Le Grillon, Restaurant, Crêperie, Grill avec Agneau de Pré-salé, produits locaux, Hôtel — Restaurant in Avranches

We visited this restaurant on the last evening of our holiday. To begin with, the service was not that great with one waitress really making us feel like we were a nuisance even being there! We very nearly got up and walked out. However, the second waitress was friendly and brought us our drinks and a little dish of peanuts so we decided to give it a chance. The menu was quite limited in that it was very 'local'. As an English family, it was very difficult to understand what the menu items meant as the terminology was about local produce which is difficult to translate (and my French is quite good). However, we managed to find a meal for my 9 year old son (steak hache - basically a burger without a bun, with fries) which was cooked quite rare, even though I asked for it to be medium to well. I had the same with the same issue. Hubby had a local dish which was a kind of pancake with his meal wrapped inside - he said it was unusual but absolutely delicious. Then came my daughter's meal.....she loves salad and so had opted for the duck salad.....when the waitress put the dish down, both my husband and I looked at each other, both thinking there was no way our ten year old daughter was going to touch her food....The duck was blanched, but basically raw. However, she picked up her fork and aside from a small piece she let her brother taste, she ate every last scrap from her plate. We are not convinced she enjoyed it too much and think the reason she actually ate it was due to a conversation earlier in the day where we had said she was starting to be fussy with her food......and she did joke later that the chef "must have thought it would be funny to pluck a duck, drop it on a plate of lettuce leaves and give it to a ten year old", but at the same time, we don't think she disliked her meal. Anyway, in general we are a family which likes to try local cuisine when abroad, but this was a little trickier. However, we all survived and for the most part we enjoyed our meals and the kids enjoyed their ice creams afterwards. The service wasn't great and we had long periods where we had empty glasses and plates on the table. The restaurant could have made more money out of us had the serving staff filled our glasses more often! At one point, there were no waiting staff at all as they all went outside to look at wild kittens. The restaurant itself was very small and one family were turned away as they were told there were no tables available despite there clearly being two tables set up and empty. It wasn't particularly clean in there (I would avoid the toilet) but the food, in the end, was pretty good. I, personally wouldn't go back, but if you like to try new things, then it's worth...

Horrible service and rude staff. I am writing in English so more people can understand our feedback, but should the restaurant owners care to read this please rest assured that nous habitons en France et parlons français. To start with, despite the serious situation with Covid-19 throughout the country, there was no distancing whatsoever between the tables inside and people were literally seated should to shoulder in the front half of the restaurant. We proceeded to the back where there were free tables and asked to have a couple of them together so our group of 6 could sit. Our waitress, which had previously greeted us with the coldest demeanour, explained that it wouldn’t be possible, given that there was one couple seated nearby. We offered to wait as the couple in question were getting ready to leave in a minute and had politely offered their table, but our “friendly” waitress explained that the restaurant had no intention of keeping service going if we want to wait (please note that this is happening around 13:00 when closing time is an hour away...). Biting back comments, we said that we understand and would still prefer to wait. The last straw came when the waitress asked half our group to leave the restaurant and wait outside in the freezing cold as she cleaned one of the tables without any explanation...Overall a very horrible experience that I would not recommend unless you want to have your meal ruined. We happily took our business across the street to the lovely l’Authentique, where we were treated from the start as actual customers and...

5 stars to Le Grillon ☆☆☆☆☆

Le Grillon is a hidden gem of atmosphere, ambiance, and extraordinary local food served with attention to detail and a smile. We stumbled as hungry travelers upon Le Grillon the first night in town after a long journey and were delighted by the care the host took to seat us durng a busy dinner hour. He patiently answered our questions and recommended dishes that pleased every member of our party.

We chose to sample local dishes and were wowed by Galette Forestière, Galette Chèvre-Miel Salade, and Alizée. Everything was so delicious we chose to bypass other venues on our second night in town so that we could sample additional local favorites. The famous Mont St. Michelle Côtes d'Agneau de Pré-salé 3 was everything we heard it would be, and, of course, the Entrecôte was excellent.

Heaven touched earth at dessert! We could not resist the Normande and Amandine caramel crepes specials, with two scoops of Trop Normande for the lighter palette.

Our time in La Manche came to an end, so we could not return to Le Grillon for a third night in a row, but we know we will be back to Le Grillon on our next journey to...