Coté Mer — Restaurant in Le Havre

I waited to be seated around 10-15 minutes. As I was alone I was seated on a high table next to a waiter station constantly filled with trays of dirty glasses. Ordered a salmon with rice and cream sauce, and a glass of Chablis. The meal arrived with one cherry tomato as a garnish. Took a couple of bites and realized the salmon was undercooked, not only underseasoned. I waited around 10 minutes to have someone pass the section, noone did. Then raised my hand for another 10 minutes and was told by the waitress that had taken my order 'J'arrive, madam' about three times. She didn't. I left the table to see if I could speak to someone about the meal inside. There was noone there. Finally, I went back to the terrace where there was a queue to pay the bill. In front of me was a German couple who was spoken English to (not so unusual as it's a very touristic town). When it was my turn, the waitress (not the one that served me) left the payment queue. When she came back the waitresses spoke French to each other and I got handed a bill. I asked if she spoke English so I can explain my situation better as my level of French is low, she said 'No' yet she had just done so. I explained and said my food was undercooked and I couldn't eat it and couldn't tell anyone about it for 20-30 minutes after it arrived to another customer behind me who offered to translate. I was ignored. I then refused to pay for the meal I ( 19 euros) couldn't eat and said I'd pay for the wine ( 8 euros). I would've changed the meal or waited it to be cooked longer, but was never offered or had not the chance to ask for that possibility. Then the waitress started speaking French to other customers and rolling her eyes and making jokes about the situation (thinking I don't understand). Finally, another waitress invited me inside - she was polite and apologetic and started telling me how understaffed and overworked they are (they were 4 on floor and the bar together and the place was packed). I told her I see that and understand as I had also long experience in hospitality and it's pretty chaotic. She was so overwhelmed that she started crying. To top it all off the male waiter passed us twice on his way to the kitchen and yelled 'Casse les cou*lles'. Unimaginable! I left humiliated and turning in my stomach. I would not be surprised if the owner/manager will comment here like they did on some other comments and blame the customer. This is straight out of Gordon Ramsey...

Once you are seated and the food arrives things are really great. When we were there it was seriously understaffed which made the line of people waiting unnecessarily long and the same goes for the time until you get to order. The food however was great, I was particularly impressed by the cheese and the Cidre. The children's Menu was also good, but the beef patty was entirely unsalted... once I showed my daughter how to fix that (add salt) it tasted great - it was prepared really well - but no salt at all was strange. My wife liked the Seafood plate - but sadly the snails were out. Also they ran out of Mussels around the time we arrived, so come early if you want their speciality, a lot of people were ordering them. The desserts were also very nice - the Gourmand options already include a beverage. I really recommend one these! It was great - I just had an extra hot chocolate I didn't expect 😁 and I forgot to...

Really BAD service. The waiters work too slow and were more worried of talking than attending public. There is a long queue of pepole waiting to be attended. We were in the queue and they made us move to pass to the kitchen with dirty plates. We were waiting for 20 minutes asking two times if we could seat, and they were not attending us! They weren't even bussy, just talking between them. After all this time one of them said , you have to do the queue 2 meters back of where you are. We explained we had been waiting for a lot of time and they shouted to us!! They talked to us very bad manners, even the people that was wating there was surprised of that. There are plenty of restaurants nearby, if I were you I wouldn't waste my time and money in this...