Oh Gobie — Restaurant in Montpellier

Thanks to a Lonely Planet recommendation, I had dinner here last night. On the plus side, the staff was friendly (even letting me charge my phone and bringing me free aioli on request) and the location was nice (if you can snag a table on the water). Mainly though, I was disappointed by the lack of professionalism: Despite having made a reservation, it took them over an hour to bring my starter, and then there was another long wait for my main dish. Two women at the table next to me had arrived at the same time as me and had ordered 2 courses. They had finished and left before I got my main. The group at the table to my left were working on their starters when I ordered, and they got their main dish well before I got my starter. They were on dessert by the time my starter arrived. I have no idea why I had to wait so long for my orders. Maybe they were simply forgotten; I hesitate to suggest racial bias but often as an Asian, and a solo one, I feel more invisible in some spaces.

On top of the unacceptably long waits, the food, while not bad, wasn't very good either, especially considering the high prices (15€ for a starter of poached oysters, 25€ for a main dish of swordfish and sauteed chard). The swordfish was nicely cooked (as in, not overcooked), but had absolutely no flavor; nor did the chard. I had to request aioli and salt/pepper to take pleasure in this meal. It's sad to write a negative review but I can't in good conscience recommend...

The rudest waiters I have ever had the displeasure of meeting. When we arrived, they ignored us for 5 minutes, so we decided to seat ourselves — to which we got shouted at for sitting at the incorrect table. So it didn’t start off well, we persisted nevertheless. After sitting down, we waited a full 20 minutes without being given a menu or even acknowledged. We were in no rush, but felt 20 minutes was too long, so I went to ask for a menu, which I did in French and very politely. His extremely angry and aggressive response was: “Are you English? You need to be patient! Many people came in at the same time as you (not true), we’ll get to you when we’re ready. Now go and sit down!”

He told me off? Me, the customer, for wanting to eat at his restaurant? Unbelievable. This was three days after Brexit happened. I can only imagine he had an instant hatred of me because of this and if that isn’t the case, this man is a psychopath.

I will never, ever consider going back to this place, I would actually never walk past the place again, just in case I saw the horrid staff. His behaviour has actually put me off going back to Sete, which is such a lovely...

Superb seafood.

Oh Gobie came highly recommended as a top spot for sea food and we weren't disappointed. Our waitress was super friendly and attentive, she took the time to go through the menu of the day and explain what was on offer. We were also recommended one of the tastiest wines we'd ever had.

There were plenty of options, so we started with some more familiar pickings langoustine, sea snails, oysters and roast mackerel. For mains, we had a colossal fillet of tuna, and I had some more huge langoustine (they ran out of my first choice, mussels. To be fair, it was late into the lunch time service and they were clearly a popular choice). Everything was so yummy and pretty well cooked.

Sitting on the canal side added to the ambiance of our experience. It was nice to be seated under a canopy out of the direct heat of the midday sun, we ate and drank leisurely and had a wonderful time.

I Deffinatly...