Maison La Poterne — Restaurant in Caen

NOT PREGNANT FRIENDLY After my mum had booked and asked for us to be inside to avoid smokers due to her daughter expecting, they placed us inside by French doors leading to their terrace they kept wide open. As they were not using it due to our table being in the way and because other doors were actually opened, we asked to close it to different staff and all said no because their boss (a lady) refused to do so! So as we had just ordered our meal, more and more smokers arrived and we just had to deal with it, despite asking throughout the meal and feeling pretty cold as the evening went by. I wish this was the only downside but... We had to wait 50 to 80 min (not joking) between our first drink, our starter, our main and then desert. To say I was exhausted by the end of it is an understatement. Some of the staff was lovely, but the boss was rude and wouldn’t even acknowledge you if you asked her politely where the bathrooms were. I really feel sorry for the staff as she wasn’t pleasant to them either. The food was ok-ish but very far from being great. It felt quite frankly overpriced and not really out of the ordinary. If you don’t want to be...

I wanted to like this place and I thought many of the guests looked to have decent plates and I'd even say my plate of Salmon looked great but it was surely lacking in seasoning, wasn't incredibly hot and was rather dry and the salmon was said to be deglazed with cider and yet none of the flavor came through. I felt like the waiter also seemed genuinely put off when we didn't order apéritif and generally less than welcoming overall. My husband's plate fared far worse and I was grateful I hadn't ended up ordering the same. He ordered lamb and what is generally a favorite of mine looked to be so fatty and very little meat on it so he had trouble finding the edible bits of it. The potatoes were supposed to be with garlic and if they were neither of us could taste it. So we both felt disappointed and wished we'd walked on to...

Avoid. Tres Ordinaire. Plenty of other choices.

Wife ordered Onion Soup that arrived without any cheese and a lukewarm glutinous mediocre liquid. Three spoonfuls and she left it.

My menu du jour: Chilled Smoked herring arrived on a hot plate with cool potatoes. Fish was okay once I warmed it up by moving around the hot plate. That's all so far 'cause I'm still waiting for the main. Debating leaving without.

Gristle laden "Onglet" arrived with limp greasy "frites". We've had better in motorway "autogrills".

Next up : rice pudding. Watery and overly sweet. A shame as I can see vanilla specks floating in it. The kiwi fruit semi circle was the best feature...