L'Imprévu — Restaurant in Béziers

The Friday evening we visited was out of season (October) and also happened to be Karaoke night which did cause us slight concern. The style of L'Imprevu is fresh and quite modern, the lighting inside the building itself errs on the bright side. Everything is sparkly and clean and the tables are well spaced not squeezed in. The menu is good with a selection of meat and fish dishes and there is also a very good board of 'specials' which included several fish dishes, lamb shank and other seasonal meats. There is a nice list of cocktails and the selection of beers seems to be better than in most of the other bar/restaurants in the immediate area. There's plenty of seating outside and lots of people were enjoying a drink and not eating. Service was responsive, but not pushy and our waiter had studied overseas and had fluent American English. The food was well presented and the tapas we shared as starters (prawns with sweet chilli sauce, roasted vegetables and cold meats) were excellent. Our mains courses were good: the Carbonara was a little oily, but the serving was quite large, the baked cod with chorizo was beautifully cooked, but also oily and lacked spice, but that maybe because local taste is more comfortable with gentler flavours, the seabream and lamb shank were well cooked and tasty. We didn't sample the desserts, but those being eaten around us looked good. The karaoke wasn't too intrusive/loud. I suspect the vibe would be different in high season with more of a mix of visitors and locals. Our singers were all locals and the choice of songs was equally French with moody, angst ridden ballads dominating. A couple of people got up and smooched on the small dance floor. It wasn't a high energy musical extravaganza, but made a good, quite gentle soundtrack for dining or relaxing with a drink. The French also seemed to be more self aware than other nationals which meant the standard of singing ranged from very good to ok. There were no performers that were uncomfortable to listen to or watch and our original concerns were unfounded. I think it would be easy to access the outside area and the restaurant if you are a wheel chair user or have limited mobility. The selection of dishes specifically for children was very limited, but I suspect they might be able to provide smaller portions of some of the mains, it would be with checking. The meal with tapas as shared starters (3), small beers (4), mains (4), a bottle of wine and coffees (4) came to €160 including a tip. We felt it was a little expensive and wouldn't come here frequently as there's equally good quality nearby for a more reasonable price, but for a change or just for a drink, we will...

D'après ce que l'on comprend à notre arrivée, Ils ont fait la fête hier soir, les un an du resto. La responsable de l'établissement est très sympa et serviable, hélas ses employers ne sont pas à la hauteur, mais bon en ce temps de crise, on ne fait pas les difficiles. Commandé un burger saignant, eut à point 😁, commandé une salade césar et avec des bricks de chèvre en plus en soulignant bien que cela était possible en payant un supplément et que cela ne demandait pas trop de manutention, puisque c'était de l'assemblage. Le serveur était très septique, en disant, je ne sais pas si c'est possible et cela avait l'air de l'embêter. Je me suis déplacée à la cuisine pour expliquer au chef et j'ai récapitulé ce dont j'avais demandé, il m'a repondu, il se debrouille (le serveur) 🙄. Le serveur en plein repas est venu nous enlever le pichet de rosé, je lui ai fait remarquer que nous avions pas terminé car il restait du rosé dans la bouteille, il a pris le pichet et a mis le reste de rosé dans mon verre et m'a répondu maintenant c'est fini. 🙄😁. Un appel téléphonique pour réservation mercredi d'une table au nom de "Etchebest", et là, je me dis où est la caméra cachée 🙄😁. Au moment de régler l'addition au bar, la clim fuit et l'eau coule sur la banque, la responsable relance l'entreprise par téléphone bien qu'elle l'avait fait en amont (jour auparavant) et s'aperçoit que ce n'est toujours pas réparé. Ce restaurant porte bien son nom "l'imprévu". Je souhaite bien du courage à la charmante responsable de cet établissement (qui n'en manque pas) et qui est plein de bonne volonté et j'espère de tout cœur qu'elle arrivera à avoir une équipe plus volontaire et surtout plus professionnelle. Elle le mérite vraiment ✨son restaurant est agréable et très bien agencé avec une déco tendance, on se sent bien et donne...

We ordered tapas with the kids menu. it didn’t come and we had to remind the staff to get it. then when our kids got the desert, our main course still didn’t got served and we have been asked if we wanted desert as well. i said we didn’t get the main course yet. after more waiting i got impatient and went to the manager to tell her my disappointment and she straight cut me and said i was yelling, which i wasn’t. the manager doesn’t want to listen to client’s feedback and puts her ego on the way. that’s a shame as it’s a rather nice place. not remcommended...