Le Pain Quotidien — Restaurant in Maasmechelen

How much of it was burnt?

We are, or now were, regular customers of 'Le Pain Quotidien' in different cities we often visit. Yesterday's experience in Maasmechelen definitely made that the last.

We were three and ordered some lunch for a total of over 45 Euro. It is not cheap, but he it is all organic and biological and ... Drinks came timely the food was a long wait. Two of us had a 'croque monsieur' for 14 euro each, again it is all organic food!. They were blackened. But surely that could be taken care of. When we pointed this out to the waitress her reaction was "I do not work in the kitchen". I beg your pardon? A second waitress was called to the rescue, she apologized and offered to bring two new plates. Taken care of then? No. We did not eat the burnt food, waited for the new plates, and 20 minutes later the waitress comes back to ask if we really wanted the promised two new plates. I beg your pardon? To get new plates, she explains, she "first had to show the burned food to kitchen". Well, you certainly can't go on the customer's opinion and you can't trust the waitresses that don't even work in the kitchen, now can you? I offered to bring the food to the kitchen myself, but decided I had enough (miserabel treatment, not food) and went in to pay. That just added injury to insult. When repeating my complaint it needed a manager to be called. OK. The manager explained that "it was very busy" and they "had a lot of new staff". Sorry don't care anymore. At first he just presented me with the bill of over 45 euro again. I reminded him why I was not happy. Then he wanted to negotiate how much of the food was actually burnt and how much we actually ate so he could decide what to charge. I beg your pardon? I told I was not going there. He discounted one plate and a drink. He lost four...

UPDATE NOV. 2023

Unfortunately we’ve been quite disappointed this time so I have to correct my review. My husband has a very visible knee brace but they managed to put us in a super tiny and kind of hard for somebody with a disability temporary or not, to fit in. Had to ask for the menus, had to ask for the table to be cleaned as it was full of crumbles and sticky from the previous clients who left before we arrived as this table was already empty when we entered. I had to ask personally to be moved in a more suitable place to accommodate my husband. The portions were smaller, I had small pieces of salmon (considering the photo from 2022) and he got served a tiny glass of wine, comparing to the regular glass size of other restaurants. I had the right of a free dessert because of my mmvillage membership but it got denied because “we ran out of”, at 5pm when the Village was still full of life. They could have offered me something else of the same price. Considering the whopping bill of over 50€, I think from the next visit we will better visit some other establishments.

Sad because I have their customer card and I always choose them over other restaurants when I travel around Belgium for a coffee or a brunch.

July 2022 The waitress with black hair has been one of the kindest I’ve ever been served by. She took the orders with a great smile and the avocado toasts and the drinks arrived very fast. We...

EDIT: the reply I provided: We arrived with a group of 5 to the outdoor area of the Le Pain Quotidien location in Maasmechelen on a visit to Europe. We took our seats and I went inside, told a waitress that we were outside, ready to order and that the table needs cleaning up from the previous group (as most other tables in the outdoor area were in need of) - she confirmed that she will be there shortly. After about 15 minutes of waiting with no sign of her, I tried to order via the QR codes on the table - do you really expect people to create a complete profile with personal information, including addresses and all to order a croissant??? We got up and went inside in-line to just take something for take-away, where the waitress was standing at the register, making no sign of recognition or issue. And no - the location was not overly busy or crowded at the time.

In short - we got out without eating due to the lack of service. You might notice in my review that I did not rate the food and gave high marks...