Bistrot de la Place — Restaurant in Chinon

This restaurant has been the absolute low-light of all my visits to France. The entree of the Sunday lunch menu, St. Jacques et Petoncles rôties au beurre d'agrum , consisted of a tiny scallop overfried and dried out and tasteless swimming in a highly acidic suspension of what tasted like a ready to use lemon concentrate mixed with molten butter. The main dish, duo de poisson sauce Citronnee, consisted of a tiny piece of a tasteless, dried out macrel filet paired with a filet piece of indefinable fish. The vegetables were overcooked and reminded me of conserved ones out of cans. Absolutely disappointing even to those who are not professional gourmets. Instead of the menu, one of us ordered the entrecote, medium. On the plate, served, there was a thin slice of meat definitely not entrecote and rather well-done, neutral, dry and tasteless in all senses. We payed €65 for two menus and one main dish (entrecote) and left the premises half hungry but fully unsatisfied and certainly enough fully fed-up, asking ourselves if this had been real or just a nightmare under the cloudless...

Service very nice and friendly so no complaints there. It’s a lovely spot in one of town squares and all the staff are charmingn We went for dinner one evening. The goats cheese toast as a starter was average and the main carpaccio was mediocre. I ordered the rump steak and asked for it “á point” which should translate into medium-rare. I also checked if this was the correct way to serve this as I was prepared to go saignant Sadly it was medium to well and although it tasted ok, was a disappointment as it was thin, overcooked and not what I expected. We gave it second try for lunch and the €25 menu du jour was very good. Gazpacho to start, bavette and chips for main, and a very nice cake for dessert. We also had an except half bottle of very local Chinon. I ordered the bavette the sane à point and this time it was perfectly pink throughout. Coffee is not very good but this is France and coffee is not their strong point and they are not the first place to do poor coffee. I think the previous experience may have just been an off day so I would go...

Terrible. I don’t even know where to start. The service was below average, the waiter took 15 minutes to even acknowledge our table. And on top of that it took another 30 minutes to receive our first course. Atmosphere was uninviting and barren. The food was horrendous, everything else I just stated wouldn’t of even mattered to me if the food was good. But then again, it wasn’t. I ordered their goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes on toasted breads, and their creamy mushroom pasta. Easy to say both were extremely underwhelming and overpriced. The final total came out to €98 (4 people)! €98 for white bread cut in a circle with goat cheese on a wilted bed of greens and cream of mushroom soup on boxed pasta garnished with a single cherry tomato. Don’t waste your time going here, it’s awful food doesn’t even make up in cost. You’ll have better luck going to a grocery market or not...