Le Café du Nord — Restaurant in La Rochelle

Waited ages to get a clean table, eventually placed our order. Wanted a large bottle of sparkling water to share. This was put on our table, opened but we were not given glasses! We waited ages and eventually had to ask a different waiter for some. They came after 5 minutes. We ordered food from the main menu, not the fixed price one. I ordered a small plate of fried calamari for starter, then I had gambas with salad and fries, my husband wanted a burger with cheese, salad and fries. The calamari never arrived. Our main meals came. My salad consisted of a tiny piece of lettuce, one small piece of tomato and one piece of cucumber, with a sprinkle of chopped shallot, plus 5 gambas! The lettuce was limp and old - the same for my husband. Very disappointing. The couple on the next table ordered scallops and their food arrived with a lovely portion of everything, including some beautiful, fresh salad. Were we being discriminated against as we were English? I'm not sure but it certainly...

Holidays involve a lot of aimless strolling wondering where to eat. Where ever you are in the world this is the way of the human being - regardless of culture. We had promenaded the full length of the restaurants La Rochelle had to offer and it was purely down to eye contact and positive engagement that we chose Le Cafe du Nord.

Our first visit was due to the engaging nature of the front of house maitre’d. She was multi lingual (sadly I’m not, said the Englishman) and very welcoming. We had a few drinks and a small platter and vowed to come back to experience more of the food and excellent service later in the week.

A few days later it was birthday time and the octopus on the menu was too good to miss. It was as tasty as I remember my last time eating it and the ambience and great food really do make the memories last.

It’s a busy restaurant, but still with enough time for a personal service. I thoroughly...

Came especially for Moules Frites Marinieres and was not disappointed. A generous portion of lovely moules and some of the best frites (proper prepped in-house ones - not bog-standard catering ones). The setting is lovely (a shaded terrace overlooking harbour). We did book ahead as it was busy when we tried walk-up previously. Really friendly and welcoming staff. Only one vegetarian dish and fairly basic (though it went down well with my fellow veggie diners). There is an adjoined Cafe Nord creperie and next time we would ask if vegetarians could choose from that menu (it wasn’t clear if that was possible and we only noticed after ordering). All in all a...