La Vache Rouge — Restaurant in Albertville

We have been to this restaurant every time we have skied in Les Arcs over the last 15 years or so, and it’s always been a highlight of our stay. However, this time, it was appalling! We usually manage to have a platter of oysters, Cote de bouef, cooked perfectly, which came with 3 delicious sauces and soufflé potatoes and vegetables, a nice bottle of Cote du Rhone all for around the price of €150. This time it seems that since the new owner took over, 4 years ago, it’s about style over substance. There’s a big performance about how you choose your beef from a selection of 3 on offer. It’s then taken away and cooked for you and returned cut and the bone flaming. We chose a piece of 1.3kg black Angus beef with fat, so that during cooking the fat would render down and moisten the meat. Sadly, the meat was unseasoned, the bone was approx 40% of the weight, the fat another 30% of the weight leaving only approximately 30% for the unseasoned, poorly cooked beef. We love a rare steak which has been seasoned and cooked at a high heat to give flavour and melt the fat, so we ordered a ‘French medium’ which we understood to be a ‘regular’ rare. When the waitress enquired as to how the meat was, we were honest and politely said that there was no flavour to the meat and that there was a LOT of blubbery fat, and that we were disappointed. Her response was to walk away! In my opinion, give this restaurant a miss and go up to The Savoy at 2000, where the meat is perfectly seasoned, sublimely cooked, includes sauces etc, has a fantastic atmosphere, friendly staff and is a lot less expensive! I will say, that the oysters we had at La Vache Rouge as a starter were very nice, even though they didn’t have enough of the cheaper oysters to fulfil our order, so we had to have a mix of expensive ones and the cheaper ones. The final bill came in at €300 for 2 people,, €200 of which was for the meat! This was our only visit this holiday, whereas we usually would visit 2 or 3 times. We were also seated in front of (actually up against!) the fire exit which was drafty and cramped. So very sad that a once incredible restaurant has...

Ordered a round drinks, Prawns, and Ribeye. Would have had another drink and maybe desert but the waitress never came back to check on the meals...ever. Finally the other waitress noticed our plates hadn’t been cleared and took them away.

The prawns were very good and it was a generous portion. The fries with the Ribeye light and crunchy and perfect.

The steak was raw and so tough it was dangerous to chew. I tried two bites. Because I’m not French, I was going to very nicely ask for the steak to be cooked a bit more. I understood that their ideas of medium rare and mine might be different. But she never came to check - so I just left the steak and decided to take it home with me to Recook. My wife finally went home before the bill eventually got there. When the waitress remembered to bring the machine over to pay she got this “oh *rap” look in her eye like she finally realized what terrible service she had given. The machine didn’t even give an option to tip. I would have given her something anyway but.....whatever....

Just got done chewing through the toughest Ribeye I’ve ever eaten...It was flavorful - but not edible in public. I won’t go there...

Booked for 1830 on Friday evening (booked because we knew it would be busy), was told when we arrived that we only had 1 hour in there, and that it said it on our confirmation which it did not.

Ordered 2 for fondue and 2 pear steaks (medium rare). Steaks came out way before everything else (including their sides), and were purple - couldn't be finished.

Ordered 3 x cokes, waiter came with 1 x coke, and 2 x zero cokes - they argued they were regular cokes and they were clearly not.

Glasses were not cleared from the table, and only after asking were half taken away.

Fondue was gorgeous though, and the fries were great!

We asked for the bill, which took ages to come despite them telling us we had only an hour.

We were stared at by customers waiting (totally eyeballing us specifically) from 1930, so I can't help but suspect the host had told them our table was theirs.

Service was a bit of a shambles, but some of the food was good. I'd go elsewhere for steak though, and if you don't want to be rushed or feel...