Nao Restaurant Saint-Tropez — Restaurant in Draguignan

While many people have had great experiences at Nao, ours was embarrassingly disappointing. Disclosure: We did not end up dining here so I cannot speak on the atmosphere or the food.

We made reservations well in advance for this restaurant and hired a baby sitter for our friends so that we can experience this great place. Our first red flag should have been when the baby sitter, a local from St Tropez, had a squeamish look on her face when we told her we’re going to Nao. She said “it’s ok but it’s not great”. That’s typically fine because each person has their own experiences to judge based off. Having made the reservations and confirmed them online a week prior, we thought our table would be ready for 8:30pm. We spent that (early) day at another restaurant that was in another area of St Tropez and our friend who made the reservation didn’t have great cell service. It turned out that the restaurant messaged her on WhatsApp at 5:20pm asking her to confirm her seating and that they will be cancelling her reservation if not heard back from by 6pm. It’s very clear that messages are not delivered on WhatsApp, and the restaurant host would know this. By 7pm, we were home and freshening up to go to dinner when the messages came in and we realized we just got cancelled on last minute by the restaurant. A Saturday night on one of the busiest weekends in Saint Tropez, left with nothing to do.

We asked for another seating and told her that it was incredibly unfair to be booted when the host said we can come at 11:30.

It wasn’t ideal but we’re an easy going bunch and it wasn’t the end of the world. At least we had somewhere to go.

At this point, the baby sitter told us that the restaurant often “bumps” reservations because they have other guests offer to pay them for the reservation. (This is not confirmed but makes you feel uneasy to hear from a local).

We got ready and head out at 11 to arrive early so that nothing happens to our 11:30 reservation.

We arrived and the host was, and this is an understatement, one of the most vile and crude people I have ever seen working in hospitality. She was uninterested and practically yelling at our friend who made the reservation, using a “boo-hoo” type tone. She then went on to say, “11:30 is not possible because maybe the other tables want to stay longer so you can’t wait at the bar because we don’t know when a table will open for you.”

So from 7pm to 11:00pm, instead of waiting around for our next given reservation, we could have been finding new ones.

I’ve never in my life experienced something so unbelievably ridiculous in my life. I was absolutely blown away at how she was speaking to us and how her team allowed it.

One gentleman with dark curly hair in a suit (also an employee there) tried to help us and she shut him down.

Someone who then looked like a manager came out and said “Sorry but 15 minutes late nothing we can do”, to when she nudged him, laughed, and said “no this is a different problem stop” in French, assuming none of us understand. So they don’t even try to understand the customers issue before shunning you.

It’s unfortunate because I own two luxury concierge services and book restaurants for my high profile clients on a day to day basis, but would never in a million years send them here.

TLDR: Horrible and degrading staff, allegedly bumps reserved tables for people coming asking to pay for one, terrible communication with...

This restaurant should be ashamed of their service hospitality and quality of care for their patrons. I booked a reservation and planned my entire evening around dining there, only for them to cancel my reservation in the most unprofessional manner.

On the day of the reservation, I received a text message from the restaurant asking me to confirm. I understand that some places do this, but they gave me only 45 minutes to respond. Being in a foreign country my phone has no service while at on the beach. By the time I received the message (and hour later), my reservation had already been cancelled without any further communication from the restaurant.

When I tried to call and clarify, the host I spoke with was completely incompetent and showed no concern for the situation. They made no effort to accommodate us or offer any kind of apology. The lack of hospitality was shocking—there was no understanding, no effort to make things right, just a rude dismissal.

If this is how they treat customers, I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. Planning a night out around a reservation only to have it cancelled last minute with such poor customer service is unacceptable. I won’t be giving them another chance.

There are many hospital quality places in st tropez. Stay away from this trap...

Very bad experience. Not welcoming at all and rude hostesses. I booked and confirmed my reservation with my banking details. We arrived a few minutes late, first they made it a point that we were late and we apologised, then they suggested we have a drink at the bar while waiting another table since they have given our table to other people (they said that they didn’t accept walk ins, so I don’t know to whom). They made us wait 1hour and after that we saw a table of two leaving, so we asked if we could have it and they didn’t accept and wanted us to wait longer and didn’t even promise giving us a table although they promised they would at the beginning. The most frustrating thing was that they changed their message after one hour...