Le Miramar — Restaurant in Marseille

An email sent to the restaurant. Clearly, I’m annoyed.

Let me apologise to write in English, simply that after 7 years in the UAE in the hospitality business, English comes more natural. We have just come back from a dinner at your establishment. Few pointers:

Sat 5cms away from a table of 1. Very nice guy too. He in fact had to ask for his glass of wine twice, cancelled the cheese because you had forgotten it, and ask for the bill three times. This guy, came to see you two days ago and I believe spent a fair bit of cash. You offered him a drink on the house.

Anyway, us. We waited, once seated, 30 minutes before someone came to take our order. We were with a 4 year old girl. Quiet and extremely well behaved. Thanks to her parents.

Water came 45 minutes after we sat down. Again, we have a 4 year old girl with us. Your hostess takes our order followed by your sommelier. The wine comes, but we still have no water. I asked him I shan’t start the meal without water first. 5 minutes later he puts the water on the table with the typical attitude, then comes 2/3 minutes later to pour the wine. I have no idea why you need a sommelier, as he never came ever again. Maybe too good to pour water which is typical of french sommeliers. Thank goodness that I have my WSET 3, and ran a Michelin star restaurant as Maitre D’ for 8 years and Sommelier in charge, in order to serve myself wine. I fact, I had taken the wine out of the ice as it was far too complex to be kept cold. I did that. The ice bucket lasted till the end by my side. With 0 questions asked. Was this really a sommelier? Or a wine waiter that did a stage in a vineyard over the weekend? Save your cash, get two more waiters in. Amuse bouche came, very nice. Salty, but good. I asked for bread for my daughter. She had a piece. No one came for bread for us after that. As in, my daughter was the only one getting bread. I know I’ve been eating a lot on holidays, but not to the point of your waiters thinking the same having thought, no sir, no bread for you Mr. Gluten free my fat friend.

Soups came, mine had the gruyère missing. It’s ok, I shared my wife’s. My daughter enjoyed the mussels. Again, salty.

The mains came and they were, to my surprise, delicious. Honestly. Top notch. Well, salty clams. Very salty. But then french chefs have a heavy salt hand. Famous for it.

I know that we were not wearing Gucci, apart from my wallet and my wife’s very posh handbag, but we had come from a long days swim. And frankly, for once, we felt like chilling. Anyway, we’re by the port with kids playing drums asking for money outside your premise so, nothing scary I thought.

We were not offered coffee, more water or anything. You had a large table that possibly spent a fair bit of cash. Good for you. However, next time, privatise your restaurant do guests a favour. As they had all your service. And bags of food to take away before going home. Ha. Says it all doesn’t it. I bet they didn’t even leave a tip.

Finally, food is great. Your 12€ wine at 58€ Selling price was also good served by myself, and your guests actually rather lovely to talk to.

You are fortunate that you have such a location, but if the big money boss man came by to see this, well, I’m sure he or she shan’t approve of the poor, inefficient service offered as he she ate losing money. Frankly disappointing. Then due to the disastrous service and the inefficiency of it all, I had to ask twice for my change. By then, a waitress came running, literally, with the loose change. This was a well worth, 191€ circus show. VIP one might add. I kept my 9€ change which frankly is ridiculous but I made my point. And, after not complaining, but discussing what had gone wrong, no one came to say hey, sorry guys, what can we do here. Angers me that. And angers me that we weren’t alone. Our beautiful food and beverage industry is going haywire, and no wonder. What a shame for the culinary teams around the world looking forward to excellence, but being let down by arrogance and...

Among all the restaurants I've visited around the world, this one was the most dissatisfying in terms of both taste and service. I'm writing this review with the hope that others will never have to experience what we went through here. The reviews on Google Maps for this restaurant are mixed. From now on, I will avoid restaurants with extreme ratings like this. I can't be certain if I will encounter such a bad case again.

