Poivre et Sel — Restaurant in Blois

We loved Povire et Sel so much, that we visited two nights in a row. Would have made it three, but they were closed on Wednesdays. Every dish our first night was superb, and the house wines by the glass were wonderful, adding to the great value we found. Second night, we were greeted with complimentary cassis/white wine cocktails as thanks! That's the kind of service you get here --- so warm and attentive, but no rush to free up the table. We were amazed, in fact, at how hard the two wait staff worked, and still kind attention paid to all guests. We enjoyed the Oeufs Poches Muerette and beef carpaccio Entrees very much. The Salade de Chevres chauds was loaded with slices of cured pork belly adding a nice smokiness. The Tartare de Boeuf is one of the best I've ever had (and I order this dish a lot in France) -- the texture was like a paste --- maybe 2 or 3x ground? With tiny cubes of carrot and pickle, the fries accompanying were perfect - very crisp outside, fluffy soft inside. Have one of the Coupe Sorbet et son alcool for dessert ---- light, flavorful, and so boozy. We recommend wholeheartedly and strongly suggest you make reservations at least a day in advance. Was "complet" every night...

My wife and I came her for lunch on a stop from our Loire valley tour. It was not a good experience. We had about an hour and fifteen minutes to eat lunch and get back to our group. By the time we had our order taken here we were down to 30 minutes. Extremely slow and strangely uneven service. We had an an entire group of 8 come in behind us and get settled after us and amazingly they had their food order on table before anyone took our drink order. The food was either unbelievably bad or they were not happy that we said we were in a time pinch. My pasta is best described as noodles in milk water with a tablespoon worth of salmon in top. Which wasn't supposed to be salmon at all but shrimp. I guess it was just easier to take off a little of my wife's salmon and put it in my pasta maybe? Who knows. The waiter assured us 30 minutes would be enough time but of course it wasn't. We didn't even get the dessert that came with our meal and that we paid for of course. If you are a local this place is probably good. If you are on a tour and thinking of eating here. I would SERIOUSLY give that a second thought. Another family from our group there had a very...

We were very much looking forward to dinner at Poivre et Sel considering we'd been there several times over the past few years and always enjoyed the food. How disappointing to find that standards seem to have really gone down - the place was cold (late December), the staff only seemed preoccupied with clearing our table as quickly as possible, and that's before even describing the food. The magret de canard was chewy and drenched in overly sweet sauce (as was the Pluma Ibérique). The potatoes were covered in fat. The salad came with supermarket bought dressing. Worst of all the staff couldn't care less when we told them how...