Le Phare — Restaurant in La Rochelle

What a horrendous experience we have had here. We love this island so much, especially Saint Martin de Re, but this restaurant definitely makes us think twice about coming back.

We arrived at 11:45, the waitress finally came and took our order at 12:05. We were the only people there! We explained at that point that the girls were autistic, and that we needed all the food together, at the same time, with the bill. The waitress told us she understood. 10 minutes later, the pizza arrives for the girls. 30 minutes later, my sea bass and Jodie’s pasta arrived! Jodie’s pasta was inedible so she asked for some Parmesan to try and spruce it up a bit. 10 minutes later it arrived. We didn’t have time to wait for Beaulahs crepe, which was part of the kids meal, so we went in to complain to the owner. We translated a message onto Google Translate that she said she didn’t understand. We’ve used GT a lot in France, it translates near enough perfectly! She just didn’t want to know. She also laughed at us when we told her the girls were autistic, not what I expect from the owner of a hospitality business! And, to top it all off, she never discounted the bill for the inedible pasta, or the crepe that Beaulah never had! One can only assume that she has the attitude of ‘We are always busy, somebody else will come and fill the seat you’ve just left so I don’t care if I churn out rubbish food, or whether you’ve had a good time’. A must...

We went there with our family after Christmas. Not knowing what to expect and on quest to honour grandmother's request of having mussels. We found this historic place on the main street. The mussels 4/5 were delicious however they could have cooked them a bit longer. 10 shells were unopened in my dish. The tartare was excellent and the were the winning dish on the table. We found the desserts excellent and to be the perfect finish to our family gathering on the the coast. Thanks for making it a special time. We will be back again...

Food was delicious, the location is superb. However it was 30 to 40 minutes from being seated before we were served. We also had not chosen a wine and instead of waiting one minute until we chose the waiter walked off and served others and never came back. We had finished the first course before being able to order a drink. They waiter who brought our first course could not take a drink order either. Apart from that the staff were friendly and the food...