Le Pré Salé — Restaurant in Brussels

TLDR: Very bad experience. Wait staff was rude, brash and got physical when called out on behavior, which according to other Google reviews is not a first time occurrence.

Wait staff was brash from start. At end of meal the waitress asked us to use a calculator to add up our payments for her which we did. She proceeded to get frustrated, walk off and return with her own calculator. When my friend pointed out to her that it was simple (we had all ordered the same 24 euro mussels x 5) the waitress proceeded to put her hand centimeters from my the friend's face and shush her repeatedly .

When we told her she was being rude, she said in heated tone that she was doing as a favor splitting our bill in the first place. We asked just to continue with the rest of our transactions (3/5 were done) but she yelled that "actually no!" she doesn't accept it we have to pay for the whole meal at once, and started trying to cancel our previous transactions.

At that point I went to the owner and asked him to cash us out because the person who was supposed to do it was being aggressive. He got involved, claimed we needed to let it go because "they were stressed" and that they don't split bills.

When I pointed out the problem is not whether they're used to splitting bills or stress but the fact that the wait person treated us aggressively and rudely, the waitress went on to grab me by the arm and try to shove me out of the restaurant.

I took her hand off me told her not to touch me. She began to threaten to call the police at which point I used inappropriate language with her, daring her to go ahead, as she was clearly at fault. However, I then disengaged and stepped outside while my friends dealt with the situation. We were able to pay and go.

The owner bid us goodbye by telling us to let it go "because it was Sunday". Draw your own conclusions.

PS. If you made it to the end of this then thank you and also now you know to avoid this place like the...

Having made a reservation which was then followed by two email confirmations from le Pré Salé we were very surprised to arrive to the restaurant only to be told that our reservation did not exist. After insisting politely with the rather abrupt waitress we were required to produce our ‘proof’.. unsurprisingly an apology for the poor welcome was not forthcoming, instead our table of three was then told to sit at a table for two & wait.. admittedly at this point we discussed going elsewhere for dinner but we concluded that it couldn’t possibly get much worse, oh how wrong we were...One member of our party ordered steak cooked medium rare with no sauce, unfortunately this was miscommunicated to the kitchen as he received below average tough over-cooked steak and a strange grease ‘sauce’ which seemed to have been made of the leftovers of all steaks cooked on your premises that week. Two of us opted for a traditional beouf carbonade, unfortunately this was made of the cheapest, fattiest ‘beef’ with almost no meat to be seen, it was inedible. I tried to inform our waitress of the terrible meal (to avoid writing a public online review) but were told to talk to someone else, this person did not arrive to our table. We paid our 84 euro bill which which included 1 carafe of wine & water. We won’t be returning or recommending the restaurant to...

After scanning the area for places for dinner we settled upon Le PS as it was traditional looking and apparently very popular. We secured a table but immediately got the impression the waitress wasn't overly enjoying her role. There were only 2 girls working a full restaurant, but it was apparent neither had any service training. It was very slow, unwelcoming, and devoid of any positive emotion. Not necessarily their fault but a smile wouldn't have killed. As to the food, the shrimp croquettes were mostly bechemal fillled, the beef stew (which I hadn't realised was made with beef cheek at the time of ordering) was gelatinous and the meat, for me at least, verged on inedible. Due to some sort of mix up our side dishes of Belgian styled mashed potatoes didn't turn up until almost the end of the meal. The meatballs were also interesting as the meat was so finely ground there was no texture. Certainly solid at any rate. I guess Belgian cuisine is not necessarily for me, but the staff were definitely poorly trained and had too much on their hands. All in all an enjoyable experience due to the conversation we had with the Belgian family sat directly next to us and not because of the food...