La cigale - Restaurant familial — Restaurant in Grasse

Not a family restaurant, don’t be fooled by the name. We went because it was open earlier than other places for dinner and we had two hot tired hungry children. We accidentally broke a glass while settling in (that’s our bad of course) but the staff didn’t clean it up properly and left shards of glass everywhere. We were with our 1 year old and 3 year old. Further, they had only 1 high chair available and it was hilariously broken, like ridiculously so, we didn’t even try it (see photo). Our baby sat in our lap and we were worried about the glass so we couldn’t set them down the whole time. The burger bun was burnt and the burger inedible, the salade Nicoise was a heap of canned tuna and wilted greens, the steak was tough. The restaurant dog came to beg for leftovers at the end. The drinks were strong though and the dog was cute, I’ll give it that. Just a very weird hazardous place not safe for children, with bad food. We were in France for 3 weeks dining everywhere from airport cafes to Michelin starred restaurants, and this was the only negative dining experience we had. Tant pis! I’m writing this review to warn anyone with...

Unfortunately service was not acceptable and actually quite rude. Waited forever to even get a drink. Food didn’t arrive until an hour after we sat down, and then it took five minutes to get cutlery to eat it. They didn’t bring serviettes or have them available nearby, and so when I entered the indoor part of the restaurant to request one, I was yelled at and told that I should have asked the waiter for one. Little did they appreciate that a number of things we had already asked the waiter for (water, butter, ketchup) never arrived. My partner has an Intollerance to onion, which we indicated several times. We were told that was no problem and they could make our food without it. When they brought the salad, there were clear chunks of onion through it. We were afraid of how much may have ended up in the other items eg sauce. One waiter was rude and obnoxious - no sense of client service at all. The other was much more friendly however couldn’t remember our orders (we repeated each order numerous times and he still forgot...

If you had asked me where I might eat the best fries of my life a week ago, I would have given you a lot of ideas, but not Grasse. However, this has now changed. Not only was the staff absolutely wonderful, energetic and actually quite fun to be around, the food was much better than expected across the board. Especially given the excellent location, the prices were surprisingly low. Nonetheless, what stood out to me were the fries; genuinely and without much relevant competition the best fries I have ever eaten, with a far-off second place being a restaurant famous for its fries in Brussels. All around a great experience, I would get lunch here any time...