[Taste - Losing the Basics]

I had heard that bouillabaisse is similar wherever you go in Marseille, but I am absolutely convinced that it's not the case. I've never felt that my money was wasted while exploring delicious restaurants worldwide, but the bouillabaisse I had here made me think that €79 was truly a waste. If this dish I had at the restaurant represents the traditional taste of Provence, then the bouillabaisse of today wouldn't have gained such fame.

After ordering the bouillabaisse, 30 minutes passed before the waiter brought it to show us. They then informed us of the fish included in it. Afterward, they said they would serve the soup first and take the fish to the kitchen to season it before serving it back to us. We waited for a long time and finally got to eat the soup, but unfortunately, the hot soup had a slight rancid smell once it cooled down. It raises questions as to why they use spices if it ends up like this.

After another 40 minutes since the soup was served, cooked fish is served in the soup. Until that moment, I still had hope and took a bite of the fish. However, the fish was cold. Even the potatoes were cold. Only the soup they poured was hot. But even that scorching hot soup couldn't warm up the ingredients properly. I believe that cooking warm food warm and cold food cold is the most basic principle. Even if I had paid €10, it would have been a disappointing taste. Furthermore, the fish wasn't properly deboned, so I had to spit out spines while eating.

[Service - Where did my money go?]

If the taste isn't good, at least the service should be good... It was recommended to me by a local acquaintance as a place with good service, but unfortunately, it was the opposite. From the moment we placed our order, we requested mineral water, but it didn't arrive even after 30 minutes. When we asked for water again, the manager came and asked, 'You still want water? Not wine?' When we asked for water, it took another ten minutes or so before we finally received Evian. It was so difficult to have a glass of water.

We also ordered other dishes along with the bouillabaisse. While we were eating them, the bread that was supposed to come with the bouillabaisse never arrived. While we were in the middle of our meal, a waiter came and asked if we were finished, and when we mentioned that we were still eating and asked about the bread, they finally brought it.

My money and, more importantly, my time are precious. It's a shame that my valuable time was wasted on a bad experience like this. I urge everyone to carefully examine the reviews on Google Maps before choosing...

If you are an English speaker- I would honestly recommend AVOIDING this restaurant!

Kind of shocked at how I was treated. I was planning on dropping $200+ on dinner and wine. It is not a sidewalk cafe...

The manager is a walking and honestly outdated steroetype of the arrogant rude French waiter...

He rolled his eyes at me and sighed with dramatic body language when I asked for the wine list. It was sitting on the table and I had not seen it. I softly laughed embarrased & said Merci. He Made a rude comment and twirled to walk away when I was attempting to ask a question.

I asked someone else for assistance and they were quite nice... however, he was my waiter.

One of the women came over to put something down and spoke the fastest French that I have heard... I started to ask her to slow down that I didn't speak much French when she placed the plate - almost threw it in front of me... swirled around and went to the service station... grabbed bread- came back over and slammed it down- still holding onto it in front of me... and barked "Pain!" Still looking directly at me... she said, "bread in French is Pain!" Her body language was angry and aggressive!

The manager clearly perpetuated the culture in the restaurant and although I am a native English speaker, I speak AND understand quite a bit of French... definitely enough to know that the manager was mocking an English speaker on the phone as well regarding their attempt to communicate.

They were not busy at all. It was early- they were standing around. They could have taken the time to allow me the time and space to order.

I felt so incredibly uncomfortable. Other things happened. I really just wanted to leave.

The manager was loud and made a scene... involving other people. It was incredibly unprofessional. Not world class or classy at all.

They made me pay almost $30 for wine and water that I did not drink. Tacky!

This is a touristy area. I have spent the last 6 weeks traveling around France & this was a first!

It doesn't matter if the food is good if the atmosphere is toxic. I chatted with my hotel that recommended them... They acknowledged that it wasn't a first... but, the food is good.

No thank you. I love France. Not this restaurant. All...