Bar Restaurant L'insolite Bistrot — Restaurant in La Rochelle

A disappointing evening especially for our only one away from the kids. We had walked past this restaurant a few times and noted the delicious looking food and lovely setting away from the busy port. So we came back and enjoyed some oysters and very nice wine to start. But that was the only good part of the evening. The service was terrible. After being told there were no tables we pointed out a free one and got seated. Two of us ordered steaks "à point" and, perhaps a misunderstanding as the waitress preferred to reply in basic English even though one of our party is a fluent french teacher, but two well overcooked steaks arrived. The patron was called and told us those steaks were "à point" - see picture, there was no pink in sight. The meat was too tough to eat and we received no apology, so we settled up and left. Sometimes mistakes happen but the way we were spoken to and the way the situation was handled was not professional. I see similar reviews on here and one from last night too. Though there are plenty of positive ones, so perhaps they don't like tourists. it seems there is one rule for locals and another...

Wow, what a response and you have the audacity to tell us we are not tellong the truth...... so my French speaking 44 year old wife doesn't know how to order her food and with a credit card receipt you are now telling me we paid €20 less than we did. What a first class fool you are.

Food service started at 7, we arrived at 6.30. Ordered a prosecco and limoncello spritzer both were flat. Food ordered at 7, prawns, olive tapanade and a cheese and meat plate, two were served and we had to go inside and ask for the third. When our mains came my wife's medium to rare steak was cremated and the fries were "old" and looked like the scraps. My sea bass was a similar size to a gold fish, but tasty. If the service is good and the atmosphere is pleasant you can sometimes excuse the food but not here. When my wife mentioned our disappointment the manager/owner he could not care less. €165 later I could not recommend this restaurant to anyone. The restaurant Bistrot du Marin just a 100 yards away offered everything: great food, service, atmosphere and fabulous house...

I have no idea how the food is, we didn’t get that far, me and my family were looking for a little place to get a drink before we headed home as my son needed the toilet, he is 3, we asked where the toilets were and we were issued with a very stern face and almost a shooing action from the lady behind the bar as she told us to go to the public toilets, I said please he is only 3 and he needs the toilet and again she waved her hand for us to leave and said go to a public toilets. I get that you don’t want lots of people coming in and using your toilets out of the blue, but if a nice family ask if their 3 year old could have a wee then you would hope they would be accommodating. Would you do that to an older person or someone who had a disability? Anyway, there was a very quaint and a lot prettier bar over the road, they were more than accommodating and we all enjoyed two drinks in a very friendly and welcoming atmosphere. We are here for the next week and will not be visiting this...