Auberge Du Lac — Restaurant in Annecy

Publicly Humiliated, Shouted At, and Thrown Out – A Disgrace to French Hospitality

We booked a lakeside table 3 weeks in advance at Auberge du Lac, Lake Annecy. What we got was a public spectacle of humiliation, instigated by an aggressive waiter, overseen by a cowardly manager, and witnessed by a restaurant full of silent bystanders.

On arrival, we were seated at the worst possible table - furthest from the lake. My wife requested to be moved away from the smoking entrance, and we were reluctantly given a table mid-terrace.

After 20 minutes of being completely ignored, my wife went to the bar to politely ask for a bottle of water for our children. That’s when everything turned ugly.

A tall, moustachioed waiter stormed over and, with a raised voice, told us we weren’t allowed to sit there. No explanation. No apology. No solution. My wife calmly approached the manager, who admitted the waiter was “incompetent”, then promptly did nothing.

Moments later, the waiter returned, now shouting, and verbally abused my wife in front of the entire terrace, calling her a “tramp” and threatening to call the police—for what? Asking for water. The restaurant fell silent. Everyone watched as this man debased a mother in front of her children, who were now visibly shaken and distressed.

He then approached me separately and attempted to provoke another confrontation. I told him to speak with my wife instead of trying to divide and conquer. He responded with more police threats.

There was no aggression from us at any point. Just confusion, hunger, and deep humiliation. We were thrown out in front of the entire restaurant like criminals, with two small children in tow, simply because we asked to sit at the table we’d reserved and be served.

This was not a misunderstanding. It was public degradation, enabled by a manager who admitted the problem but chose to let it happen.

Avoid this place. Avoid these people. Avoid this shameful...

The location is great and it has an amazing atmosphere. But that's all. In the beginning he told us that we have to wait 45min for the table, so we decided to get a drink and wait. Then they forgot about us and i the end we waited almost 1.5h for the table. After that we waited at least 20min just for the menu and after that another 20min to order. In total we had a waiting time for about 2.5h for our food. On top of that the food looks delicious but honestly it's not. The salad wasn't fresh and the dressing was not tasty. The fish was just a lot of grease and the fries weren't crunchy. Most of the moules were empty and they didn't gave us something to clean our hands.

The waiters were friendly but we had to wait to long which is not their fault because they just had to less staff for this amount...

We came across this wonderful restaurant by chance, having got off the bus to the chateau a stop too early. We walked down to the lake and were delighted to come across the Auberge. Nothing could beat the setting. Water's edge and deck, flowers and foliage, and sofas and comfy seats at tables with shade. The was very busy but we still had excellent service. We had a cocktail and hot chocolate...despite it being 27 degs! We shared a salad as we'd already eaten, and there was a chilled bottle of water brought to the table. We would rate the Auberge as a very special place and would most definitely want to come again ...next time for a bigger meal. The whitebait on the next table looked...