Grand Café Riche — Restaurant in Arles

First, the food was good. Nothing to complain in that aspect .

However, it’s also about the service, isn’t it?

We arrived there for lunch on All Saint’s Day with our two children (the big one is 4y and the smaller just 10m). On the occasion of our visit, it happened that they forgot to prepare our order because the printout of it slipped .

Sure, this can happen, and normally I am a very understanding person for such small mishaps. But it’s mainly about how you handle a situation once you realise it. And here, literally, there was nothing from their side.

It took a good hour , and couples eating next to us had their coffee already while we were still waiting.

The fun part was that initially, I was very impressed : at less than ten minutes after we ordered, they stated to serve the kids’ menu for our 4y old son. And it was nicely presented for a child menu - I loved it. But then, their service came to an halt as far as our table was concerned.

Once they realised it, no apology - other than an empty “desolée”. After I had to ask where do we stand with our order - it was not that they would have stopped at our table to explain the mishap. And other small things: once you realise you messed-up a table, wouldn’t you pay particular attention to it? E.g. no bread. Not at the beginning, not when the final plate was eventually served. So, I asked . « Bien sûr«  she said . But nothing came. The waiters were always rushing through the place without paying real attention to their guests. So, I stood up and had to remind the lady of her « Bien sûr« .

And I must say: normally, when working as a waitress, you should notice that for one table, nothing’s moving forward, shouldn’t you?

What frustrated me most was their incompetence to utter a simple apology which did not sound hollow. Take half a minute to speak to your guests. In particular as we were there with two small children. And even as I walked up and down through the restaurant with our toddler in my arms to calm her down, staff didn’t take the chance to mention that the order would be late .

So, for our second child, it was already complicated enough to make them prepare a simple side dish. We didn’t ask for much, she’s 10m old. Steamed or mashed otatoes or plain rice. But that was seemingly a complex undertaking. Eventually, we could arrange for a portion of mashed sweet potatoes which they had as as side dish on the kids’ plate in any case. But also this came only at the same time as the parents’ dishes when the 4y old had long fished his plate.

Others examples of too less attention : I had to remind them to bring the wine menu, had to remind them of the high chair for children after she said they have one - and at the moment we arrived shortly after noon, it was still quite empty - it only filled up later.

I forewent my dessert (I had the menu de jour with dessert included) after we finished the main dishes. When paying the bill, the waitress just acted surprised why I would not have wanted it - but missed the last chance to say anything about the situation.

Overall, such an experience can really ruin your mood for...

Do not go to this restaurant. We speak french and we travel here 1-2 times per year. We have never been treated so horribly. Two tables of French guests ordered their food and received their food before us, even though they arrived 20 and 30 minutes after us respectively. We asked for water three times and never received. After waiting an hour and 15 at lunch and still no food we respectfully asked in french to pay for our two beverages and starter. At first they apologized, but called in a police officer to threaten us and forced us to pay for food we never received. Truly a terrible way to treat guests in...

Tout commençait plutôt bien, resa effectuée pour 5 personnes à 11h30, en terrasse… Nous sommes arrivés, la terrasse était plutôt une véranda, ok passons. Niveau cuisine honnêtement c’était un peu cata. On a pris des légumes farcis qui n’étaient pas cuits… sympa de manger de la farce de porc pas cuite. Très gentiment, ils ont refait cuire le plat, c’était mieux mais toujours pas cuit à l intérieur… Après gros soucis entre la carte, leur site et la réalité. Leur site parle de salade César, de tenders de poulet, de côte de bœuf. On arrive il y avait rien de ces plats, ok cela peut arriver … compliquer de maintenir un site à jour avec une carte de produits frais. Aussi grosse différence entre leur carte du jour et les plats- exemple : gambas en persillade et citron le plat arrive : pas de persillade, ok une rondelle de citron et de la tomate… bref rien à voir. Nous avons pris une bruchetta, bcp de détails sur ma carte .. dommage de ne pas avoir mentionné qu’il y avait de la tapenade à foison m, ma fille n’ayant pas les olives nous nous aurions orienté vers un autre plat. Les légumes farcis étaient soit au bœuf soit au porc avec … ; il se trouve qu au final c’était veau et porc, je leur signale et on me répond « bien oui c’est explique dans les 3 petits points ». Heureusement les 2 personnes du service étaient sympa, compréhensible et gênés de ce résultat. La personne a la caisse est absolument pas aimable, heureusement qu elle est pas trop en contact avec les clients… Peut être qu on est mal tombé, mais malheureusement on...