Restaurant Bar l'Escale — Restaurant in Calais

We entered the establishment at around 6.35pm as could see it was open and people inside. Ordered wine as we went in for dinner. We sat there, no menus brought so asked the barman/waiter and was advised restaurant opened at 7pm. OK, we thought so I ordered a Mohito cocktail it was the worst Mohito I’ve ever been served, it had no flavour, hardly any mint and no strength, extremely disappointing at an eye watering 9€!!! Anyway 7pm approached and we expected the barman/waiter to come over and invite us through to a table in the restaurant knowing we’d come in for dinner, but no, so we waited. Suddenly people started entering in their droves all to be seated at their reserved tables in the restaurant. Before we knew it about 50 people had gone in. Fed up, as been sat in bar for 30 mins already waiting to go to the restaurant, I approached the maitre d and explained we’d been waiting in the bar, to my astonishment he said “Have you a reservation?” I was flipping fuming by now! There was no problem getting a table although we were now going to be served after the 50 or so customers who’d already been seated. So we went to walk through and they made me go back to into the bar and fetch my carafe of wine and carry it through myself!! By the time we sat down I was so stressed I was nearly in tears and restaurant wasn’t particularly attractive and had no atmosphere, it was a truly awful dining experience, had it not been for the fact it was the only place open on Sunday night and the wine we’d already bought for our meal (thinking we were dining when we got there) We would have walked out. The waiter that served us in the restaurant was more obliging than the ignorant barman/waiter in the bar and in fairness our food was good, BUT the experience was dreadful and for this reason I do...

Critique courte / short review Passez votre chemin! C'est frais, mais pas bon pour un très long temps d'attente et même si les prix semblent OK au départ, le rapport qualité/prix au final n'est pas là du tout.

Go somewhere else ! It was fresh but not good with a really long waiting time. Even if pricing seems ok at first, at the end quality/price is really bad. Critique plus détaillée / detailed review

FR: Nous y avons été un mardi midi à 2 adultes et un enfant de 4 ans. Alors que le restaurant n'était qu'à moitié plein au mieux, il aura fallu un peu plus de 2h pour une entrée et un plat dont 40 minutes pour prendre la commande qui n'était même pas juste puisqu'au moment d'atteindre les cuisines elle avait presque doublé ( 2 assiettes de fruits de mers au lieu d'1, un saumon adulte ou lieu d'un enfant). Bref 2 éléments sur 5 de notre commande était incorrect et la serveuse qui à pris notre commande a été particulièrement désagréable heureusement que sa collègue était bien plus sympathique. Le petit a été servi le DERNIER après 1h50 d'attente! Niveau nourriture, la seule chose de positif que j'ai a dire c'est qu'au moins les produits avait l'air frais parce que sinon les moules n'étaient pas nettoyée et se contentaient de baigner dans de l'eau avec beaucoup de laurier et rien d'autre, le saumon était trop cuit sans oublier l'absence totale de légumes (à l'exception de quatre pauvres rondelles d'oignon) et les quelques frites que nous n'avons pas finies, tant elles étaient pitoyables. EN : We went a Tuesday for lunch time. 2 adult & a 4yo. It was not a busy service, restaurant was not even half full but we wait 40 min for them to take our order and we spend over 2h for 2 services.The tiny waitress was awful and our order went really wrong. We ordered 1 seafood plate, 2 mussels, 1 salmon for kids & wine. They serves up 2 seafoods plater, 2 mussels, 1 regular salmon. It took forever to have the food and the 4yo was served LAST after an hour and 50 min wait time! If we speak food, the only positive I have is : food looks fresh. Seafood & mussels wasn't cleaned, salmon was overcooked, mussels prep was just water with a lot (and I mean a lot) of bay leaf and no vegetables at all (oh wait, there were a couple of onion bits) just a handful of bad french fries to...

I first went to this restaurant over 25 years ago. Going back was a spur of the moment decision while staying in Calais the night before catching the Eurotunnel. We had no reservation and for a while it looked like we wouldn’t get a table as the restaurant was busy with people staying at the hotel. The restaurant has three menus from €18-€35 with several choices for each course on each menu. We had a seafood pot au feu, beef in a ginger gravey, a gammon steak and a child’s salmon meal. All very tasty and plenty of quantity. Will definitely return again if passing...