L'Ostal — Restaurant in Carcassonne

The ambience of this place was amazing, like being in the bowels of a castle on a cold winter night, food cooking over an open fire and surrounded by an eclectic display of medieval themed memorabilia. The food was decent, certainly not top tier, but somehow fitting for a setting that conjured a travelers inn from long ago, finally reached after a long, arduous journey. This makes it all the more saddening that the mood was profoundly destroyed by decidedly modern live entertainment, yowled at us by a person wearing a track suit at a volume level that completely shattered any nostalgic reverie of days gone by. Horrible.. Additionally, the waitress was rude when we attempted to speak French and was very gruff and impatient throughout our meal. She was affiliated with the singer in such a way that it appeared that they ogled guests, commenting and snickering to each other in a disparaging manner. Very unprofessional and disappointing, especially from a place with so...

I didn't think you could get such bad food in France. The onion soup is 80% dried onion, so not slow cooked with the caramelized onion expected flavour. The meat of the region was salty and stringy. The steak was the thinnest and toughest piece of meat I have probably ever eaten. It came with a well cooked baked potatoe but the whole dish was stone cold. The crepe Suzzette also seemed to have been made hours ahead, without and liquor or flame. The espresso was coffee, not espresso. Honestly, I cannot recommend a thing. The cassoulet was okay, but I've bought better canned cassoulet at a much cheaper price. I would not recommend, try somewhere else. I appreciate tourist restaurants don't rely on repeat customers, but there should be some pride in the food. Oh, and they had live music. But the artist came to every table with a bowl asking for money. Very uncomfortable and not something you should advertise if I am expected to pay for that ontop of the over...

Decent food simple no fuss,slightly dated in that it's just a bunch of old stuff in an old building,it has character,we had the set menu and it was expected,hearty and filling,wine was fine fir with dinner, hist and server were very nice. This would be a 4 star review if it weren't for one thing,they would not accept payment via phone tap.As visitors to a touristic area we are often advised to be careful with phones,cash,wallets,cards etc so both of us went out with our phones only,we had no problems paying this way in anywhere else in Carcassone. Told when attempting to pay for the bill that they didn't accept rap by phone,google pay apple pay etc.Nonsensical in 2023 and highly embarrassing. Luckily we had literally just enough to pay in cash but this was purely a fluke one more drink or coffee and we would not have been able to pay our bill.Simply not acceptable in the current era,payment is payment and a warning should be given if its not possible to...