Démé - Restaurant italien, pizzeria. — Restaurant in Fontainebleau

First off, the pizza here is really good. The Porcina pizza is definitely a must-try if you are craving an excellent pizza. I have also tried the Crudo e Bufala and the Regina and they were also both very good with the Regina being slightly better. I also had the pleasure of trying the Truffes! pasta and that was excellent too.

While the food overall is great, we experienced some absurdly bad service here that makes it hard for me to want to return. Second time my family and I dined here, we were walk-in customers asking if indoor seats were available. We were told there weren't any available and while we were mildly disappointed, we opted to order food to take home instead of dine in. However, we were then suddenly told that we could take a table which we gladly did. When the restaurant became full shortly after, we had a waitress come over to our table to basically complain to us that we shouldn't have taken a table since some customers who had reservations were forced to sit outside. We were a bit stunned because the situation was so absurd and with the way the waitress complained, we felt almost forced to apologize. The whole thing was a mistake or misunderstanding on the staff's end and it was unpleasant to have been blamed by a staff member for that.

The second incident, we decided to order pizza on the phone to save us some trouble after that last incident. We ordered the Porcina pizza and went over to pick it up. However, when we got to the restaurant, it was a Regina pizza instead. When we brought this up, the waitress was, again, very accusatory in her tone and stated that we made a mistake in ordering. It is understandable if someone misheard our order on the phone as Regina and Porcina are kind of similar-sounding words. Blaming us again though for a simple misunderstanding was extremely absurd and unprofessional on the waitress's part. Not wanting to deal with anymore trouble, we accepted the Regina pizza and left.

While the food is good, these incidents where we were blamed for mistakes and misunderstandings the staff made make us reluctant to return. At least they made for laughably bad experiences due to how absurd they were. What kind of restaurant has its staff complain to customers over mistakes and misunderstandings they...

This restaurant has a typical Italian vibe, but I find it lacks anything that stands out. Primarily a pizzeria, but it also offers standard Italian dishes like pasta. As far as I can recall, they don't use a dome oven for baking pizzas, and their flat-top oven isn't being run at high temperatures (380 degrees or higher) needed for authentic Neapolitan pizza (I did not check the thermostat but I can tell from the crust: darker yellow color with no small leopar spots.). The dough somewhat resembles that of East Coast (US) pizzerias, like Lucali. While the toppings are generally good, the tomato sauce could use improvement in flavor and quality. If there is a designated origin topping they show it on the menu. I suspect the positive reviews are slightly skewed/biased, likely because it’s one of the few decent Italian options in Fontainebleau. I wouldn't go out of my way to eat here, but if I’m in the area for other reasons, I might consider it as a dining option. The restaurant is attractive, the staff are friendly and professional, and it’s conveniently located across from the beautiful Château de...

We’ve always loved going to Deme for their delicious pizzas, and it’s been a great spot—until recently. Unfortunately, our last visit was disappointing. The server/host seemed new, which isn’t an issue in itself, but service felt disorganized from the start.

After being seated and given menus, we had to flag the server down when we were ready to order. We asked for an appetizer to share, two salads, and a carafe of water. The crispy mozzarella arrived cold, with the inside still slightly frozen. To make matters worse, no plates were provided for sharing, so we had to eat directly off the serving plate. The server also forgot our carafe of water.

As for the salads, my husband had the pecorino salad, while I ordered the contadino. Unfortunately, the contadino was drenched in oil, and the roasted vegetables didn’t taste fresh. It was so overwhelmingly oily that I couldn’t finish it—it felt like eating oil with a side of salad.

We’ve always enjoyed Deme in the past, but this experience was disappointing. Hopefully, it was just an off night, but the drop in quality—both in food and...