Le bistro balnéaire — Restaurant in District of Dax

A terrible experience!!! We arrived at the restaurant on Saturday 29th October at 19.40 for a reservation at 20:00 made 2 weeks earlier online. As we were early and the restaurant looked extremely busy we said we were happy to have a drink at the bar which we did and the staff were very welcoming. When I made the booking I was asked if we had any allergies so I explained that I had a nut allergy. I told them I was OK with nuts being used in the kitchen but just couldn't have any nuts on my meal. I was sent a reminder e mail about the booking on the afternoon of the 29th so I called the restaurant to confirm we would be coming and also to reiterate about my allergy to which I was told there would be no problem.

At 20.00 we finished our drinks and asked if we could go to our table and we were shown to our tableby a very nice waitress. When another waitress brought the menus I once again explained about my allergy and asked if there was anything I couldn't have on the menu. She had no idea and no idea about my earlier messages so sent a more senior waiter, he went away to check with the chefs. He returned and said most things contained traces of nuts so i couldn't have anything using oil but I said that was ok with traces just nothing with nuts or nut oil in my food. That whole process took 10 minutes. We then ordered a bottle of wine and eventually our food. We ordered some croquettes to share with our aperitif. My husband ordered a seafood linguine and I ordered Veal. We then waited and waited and waited. We asked 3 times where our food was and kept being told it was coming. The table next to us were also in a similar position. It was then 21.10 and we asked again and told it was on its way. At 21.20 we had enough and decided to leave. My husband was so angry at it was a birthday meal and we had been looking forward to it. When we went downstairs the waiter we had seen originally saw us leaving and asked us if we had enjoyed our meal. We told him we hadn't eaten but would pay for our wine. He said he would get our food right away if we wanted to go back to the table but we had already decided if we were to go to another restaurant we needed to leave as we had a 10 minute walk into Hossegor to the nearest other restaurant. He said he was sorry but that they were very busy doing 600 covers!!. He did say that we need not pay for the wine which was at least a consolation but our evening had been spoiled by then. I think the restaurant is trying to do too many covers and is clearly not able to cope either in the kitchen or with the waiting staff. They also shouldn't ask about allergies on their booking form and then not have staff that can deal with them. A...

Are there new owners this season? We have been here many times, but tonight was an appalling experience. There was no sushi available (the menu is pretty much half sushi). There was also no tomahawk. Then, when we ordered a burger for one of our party, and requested no tomato we were told there could be no “modifications” and we would understand why following the explanation, which was that there were over 400 covers in high season! What on earth does the size of the restaurant have to do with taking tomato off a burger! We’ve been, as I’m sure all readers have, to other sizeable high quality restaurants that can make “modifications” far more complicated than taking tomato off a burger. The strangest aspect of this was….there turned out to be no tomato on either of the burgers delivered to our table anyway! The starters were good, the oysters were fantastic. Then the fish and chips arrived and this was disappointing due to the portion size, although the quality was good. The server was borderline uninterested in serving us, with a sullen look - although to be honest, I’d probably feel the same if I had to tell every table there was no sushi or tomahawk available as soon as the restaurant had opened for the evening. At the end of the night, she leant across the table next to us to pass us our bill! What a let down, we’ve been coming here for many years and it used to be our favourite restaurant in Hossegor. Not any longer, we won’t be returning - we left with a huge amount of disappointment, feeling let down. What a shame, it had been so good...

We went there for dinner. It's tourist season at this time of the year. Everywhere is super busy but the experience here is the worst I've had so far.

The negative: When they served the entree, the waitress knocked over my full glass of drink, the glass shattered and the drink was spilt all over my bag, pants, shoes, legs and my top. They came to clean the table and still served the same dishes even though there might be broken glasses and the cleaning product. I had to go to the bathroom to clean myself. From the time I came back until we left, no one came to ask if I was okay or apologized for the incident. When we were leaving, we mentioned this incident and the manager said he didn't know it happened whilst he walked passed by and said "ca va?" To the waitress when it happened. He then asked if we would like some liqueur while we were already leaving.

The mussles were overcooked and dry. The steak was so so. The fish fillet was less overcooked but still dry.

There is ONE dirty mixed gender bathroom/toilet on the ground floor. Perhaps another one upstairs? The queue was constantly massive. When the restaurant was full, there should be around 100 people or more. One, or even two bathroom is not enough.

The positive: The view was amazing at sunset. The restaurant looked fancy from the outside. The waitresses/waiters were very friendly. The entree and wine were good.

There are a lot of restaurants in France with amazing food and service. Personally I will not go back to...