Bistrot à huitres: "Chez Jean-Mi" — Restaurant in Bordeaux

I might be thy customer, but I won't be thy standee The location submerges you with the vibes and the hustle of the market. This might well be appealing if properly managed, however it requires spot on logistics that unfortunately Chez Jean-Mi is lacking.

What you end up with is a mesmerising chaos with a vague resemblance of organisation.

Customers - like the Andrew Rosenhill himself - are being seated at a table only to be asked to stand up and join a malformed queue after a few minutes.

Like in good reality-bending sci-fi movie, future and past clash with each other. We got seated after diligently waiting in a queue, only to see waiters taking orders first from customers group number 2, who joined the famous queue a good 10 minutes after us.

The grand finale, which we were lucky enough to witness: For how much we tried, we couldn't manage to make an order as the only waiter in charge of our seating area prepared and brought food to customers group number 2. After which, they decided to take orders and head to prepare food for customers group number 3, before even considering us.

All in all, the market offers plenty of choices, so I would recommend to just pick another spot where you can actually eat, drink and enjoy...

Love Love Love it here! Always a must when I’m in Bordeaux. L’Amiral is a favourite with fresh prawns, oysters, whelks and crab claws plus bread and a lovely dip. Always a bit messy but worth it. Per pans take extra napkins in your bag! But if you’re not a fish lover you can have platters of meat (charcuterie) or cheese. Friends tell me the soup is delicious.. Oh and they do Illy coffee.

Midday is always very busy so get there earlier if you can and wait to be given a table - don’t just sit down. We’ve been in a long queue before when they’ve taken orders and provided wine and glasses as you get to the front of the queue, making the wait less painful!

Staff are very friendly in my experience. Hate to recommend too highly as I don’t want it to get too popular! Really feels as if you’re in an episode of a Rick Stein programme.

Once you’ve eaten make sure you wander the amazing market where this restaurant is - Les Marche...

Appalling food hygiene.

Don’t know how it is possible to make oysters taste bad but they sure succeeded. Their oysters are extremely skinny (you can see how it’s so flat it’s almost skimming the shell), no sweetness, and heartbreaking to see them all pre-opened and pre-packaged in platters . In this day and age, pre opened oysters … you have no excuse. And clearly not by someone skilled - with a lot of broken shell and suspicious looking flecks. We actually saw the waitress drop an entire plate of food on the ground then pick it up and put it back and serve it in front of all the other customers.

Both my friend and myself felt an upset stomach afterwards which was almost inevitable… it was almost comical if we didn’t feel so annoyed. We felt the need to warn others that this seems like a trap.

Service was appalling. Slow, negligent, and downright rude. Will never...