Café Bichette — Restaurant in Annecy

Menu looked good, younger staff were great but older gentleman extremely rude.

Attempted to order a table for my family in French but me and my 2 year old daughter in arms were turned away at first, older gentleman claiming reservation needed (despite an abundance of tables). So, my wife (half French) asked for a table instead a minute later, with our sons, with no issue. Older gentleman clearly uncomfortable when we then joined the table and avoided us as a result.

Drinks orders taken by younger staff who were great with all the customers (including babies, kindly heating their food etc) but we didn’t make it to ordering our food unfortunately after the older gentleman eventually attended our table, albeit begrudgingly, and was just plain rude as we’d inconvenienced him in trying to order - clearly. We’d been patient following receiving our drinks and only sought to get attention to order food, following two tables who arrived afterwards being served.

He immediately spoke down to my wife for attempting to simply order our food (repeatedly telling her to not stress, to calm down “we’re cool”, “where have you got to be? Plane, train, boat to catch”?!). We had no desire to stay at this point.

He went on to make excuses as to why he’d turned me away initially and then made it hard work for us to simply try and pay for our drinks and leave.

Eventually, he allowed us to leave and we didn’t have to pay for the drinks (which we didn’t/couldn’t drink), presumably due to embarrassment/realisation of his awful behaviour?!

A shame, as the other staff seemed friendly and welcoming. Clearly a problem with British families or mixed race men but something was clearly not right here today. Never experienced such treatment at any point in Annecy over the years, or anywhere for that matter!

My whole family came away shocked and upset, the children particularly distressed and confused...

We arrived and settled in for a drink, only to encounter the restaurant owner's authoritarian demeanor from the outset. He insisted we seek his permission to occupy our already chosen seats, despite the restaurant being half-empty. His rationale for this demand remains perplexingly opaque, especially given that he then left us seated in the same location.

Hardly had we poured our drinks when we were abruptly asked to vacate our seats, on the grounds that we were only consuming beverages. When we inquired as to the reasoning behind this abrupt expulsion, we were informed it was to make space for diners. It is worth noting that numerous tables remained unoccupied in our vicinity, despite the bustling tourist locale—surely a glaring warning sign.

Although a brief altercation ensued, we opted not to prolong the confrontation, deeming it unworthy of further energy. As a Swiss national, I can attest to never encountering such impolite behavior in a dining establishment. To be frank, our presence lasted scarcely five minutes, and we conducted ourselves without disturbance to fellow patrons, even throughout the aforementioned disagreement.

In sum, I cannot recommend this establishment unless one relishes the sensation of being under constant...

Avoid! We came here because the reviews were great. The owner had absolutely no control over his staff - they were all standing next to the door, not doing much and clearly unexperienced. One of the kitchen staff (still in gloves and apron!) was vaping in the middle of the dining area abd went back to the kitchen after "his break" - I really hope he changed his gloves before starting cooking again -, music was too loud, lowered and then pumped up again making the experience erratic. To make matters worse, the more than incompetent staff made a mistake and brought us the order from another table - 2 of the dishes out of 4 were what we ordered. Instead of keeping it as is, after much deliberation and about 4 minutes on our table, they took it back and put it on the other customers table!!!! My daughter had taken a chip from her plate, I move the decorative flower off my tartine. If I were the other customers, I wouldnt have accepted those plates. This is a huge hygiene concern! In all honesty, stay away...