Côté Sable — Restaurant in Caen

Stopped to have a quick sea-side lunch with the family. Menu looked nice enough and plenty of choice. They advertise as being a "crêperie", so our 3-year old was over the moon hoping for a nice crêpe/pancake.

Arrived at 2PM, ready to order around 2.10PM. Big disappointment when they refused to cook a crêpe for my daughter, despite being a "crêperie" and having an abundance of different crêpes on their menu to choose from, even for take-away! Explanation: 'just a crêpe' can only be ordered after 3PM. If you want to have a crêpe before 3PM you can only have it as a desert as part of one of their lunch menus.

We ended up ordering a Kid's "petit viking" menu (including a burger with fries). My daughter was not interested in the burger at all, all she wanted was the dessert crêpe that came with it.

The rest of the family ordered mussels. 1x "Rocquefort", 1x "Curry", 2x "Normanded" and a salad "Océane". The mussels were very good, though I didn't care too much for the curry sauce (too much) but that's personal taste. Everyone else enjoyed their meals very much. All was fresh and tasty, including the kid's hamburger meat and the shrimp that came with the salad.

My dad ordered a beer (didn't specify 'regular' or 'big). They delivered a 0,5L which cost 6,70EUR. Not a problem, the sun was shining, the food was good and the beer was cold. Everyone happy! (but they could have offered a choice when taking the order?)

Time to get the bill and head back over to the beach. Looked over the bill and they had charged 2x large beers (13,40EUR). I said: "sorry, but we only ordered/drank one beer". The lady couldn't care less. We were the last lunch table to pay, only a few people left on the terrace having a drink. She pretended to be super busy and pre-occupied with her other customers. The guy behind the bar did not seem to have the authority to discuss my remark/complaint. I told the lady once more that we did NOT have 2x large beers but all she could utter was: "désolée, but if something's on the bill that means it was delivered to the table". Excuse me?! What kind of BS explanation is that? They made a mistake when entering our order in the registry, nothing more nothing less. And I'm expected to pay for your mistake?

She could not be reasoned with and I paid.

So paid 6,70EUR for a beer we never got, and ended up paying 9,40EUR for a kid's menu while all my daughter really wanted was a 3,40EUR crêpe.

Overall no complaints about the quality of the food. Very fresh and tasty and good value for money. But the service left MUCH...

Visited for an evening meal and delighted that they had a place for the two of us in the section of the restaurant overlooking the beach. Staff very friendly and helpful, especially with our weak French speaking skills. I chose the La 4 Fromages Galette, which was delicious and as I love cheese, especially blue cheese, was the perfect choice. My husband opted for the Moules Normandes which was also tasty. I needed a serious sugar hit for dessert and the Pays D'auge crepe was also really good. Lots of good choices on the menu, including...

Un cadre agréable et une cuisine simple mais efficace. La pâte des galettes de froment est excellente !

En revanche, impossible de faire remplacer un ingrédient par un autre dans une galette (un supplément vous sera appliqué), dommage pour les végétariens qui devront se contenter de 3 choix de galette (et encore faut-il pouvoir manger des produits laitiers…). Vous devrez aussi aimer le sucre, car le coca zéro n’est pas en option dans le menu.

Bref, une telle rigidité est dommageable à la qualité de service. Et, à lire les réponses du propriétaire aux commentaires négatifs, cela lui importe peu, il affiche même son désintérêt pour les critiques constructives, mettant ainsi en valeur ses défauts au lieu de valoriser ses points forts et sa capacité de s’adapter aux besoins de la clientèle… Pire, il vous invite même à aller voir ailleurs !

Ex : “Je vous invite a essayer nos concurrents.” - “Je n'irais pas dans votre sens sur ce commentaire.” - “Je ne prendrais donc pas en considération vos remarques.”

Merci quand même au serveur qui a su garder le sourire face à l’absurdité des règles qui lui sont imposées, et auxquelles il ne semble absolument...