La Fleur de Sel — Restaurant in La Rochelle

We just got out of the place very angry!!!

It all started when we asked to switch a table because our place was loud and we spotted to other couple tables in a more quiet area. We’ve been turned off coldly with the reason being that the restaurant is full, even though these tables stayed vacant for the rest of our dinner.

Our first dishes became quickly cold and therefore not so tasty. We took the tempura coated calamari with salsa that after few minutes felt like old fries and tomato ketchup. We haven’t finished that one.

The main dish one of us had - the market fish - was served also cold with the skin tasting burned. It was served on noodles that tasted like instant noodles. We barely touched that one.

The service personnel were always busy and avoided eye contact. In both cases our plates were quickly collected from us without inquiring about our liking of them and with again, no eye contact. We didn’t have the chance to tell our comment.

Our deserts were served as the pictures - one of them burned at the top, the other had this bad mint leaf on it.

When we asked to pay we’ve been finally asked about our liking of the food when we finally shared our experience. The poor waiter tried his best with empathizing, but we weren’t offered any thing to make up for our bad experience.

We were paying downstairs at the bar with the owner of the place with which we shared the experience too. Besides telling us she’s sorry and that we should’ve said something on the spot, no compensation was offered. We paid the whole bill.

Worst customer service for a restaurant of that level.

Never...

We visit this restaurant every time we are in La Rochelle and have always had good meals however our recent visit was not as good as far as the food is concerned. My wife and I have decided that it is better if you order your meal from the a la carte menu rather than having one of the set menu's. The reason for this is as we found with the set menu's you don't get what would have come with the same meal as if you had from the a la carte. We ordered from two separate set menu's and both got the same roasted new potatoes which were of poor quality. My wife ordered a pork dish which was full of fat and grizzle. A man on the next table ordered the same meal from the a La carte and it was totally different. It was disappointing even though my steak was nice and the waiting staff as always were great. Also and I know this may be contravercial but there is no English translation menu available, and although we can manage so far...

Very disappointing experience. We waited over an hour and a half for our food, with no real explanation or apology. I ordered an entrecôte steak, asked for it medium (à point), and received something completely overcooked, dry, and tough – like a piece of shoe leather. On top of that, about 60% of the steak was just fat, making it barely edible.

When we raised the issue, the server gave us a 4€ discount on a 120€ bill – a token gesture that felt more insulting than helpful. The quality of the food and the service was unacceptable for the price.

I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. Avoid if you expect decent food or...