Café des Arts Chinon — Restaurant in Chinon

Where to start to be fair? Last night, 6 of us arrived at Cafe des Arts at a little before 9pm. This is a late hour for restaurants in the Loire region as they tend to close early, and we would have understood if they had rejected our custom. However, they told us that a table would be available in about 5 minutes and seemed very helpful. 10 minutes later and still with no table, I made an inquiry and was told, apologetically, that one would be available in a further 3 minutes. A few minutes afterwards a table was prepared and we were seated.

So far so good and we had no complaints.

Shortly after being seated a friendly waiter came to our table with a wine list and asked us if we were ready to order which, actually, we were, as we had already studied the menu whilst waiting. Perhaps, in a rather French case of misunderstanding, one of my friends asked him if we could consider the wine list first and the waiter disappeared never to return. I suspect that, since we had arrived late, the restaurant was keen to get our orders quickly, and such a delay was not welcome. Whilst this may be so, we sat at the table with increasing impatience as the minutes ticked by and with no sign of a waiter.

At about 9.25, one of my friends managed to attract a member of staff who came over and we attempted to make our order. He told us that the set menus were no longer available as it was now past 9.30 and only the a-la-cartes menu was open to us which would have been a much more expensive proposition. It was pointed out that we had been waiting to be served for twenty minutes and it was not yet 9.30, but to no effect.

On asking to speak to the manager the member of staff said, and I translate roughly but not innacurately:

"You are looking at the manager and the owner, I decide when it is 9.30 and you can take it or leave it."

After a very short discussion between ourselves after the owner had stalked off, we decided, in the face of this towering rudeness, to leave it and vacated the table. Of course, having had to wait for a table and then having had to wait a considerable time to be served, more than 40 minutes had elapsed and the chances of finding another restaurant that could serve us was small as, indeed, we found.

Whilst I acknowledge that the restaurant did go to the trouble of finding us a table, which it didn't have to do, and my friend's insistence on studying the wine list first before ordering was not politic under the circumstances, the rudeness of the owner can in no way be justified and really left us with no option but to leave (perhaps that was the idea!). He would have also known that we would not get a table elsewhere at that time of night which adds a maliciousness to his conduct that, in my view, shows the owner in a very poor light. I will not be going there again and I would suggest this restaurant is to be avoided unless you want to risk being confronted by such uncivil behaviour.

Such a shame as they started so well!

As a postscript, we all returned to our home (with the exception of our friends' elderly mother who was both exhausted and upset by the turn of events), and my partner was able to put together an excellent meal at short notice, resulting in a convivial end to a difficult evening. She's a great chef!

Our menu:

Vitel Tornne (in this case, pork dressed with tuna and vegetables, accompanied by freshly baked bread).

Salad with Saint Agur cheese and dressing.

Ice cream with sponge fingers soaked in coffee and whisky.

Lots of wine and/or martini!

A better and cheaper alternative to what Cafe des Arts...

We went there, finding the city and the place charming, there was a fountain and even a live band playing. But soon we were waiting over 20 mins for our drinks and further 20 mins to even order! Then another 40(!) mins for our food. We didn’t even get bread like other tables around us. When the food arrived, I got a wrong dish, it might have been an misunderstanding but still I was a bit disappointed. Instead of the Tatar I got a Salade de Caesar, which was luckily very good and since I was starving I didn’t want to complain and possibly wait another 40 mins… My brother got a Burger with fries, which he found passable, but he complained, there were too many onions, which overpowered the rest of the ingredients. His fries were a little soggy… As for dessert: the Crème Brûlée was pretty good, although some spots were so heavily burned, that you couldn’t eat the sugar. This might be personal preference, after all it is a literally burned dish.

The one star is for the waiters, who were obviously stressed due to many guests complaining about the waiting time and the probably understaffed kitchen… but getting “there are other people waiting, too!“ as an answer when asking about our food is not a good move. The location was indeed nice and at least my salad, the wine and the live...

We arrived in Chinon for a short break of two nights. ||Although the staff were charming, and the cafe modern and clean our room was very different. It was so small we had to literally climb over the bed to get in. The room was very claustrophobic, hot and noisy, albeit we do accept some noise is expected in a central location.||There appeared larger rooms but we were allocated this tiny room that could only be described as a box, about half the size of the equivalent city centre Ibis. This room doesn’t appear on the website pictures, which is very misleading. Despite booking a year in advance and asking if there was an opportunity to upgrade after reading customer reviews, we received no response.||The bathroom was small and grubby, the shower and floor were dirty and mould was evident along the shower cubicle rims. The taps had no cold, simply just hot. ||The entrance hall was less than welcoming with the floor covering looking like something from a car workshop waiting area - badly stained!||All in all this is the most disappointing experience we have had at a hotel in France. The basic acceptable standard has to be Ibis, as Premier Inns are...