La Calèche — Restaurant in Bonneville

Thank god for decent bottle of Burgundy, that was the only saving grace for what was surreal experience in dining terms. Having visited this restaurant several times a year for the last 20 years tonight felt like a completely different restaurant. It must be quite unusual for a restaurant manager to say “ please carry on and put your little review on trip-advisor...I don’t care” is this the type of response one should expect when trying to explain how things havn’t gone as well as they should have on this this particular evening. To start with we asked for a jug of water three times before it arrived. We then asked for a carafe or a decanter for the slightly youthful red to help it breath while we drank a glass of white. We were told that wasn’t available in this restaurant. Unfortunately one of our party of three fell ill, and had to leave, he actually went and threw up outside. A subsequent phone call assured that the salmon he had consumed was not right, though all three of us had the same so that’s a maybe. The hot stones had been requested for the main course by two of the party. The main course arrived almost as soon as we had finished the starter. It definitely felt like wee were a commodity hogging the table. The stones were presented with the meat and burners were lit. My cutlery was pretty well thrown at me, which at this stage I was still accepting with amusement. Unfortunately the burners seemed ineffective and after a while it was apparent that they had gone out. Having tried to get some attention for quite a while I tried to ask two separate members of staff the first help, the first was the receptionist who waved we away very aloofly, the second was a waitress who simply said she didn’t understand what I was on about, u would have thought it was in her interest to find out but she just walked away. Finally we attracted the attention of one of the waiters who was quite rude not listening at all to our disappointment and simply picked up the stones and walked off mumbling, totally unconcerned that we were dumbfounded, he did tell the manager there was a problem as we had insisted we were not happy. The manager arrived and offered to wipe the cost of the stones from the bill. We tried to explain that the issues were broader but he arrogantly dismissed our claims, suggesting that our expectations of service were totally inappropriate as the restaurant was extremely full. No apology was given, and that was first and foremost what we wanted....Spoilt...

We visited this place one evening on a recent holiday in Chamonix.

The interior is absolutely fascinating, alpine relics and antiques festooning the walls and ceilings. The whole place feels like someone has given a 14 yr old an interior challenge with the theme of "Alpine Kitsch"...and the kid has really let loose. Nevertheless, it's certainly very eye catching and interesting to see such an intense display of Alpine life/ recent history.

Food is good/ average: classic savouyade/ mountain food without (thank god) any poorly conceived, modern 'fusions'. We had raclette: cheese was obvs insane, potatoes were overcooked, salad was sad and underwhelming. Meat selection tasty and presented prettily.

As an aside, we've visited many similar restaurants and been able to take away any uneaten raclette cheese in a "doggy bag". When we asked if this might be possible at La Calèche, the waitress glared at us, mumbled something under her breath, and swept the cheese away. Our only assumption from this was that the cheese is a) thrown in the bin (wasteful) Or b) re-used in another cheese dish, e.g. fondue (unhygienic).

Obviously, not a deal breaker, but the sullen waitress' lack of explanation left us feeling embarrassed. Not the way you wish to end a meal!

Wine list okay, although no recommendations/ suggestions from the waitress when we asked for her opinion. I noticed one pleasant, smiling and helpful waitress in the restaurant. Sadly she was an extreme anomaly amongst her cohort of colleagues, who seemed universally miserable and/ or resentful of...

1: Evil boss of waitlesses. We ordered Tiramisu and others, but she came with wrong dish(other cake) with her colleague. Her colleague has said to her boss that this is not Tiramisu. Then she has said to her colleague "Pose! Pose!" in French. This means "Just put down the dish, and go back, my colleague, because they don't understand French and they could eat this cake as TIRAMISU" And this evil boss of waitlesses never came back to our table. So we claimed to other waitless. 2: We ordered cheese fondue with normal menu. There were too much for us. And we kindly ask 3 dessert for 3 persons, even 2 person are eating cheese fondue. THEN she insisted strongly it is not possible. And she asked to us "Which country are you from?" We are JAPANESE. This means "The uncultivated asian people can not understand our highly french(?) table manner, and I want to know such a shamed country." OK, we went to the restaurant "Albert 1er chamonix" with Michelin 2 star on the next day and ordered main dish and dessert at same time. They never asked anything and they serve perfectly. I would write "Some people in Chamonix are not good and this area has problem", but Albert 1er was different. One of us said "Please put our CHIP on the table, because the Good END brings good to whole process." This person is who ordered Tiramisu. This BOSS did not know one of us understand French, did not know Albert 1er's service, did not know the "Life". So l learned the way is not one, if someone beats you, you can give your other cheek as...