Hôtel La Matelote — Hotel in Boulogne-sur-Mer

In 15 years we have visited this hotel to stay and eat twice and twice to the restaurant alone .|Honestly though the experience would be so much nicer if the staff in the hotel and restaurant were warm , friendly , engaging, smiling . Most of them have never been this . Only the wine waitress was friendly and the restaurant staff never like to use English in our experience . |Dishes are not explained by waiting staff . We took the tasting menu which generally was good but the service was bit slow …so much so that two of the dishes were not served hot enough and looked tired …I think they had been left in the kitchen too long. The whole experience was underwhelming .||As for the hotel …we had stayed 10 years ago for our 30 th wedding anniversary …this time for our 40 th …but there was not a single acknowledgment of this . |Greeting and departure were abysmal . It was pouring with rain and windy and I used the intercom at the garage to establish where to park . It was two twenty pm. The first response when I said I wanted to park to check in was to say check in was at 3 pm ( hello , welcome to the Matelote !) . My wife then had to walk to the reception ( despite a route possible in the dry thru the garage could have been offered ) to collect the garage key . The receptionist, if properly trained could have offered us a at least to wait in the lounge with a coffee…..and of course the rooms were ready …he was just playing by the book !|On check out the receptionist , a different one, produced an invoice and I paid …..not one comment …’ hope u had a nice stay , how was everything ?have a good journey , come again .|???||The bedrooms feel very old fashioned …dark red and gold and brown furniture …dated in style …they need a lift ||I am a retired travel agent and have inspected and stayed in thousands of hotels in my time . I know what service should look like . Our stay here was at odds with the night before in a fabulous little four star hotel not far away …where the staff were warm , welcoming and celebrated our anniversary in many ways with us …..with equally as good food and better value . ||I don’t believe the restaurant holds a Michelin star any more . ||Really , I have always had a slight issue with the service here and was apprehensive about this stay but ready to be pleasantly surprised ….I think for us now the hotel and restaurant is past its sell-by date . We...

Out of curiosity, I decided to try a Michelin-starred restaurant. The food was cooked to perfection, flavours were subtle, delicate and rather elegant. Why I give it 3* is because of the quality of some ingredients or the thought behind them, so to speak. I think every restaurant should be mindful of health and nutrition tips and offer the best to their clients. At La Matelote, I was surprised to be offered plain white bread in the bread basket, butter without any indication of origin, some mises en bouche which are anything but healthy, ladden with cheese and salt, the dessert sprinkled with powder sugar... To me, that is something of cheap restaurants, that I frankly did not expect here. The foie gras with the peach chutney and the turbot with veggies were great, simple and delicious, nicely balanced. I also loved the drinks, wine and digestive, excellent choices! However, if the service is rather fast, by the end virtually everyone at the tables around me waited for more than 30' for the dessert. Staff got disengaged at that point I assume, as the place had become pretty empty. Also, I cannot understand how they could have claimed to have been complete when at least 4 tables had been empty throughout my long dinner... All in all, refined, fresh, tasty, but in the end I don't think I would ever go back. I have tried several other bistronomic restaurants in the area which are very mindful about the quality and health considerations of what they put on your plate. And a tad cheaper too... A good experience but made me reconsider my future choices in terms of gastronomic...

Nous étions 6(3 adultes 3 enfants de 8ans). Nous voulions réserver 2 chambres de l'hôtel "4 étoiles". La réceptionniste nous a alors proposé plutôt un appartement de l'hôtel avec 2 chambres lits doubles et un lit simple pour moins cher que 2 chambres. OK. Nous avons eu le plaisir de rentrer dans un immeuble à côté de l'hôtel avec un entrée sentant les fruits de mer! Escalier assez vieillot menant à l'appartement au 3ème étage. Joli appartement mais avec des prestations loin d'un 4 étoiles! Pas de pression dans la robinetterie et la douche, des murs de salles de bains salles, joins de baignoire avec moisissures et craquelée. Les contours de fenêtres sales, le sol du balcon totalement noirs avec la peinture craquelée et des moisissures, les garde corps du balcons rouillés et sales. Le spa devait être bien à l'origine il ya des dizaines d'années... mais là le hammam était surchauffé, impossible de rester plus d'une minute dedans: la piscine était super froide tout comme le jacuzzi!!!!!!! Carrelages et grilles d'évacuation de piscine avec des moissisures, fenêtres-verrière dégoutantes par les fientes d'oiseaux et saletés. Puis il était impossible de prendre une douche dans l'espace spa puisqu'il n'y avait pas d'eau chaude!!!!! J'ai jamais vu ça dans un hôtel 4 étoiles ( et j'en ai fait beaucoup).... Le parking de l'hôtel est payant moyennant 15euros la journée !!!! Jamais vu ça pour la clientèle! Le petit déjeuner revient à 15euros par personne et il n'y a rien de folichon! Point positif il est gratuit pour les enfants. A la fin de ce séjour d'une nuit, je fais les remarques au réceptionniste, qui avec un sourire en coin et un air hautain, me répond que non l'appartement ne fait pas partie des prestations 4 étoiles et que nous aurions dû lui faire ces remarques en début de séjour afin d'avoir un geste commercial🤔! (Il faut peut être le temps de se rendre compte des choses mais bon...) Affalé dans le fond de son fauteuil il me dit que de toutes façons il ne connaît pas ces appartements puisqu'il n'y est jamais allé lui même. Il me dit qu'il y a tout de même de l'eau et des capsules de café dans l'appartement donc ça fait partie de bonnes prestations tout de même! Ben non d'abord de l'hygiène et des finitions c'est le début !!!!! Neanmoins l'appartement pourrait être sympa s'il était mieux entretenu et fini et surtout si on nous annonçait que ce n'était pas un appartement avec des prestations de 4...