Babette Bordeaux — Restaurant in Bordeaux

Disappointing experience. Went here to splash out on a more expensive meal but ended up being the worst food we've had in Bordeaux.

There was firstly very little atmosphere, it was really quiet at 8.30pm on a Friday night and staff seemed to outnumber guests. The kitchen was open for guests to look into but the chefs were mostly milling about and chatting and messing about near to our table with very little to do, which definitely gave a weird vibe to the evening.

We firstly ordered the butternut squash soup which came quite tepid and with a stone cold egg in the middle. It arrived only a couple of minutes after we ordered so I strongly suspect it had been sitting around for quite a while after being cooked. The waiter also gave it to us quite carelessly, almost tossing it onto the table. It wasn't until we were half way through eating it that another waiter had realised we hadn't been given any bread - I saw her quickly run off to slice us a few pieces and give us the bread but by then we had almost finished the soup. The bread also didn't come with any butter.

I got the trout with potatoes which was fine but had hardly any flavour or seasoning and the potatoes were again a bit cold and hard.

My partner got a lentil curry which was a bit sloppy and watery but passable.

For dessert I got the lemon meringue pie which tasted like any old lemon tart I could've got from the supermarket. My partner's creme brûlée tasted good but didn't have a good texture on top.

This all would've been basically fine if it hadn't been for the price. At 10€ for starters and desserts and 20-25€ for a main, I really expected better and it felt like a total rip-off. We weren't even staying at the hotel (in fact we didn't know it was part of a hotel and might've avoided if we had known), so it wasn't like it was convenient - we chose it because the menu seemed nice and we wanted to treat ourselves. It ended up frankly putting a total downer on our holiday as we wasted so much money on such a naff evening.

We didn't mention this at the time as felt too polite to do so and the waitress who served us seemed nice and was able to speak excellent English with us, but now wishing we had said something.

One compliment is that there was decent choice for vegetarian options, although you can find better veggie food elsewhere. The menu when we arrived was different to the menu online too, so bear this in mind.

If you're in Bordeaux, there is so much stunning food available elsewhere. Please, please do not waste...

Very much not fit for purpose and as shown by other recent reviews, they seem to be having serious issues. Firstly, the point of a restaurant in a hotel is to have a place to eat so that you don't need to leave the hotel. Babette is not this. It runs on strict French hours with a two hour lunch, closed all afternoon and then a brief dinner period. Despite arriving at 15:30, I wasn't able to order even a simple dish as I waited for my room which was not ready. The wine list is out of stock of most bottles listed and is in general, quite poor. Markup is excessive running a very ugly 400% on some wines (from retail) as they appear content to take advantage of hotel guests without providing adequate service or justification. Wine service is just as poor. The server kept trying to blame her corkscrew as to why she couldn't get the capsule off the bottle and I had to grab the bottle and do it for her, although she then spilled a great deal when pouring, not realizing she needed to serve with a towel. Then there's the food. This is an insult to all that is excellent about French cuisine. Everyone at my table ordered the steak as their main and "au point" but it arrived "au roche". I've had better steaks in truckstops in the US. Overall an exceedingly poor restaurant that's very out of place in what is supposed to be a four-star hotel. I don't know if this is just staffing issues at the moment (although friends who work in Bordeaux say that it's never been good) as they're taking people with zero training but for the prices they're charging it's exceptionally...

Very sadly disappointed by our trip here - the menu was different to what was shown online, meaning I couldn't get the two things I wanted. To make things worse, some dishes arrived with things missing, or with some parts being cold. We were sat right next to the kitchen, where staff were hanging out and chatting loudly the whole time. The food came so quickly that we barely had time to talk - it felt like they wanted us to leave asap! The waitress serving us was very friendly and helpful, although we did also get served by a waiter who was rude and appeared to not want to be there. Wish I hadn't spent so...