L'Arche Des Vins — Restaurant in Beaune

Maybe we caught a bad day. I believe the owner(s?) were not on sight personally. But still… our experience was not nice.

We got a recommendation from our host in Pommard to come here and tried our best to say as much in french as we could. The two/three dudes working the evening spoke great english, but still sent their obviously overloaded new young female colleague with barely any english. We never spoke to any of the guys again, like we didn’t exist.

Great extensive wine list! But when I asked our inexperienced (but friendly and trying her best) server for some help navigating the book, it was obvious that one of the somms should have taken the ropes.

For water we had to ask three times to get a bottle after the main course finally. No apologies.

We felt like the guys didn‘t like us at all because we weren‘t locals. Getting a „stupid tourist“ stamp right at the door.

So we right away didn’t feel like spending $$$ on a bottle, decided to NOT go for chartreuse, coffee and dessert at the end… not that anybody would have offered… Last 45 min nobody stopped by to upsell or ask us on anything, even tho our bottle was empty.

Starter was gazpacho wich was really not good. Not salt, nothing. Just tomato water.

Steak as a main could have been great but there was like zero zero salt on it either… same with the fish dish. We asked for salt and it made the dish much better right away. So high potential with an easy fix.

So, the lack of service killed the evening. Made us feel not welcomed. If you put a thick chunk of a list on the table, you have to provide competence to guide you thru it and not ignore a visiting couple for maybe a personal reason. Would have loved to chat to one of the guys about bottle...

Unfortunately, our visit here yesterday was a bit of a disappointment. We had hoped to simply enjoy a glass of wine. Although the place was quite busy, we managed to find a spot outside. After several minutes without any service, my husband went inside and had to place the order at the bar himself. He asked for two glasses: one fuller-bodied red for himself and a light, fruity red for me. A little later, a rushed waiter appeared and poured two different wines with hardly a word. The pours were noticeably uneven – quite unprofessional, especially at this price point. The wines themselves were excellent, no complaints about the quality. When we wanted to pay outside, we were told to go inside to settle the bill. There came the surprise: €29 for two glasses of wine that were poured with little care or consistency. To us, these are unrealistic prices. Throughout our tour of Monaco and the Côte d’Azur – where we’ve eaten well and often – we haven’t come across anything quite so overpriced. As mentioned, the wine was good – but for what amounted to a little sip the price...

Had a nice glass of wine here and they have a fantastic selection along with an appealing list of small plates. We enjoyed the saucisson with some pickles. Unfortunately, the experience went downhill due to poor service. The two waiters seemed uninterested, spent a lot of time with their friends, and didn’t clear tables. We gave them the benefit of the doubt, thinking they might be understaffed, but after waiting over 45 minutes to order a second drink and being purposely ignored despite being in the middle of the room, we decided to leave. Paid and left without a second round. I’m sure this place is great when the service is good, but sadly that wasn’t the...