell apart. There were five of us, I was having the Menu autor de le truffle, so I had set courses. The other four had a choice between fromages or faisselle au miel as part of their set menus. So we ordered 2 fromages and 2 faisselle.... All very simple you would think. Somehow they though that my 9 year old daughter did not want anything. Once we realised they had forgotten, or got it mixed up or whatever, we politely asked the waiter of the problem. He appeared to be suggesting that we had caused the problem.... Perhaps we did but we attempted to politely resolve it. After the rest of us had finished the course it was clear that they had no intention of serving my daughter. We then asked for the manager, this did nothing, so we went to the counter where we had to laboriously go through what had happened. By this stage any good feelings about the night had completely evaporated. We then sat down again. When the waiter passed again I had to ask whilst gesturing in a frustrated manner... 'où est la faisselle?'. He then said, ' oh, you want the faisselle now?'
So all in all the service was a real let down. We don't speak very much French, but we try and we have generally had fantastic experiences in French restaurants *'ed or not.
I also found the food to be somewhat unbalanced and lacking imagination. We noticed that the main course was basically meat with the same set of accompanying vegetables - this is not Michelin standard. Perhaps it's not a Michelin rated restaurant. If so, then I'd be a little more forgiving.
In the end one of the meals was discounted, but it was too late by then. The restaurant seemed unable to cope with challenges and just caved in with us. A lost evening.
I hope they do better with others - they could and should be so much better. read more
