Chistera & Coquillages — Restaurant in Bayonne

After a visit last year when we were not impresssed, my wife and I gave Chistera et Coquillages a second chance last week (end June 2025) encouraged by positive reviews and recommendations. Unfortunately, our experience confirmed that this restaurant is still more hype than hospitality—what we encountered was a clear tourist trap with a serious attitude problem.

At first glance, everything seemed promising: the setting is trendy and classy, and we were seated promptly at a nice outdoor table thanks to our early reservation. But that’s where the positives ended.

Despite arriving before the rush, it took 40 minutes just to receive a simple starter of shrimp bouquet and padrón peppers. The real trouble began with the main course. I have a allergy to alliums—onions, leeks, chives, shallots—which we emphasized when ordering an entrecôte, medium rare, without any ingredients from that family.

The dish arrived covered by allium butter. When we raised this with the waitress, instead of an apology, we were met with condescension and a curt “It’s shallot, not onion”—a shocking dismissal considering the allergy we’d made clear. The plate was taken back, only to return with lingering traces of shallot and a completely overcooked steak, obviously the same piece of meat which they tried to wipe off the shallots from.

Even after escalating the issue, the staff remained defensive. The manager emerged, equally unwilling to accept responsibility. We decided to leave due to the disrespect they showed. After a long and uncomfortable exchange, he grudgingly agreed to remove one steak from the bill but insisted we pay for the other, despite us not even touching them.

As passionate food lovers who dine out regularly, we were genuinely disheartened—not just by the poor food quality but by the lack of professionalism, and basic culinary competence. To be treated rudely in response to a genuine health concern is simply unacceptable.

If you value good food, respectful service, and accountability, do yourself a favor and avoid this place. Biarritz has plenty of wonderful restaurants—sadly, this is not...

We stumbled upon Chistera & Coquillages on our first night in Biarritz and absolutely fell in love!! We didn't have a reservation and so we waited very briefly at the bar and that was when we first met the bossman Ludovic. He let us sample some local beer (Eguzki) and the night just kept getting better and better. He helped us pick out wine and gave us recommendations for the rest of our night. The food, drinks, and service were absolutely incredible. We had such a good experience here that we decided to come back a couple nights later, and again the food was just out of this world. In fact, loved it here so much that we actually cancelled our reservations for another restaurant on our last night and ate here a third time. Every time at the restaurant the service was prompt and incredibly friendly (thank you so much Alice, Clement, and St Claire), the food was outstanding, the drinks were wonderful. I do not have enough nice things to say about this play. Ludovic and his team really go above and beyond. Thank you all so much for so many...

Great dinner for 2! We hand the sardines starter, seafood paella for 2 and a couple of wine glasses each. Sardines were delicious, best we ever had but way to expensive as a starter. Seafood paella was enough for two and had 4 huge shrimp, lots of tasty mussels and vongolas. If you don't like getting dirty then don't order this since you will need to remove the shrimp tail - and we did it by hand. Wine was very good - red wine - one of the more expensive bottles that was served by the glass (wasn't sure if we can drink a whole bottle between the two of us). Not so important but the google maps location is set up wrong. It takes you to the back entrance where...