Chez Freddy — Restaurant in Nice

AWFUL! Avoid at all costs if ordering seafood. Not only did we have a terrible meal but had the pleasure of the arrogant owner threatening to call the police over us calmly and politely complaining about the quality of the food.

Ordered a 54 euro seafood platter to share between 3 as a starter (all 3 enjoy seafood and eat it regularly). When this arrived we could tell it wasn’t fresh by the smell but decided to give it a try. Sadly the quality of the fish was appalling. There were lots of different things to try so tried a bit of each. The oysters were ok, the mussels were disgusting and the crab was rancid. There were other things included in the platter but as we had never tried these before I don’t believe we should comment as we may just not like them in general.

We requested to cancel our mains and to pay for what we had eaten so far as the quality had been terrible, this was refused. The reason being was that they had already started prepping our mains (before we had even finished our starters). We tried to reason with this but we had no choice and were basically forced to endure our mains.

The mains arrived, the steak thankfully was actually pretty delicious (except the sauces don’t opt for the sauces - been left out all day and had developed a thick skin on top). The Freddy paella was inedible (the photo shows what was left - hardly touched) seafood again was poor, the chicken was ok, on the bone and random cuts but not horrible. The taste overall was pretty bad and I only ate a couple of bites.

While we were eating our mains the manager came over to ask how it was. We were honest stating that the steak was good but again the seafood was horrible. There was no response and he just simply walked away. Not sure why you would ask how everything is if you didn’t care about the response?

When it came to paying for the 239 euro bill we asked to speak to the manager to explain that we were unhappy to pay the full amount. While speaking to the manager calmly and politely the incredibly rude owner came over. We tried to explain the situation to him and he would not even engage in a conversation, kept shouting that their food is the best, they had 400 people in that day and when people complain like this they would just call the police to deal with it. We continued trying to reason with him but he just kept shouting over the top of us and then simply turned his back and walked away.

We paid the bill in full as we didn’t want to risk them calling the police.

We weren’t looking for “freebies” or anything of that nature. Our first suggestion was to pay for what we had eaten in full and cancel our mains. After being forced to have our mains and the fish dish was awful again we would have expected some sort of gesture of goodwill however this place is obviously a tourist trap and they don’t have any pride in what they produce and don’t care about repeat customers.

Really terrible experience.

Also want to add that I never write negative reviews. If it was just a bad meal and they had dealt with this better I wouldn’t even think to write this. Unfortunately the owner’s rudeness has encouraged me to waste my time...

Ordered a €54 seafood platter to start to share, the oysters were fine, the rest was chewy, looked like it was quite old and not fresh, and tasted quite horrible. We couldn’t eat it and asked if we could cancel our main course, pay for everything we’d had so far (including the uneaten seafood), and leave it there. We were told no and had to sit through the remainder of our meal.

We agreed to this reluctantly and our food arrived. Three steaks (which were fine, albeit with pretty horrible microwaved sauce) and seafood paella, the quality of the seafood was as poor as with the starter.

When we’d “finished” (a lot had been left owing to disappointing and honestly quite repugnant flavour) we were asked how the food was and we were honest and admitted the seafood was not good and we couldn’t eat it, but the steaks were good.

When the bill came we’d been charged in full. We asked the manager why no sort of discount had been applied (why ask how the food was if this has no weight on service at all?). We were very reasonable and calm but instead of discussing this reasonably the police were threatened. The owner even went as far as to ignore us trying to calmly respond, turned his back, and said his “policy for complaints and bad reviews was just to take it and that it happens and if people won’t pay then the police are called”. We hadn’t even suggested not paying. Being un-argumentative people, and not wanting to be arrested (!) we questioned this for a few minutes and then just caved and paid in full.

This has tainted our beautiful trip to Nice, we didn’t want freebies, we simply couldn’t eat the seafood owing to the poor quality and would have been content with a nominal 10% off purely as a gesture of goodwill. Or even just an apology. Instead of offering anything like this we were threatened with the police, which is bizarre and extreme considering we were being very low key and simply asking for a reasonably compromise.

Absolutely insane experience. But at least we’ll remember it and laugh about it in the future. In terms of your own dining choices though -...

It started off positive and ended dismally. We were cruising along, deciding where to eat. One of the staff approached us as we were looking at the posted menu. He was pleasant and showed us to our seats. This is where the pleasant service ends. Our server was not pleasant. Not that he was rude, he just wasn’t present. He didn’t make any attempt to understand what we were asking, he didn’t make any suggestions, I had to ask twice for my wine that I ordered, getting the food was extremely slow, and then, to add insult to injury, he didn’t return any change from the money we put down. He didn’t ask if we wanted change! He just assumed we were going to leave him the tip! I wouldn’t have tipped that much for the horrible, disconnected service...

As for the food? This is why there are even any stars in this rating. The mussels were great!! The salad was very fresh and tasty. That’s where the positives end. The steak was not done to my specifications. (Mind you, the server wasn’t even trying to confirm how I wanted the steak anyhow, so I’m not surprised that I got a rare steak when I requested medium-rare. And considering the service up to that point, I wasn’t going to send it back). The side veggies were soggy. The fries were okay, but some salt or ketchup would have been nice. (No condiments or spices were on the table or offered). And then lastly, the creme brûlée. Ugh!! The sugar was burnt, as in charred and the crème was overdone.

What a disaster!! There are so many restaurants along this strip. I suggest any other one...