Restaurant Italien des Arcades — Restaurant in Bergerac

Be a sheep...or not? There's no mystery why this is a popular restaurant. It's all location, location, location and nothing whatsoever to do with food, service or atmosphere. Any shop looks good in Eymet's arcaded square - a restaurant needs judging on food and service. Last night's visit (our second) was even worse than our first. From the surly waitresses that greeted us it was downhill all the way. Shoved outside, the blinds enclosed the space and since half the customers decided to smoke continuously the atmosphere was old-style working man's club in the 70s. In short, nasty. In this era we don't expect to have to breathe drug addicts' effluent while eating. I ordered calzone, a favourite of mine. So did my partner. Neither of us had the artichoke inside that was listed on the menu, my partner's didn't even have any chorizo.....my calzone had two measly slices of chorizo!! The egg was almost raw and the cheese was probably Dutch, a long way from Italy. In short the calzone was tasteless and watery. Others in our party had tagliatelle of various sorts. All three left well over half. It's a over-priced down market pizza shop pretending to be something else. Cordon blue it is not. Do not expect anything over mediocre and you'll leave happy. The word "disappointing" cropped up a lot. This, after having to wait for ages while other later arrivals were served well before us! We didn't have dessert, or coffee. I just couldn't wait to leave. The starter of ham & melon was good, but since melons are grown locally and are in season that is hardly surprising - we have them all the time chez nous! A simple litre carafe of red wine was very good as well, but, since the local wines are very good this too is to be expected. Melon and wine in a melon and wine area should not and did not create any issues. However, there was no way that I'd see us paying the 100 euros asked for what we'd had up to that point. I amended the bill to what I thought it was worth after consultation with the rest of our party. Needless to say this didn't go down too well. The wine manager was called who spoke english. He said no-one had ever amended one of his bills and he'd never seen it happen - Ha! He should get out more. Somehow, he couldn't understand how we didn't send the calzone back - it's a folded pizza mate, like a Cornish pasty. You don't open it up as in an autopsy to see what's inside - you work your way through it. You only find out stuff is missing when you reach the end. His arrogant offer of a limoncello was politely refused by ourselves. He wanted to call the police to which we said, "okay, do so". We could see that several of his staff were advising him against this plan.... In the end, one of our party caved in and paid about 3/4 of the bill. They shouted out to us to not return, which is unfortunate for them since we live locally and thus others will get our custom. The reality of the place is that it is a tourist trap and the beautiful surroundings fool folks into accepting shoddy food and shoddy service. It is like the tale of the emperor's new clothes - there is nothing of substance in the place, the food or the service. Caveat emptor. p.s. If you want really good Italian food, go to Dou-dou's at Creysse. Really. It's worth the 25 minute drive. If you want something to shut the kids up while you try to pose in a smokey smog while being glowered at by surly staff, the arcade's...

Took a recommendation of a local English bloke I met in the street. Was so hungry after a five hour drive I didn't bother to do any further research which was a mistake. The antipasti platter and focaccia to start were decent enough. However these lads cannot cook pasta for love nor money. Awful. Carbonara was bordering on disgusting. Claggy, overcooked swimming in a heavy sauce almost certainly cream based therefore not a carbonara at all..., hardly any meat and the few bits of meat that were in it were unidentifiable... panceta no... guanciale no, cheap unsmoked bacon...I assume so... It was decidedly lacking in flavour. Very poor. All three pasta dishes the pasta itself was seriously overcooked, literally mushy.. whatever happened to al dente!? Perhaps they are just to used to cooking for the English. I am English BTW. I ordered gnocchi with Italian style pulled pork and hazelnuts as thought it sounded interesting. Gnocchi cooked in sage butter was actually quite nice but far too small portion, especially when compared to the mountains of pasta everyone received. The pork was dull and insipid, the hazelnuts were irrelevant.

Place was rammed, unsurprising due to the idyllic setting on square. Full marks for atmosphere. Alas because it was so busy the staff were rushed off their feet so we waited best part of an hour between starter and mains, then a further 20+ mins for bill to arrive from when we requested. Eventually had to go up and force the issue.

Lovely spot but if you appreciate good food go...

I encountered the rudest service I’ve ever experienced in my life at this restaurant. We arrived early with the intention of feeding our 3 small children a quick lunch. We asked a male waiter if we could sit on one of the many free tables outside and he agreed. We ordered a pizza for the kids and a beer for my husband from a female waitress. We noticed a lot of talk between the staff and pointing at us, and the female waitress then came over to us and launched into a tirade, telling us we can’t sit on the table we’re sitting on as it’s a table for 6 (we were a party of 5) and if she’d known we were only ordering one pizza she would have put us inside. The restaurant was 80% empty. She was so aggressive and rude I was actually speechless. We are friendly and reasonable people; if we had been asked politely to move inside, we would have done (despite there being no good reason as far as I could tell!) We ate the pizza and left; we were there for 20 minutes and in that time two people turned up to eat. Maybe they hate kids, maybe they hate Brits - either way, don’t work in hospitality in the summer season in the Dordogne. Absolutely appallingly rude service. The pizza was also...