Palatino — Restaurant in Bordeaux

I hate to be the person to write this review because I was excited to take my husband to this spot as soon as we landed in Bordeaux, but we truly left so frustrated. For one, when you ask if it’s a special occasion in the booking link and we mention it’s our honeymoon, I would think maybe the hostess would congratulate us. I’m not looking for anything free, but simply an acknowledgement of celebration if you’re asking why we’re coming to your establishment. But from the minute we checked in with the hostess, it was obvious that us as English speaking people were not welcomed. I will mention we are Canadian (not American) not that it should matter, but it very much felt like we were secluded from start to finish of our experience because of how we look and speak. While our server was super sweet and lovely, our apps came before our bottle of wine and water were even served (approximately 30 min into sitting down). The poor guy was overworked with too many tables, with no support. Our appetizer was delicious and checked all the boxes on what I imagined the food would be like. Then a while later our mains finally came out and my pasta was like-warm to say the least, same with my husbands pizza. Even after all this (and the couple sitting next to us talking sh*t about us in French…) I kept trying to be overly nice to the staff and convinced my husband to go upstairs to the super cool bar for another cocktail after we paid our bill. Sure enough… this was the icing on the cake for me. We sit down at their stunning bar, and I’ve never felt more unwanted. The female bartender not only gave us a dirty look and walked away the minute we sat down, for the next 5 minutes she continued to serve others around us, but she not once said hi or I’ll be with you shortly. We waited a little longer and continually got ignored by all staff walking near or by the bar before finally leaving to go somewhere else. Really disappointing considering how excited we both were to come to this reservation the minute we touched down in France for...

Okay I’m going to write the most honest review i can write about this place, because the google reviews are clearly rigged. More than 20.000 reviews and 4.9 average is simply not possible. On tripadvisor it has a 4.2 rating and i think this is more realistic. So here’s my review: To start, we had a reservation but had to wait in a long queue outside. Apparently this is normal because the restaurant seats about 300 people. When we walked in the atmosphere was great. Such cozy decor and lively setting, the aesthetic was beautiful. Once you sit at the table you have to figure it out for yourself because there’s a qr code with a menu where you also have to pay later on. There was only one waiter for about 50 people so the service was very slow. There are a lot of food runners but they can’t help you with anything they just refer to the waiter. The drinks were nice and the food was also good and fast. However, the pasta was very very al dente. As in - almost uncooked. So it was really not good and unfortunately we had to send it back. This took 15 minutes because getting the attention from the waiter was almost impossible. Eventually we got a new pasta which was slightly better but still not fantastic. After the food we had a nice tiramisu and then we wanted to pay. This was also a very tricky online process with the qr code which i also didn’t like. After that we just walked out which i think you could have just as well done without paying because it was very impersonal. Overall i liked the restaurant but would realistically rate it a 3.9. If you’re enamored by nice styling and a lively atmosphere then it’s worth it, but the service and food are...

Listen if you want a trendy spot to post to tiktok or instagram, then this is hands down the place to go. If you want good food or even half decent service, go somewhere else. We had a reservation for 8:45 but waited 15+ minutes in a line just to tell the hostess we had one as they weren’t anywhere to be found. We waited about 30-35 minutes to just place a drink order, as in it was 30-35 minutes before a server even came by. If the restaurant was full then fine, I could let it slide, but there was a whole empty section and a number of empty tables. We ordered a round of drinks which were good! But took 20+ minutes to come, and the second round we ordered never arrived. The music selection to set the vibe while we waited was an early 2010s top hits list, and as much as we all love aloe blacc and justin beiber its time for some new tracks. The food - Credit where credit is due the Stracciatella was delicious. Their “famous” truffle pasta was lacking in flavor, and looks like something you throw on the gram because it comes in a pot with truffle shavings on top, the Hotline pizza was too saucy and limp to fold and eat (yes I do know in Italy you use a fork and knife but we’re in Bordeaux not Naples, and even so the option is nice). Further the whole thing just tasted of chili - no I’m not a spice hater (I love it) but barring the caramelized onion the flavor was monotonous. I will say the crust is nice, so maybe the other pizza’s are better. Waited to see if we could place a desert order, but gave up as our waitress never came back so paid...