Le Galet — Restaurant in Nice

My son and I had a dinner 1 year ago and it was fantastic with great food... except I ordered a lobster dish and struggled to eat it while someone sitting nearby had the same dish and they were being helped by a server to get the lobster meat out. I did not think much of it then.... I went again with my daughter tonight. I was very excited to be there again. However, by the end I felt like crying. I felt so bad for my daughter because we were ignored most of the time.

We had a reservation but they had seated someone else under our name when we arrived. They handled this relatively well by moving her to another table and seating us quickly afterward. (Although, she left a dirty napkin and I did not get a new napkin until I asked for it.)

The server came to us to get drink order but we asked for a few more minutes. He did not come back at least 10-15 minutes despite walking past our table multiple times while we quite visibly signaled that we were ready. Eventually we were able to stop him, but it was quite difficult.

The same server brought a bottle of olive oil (we already had a bottle on the table though) but never brought a bread basket. All of our neighboring tables were given bread relatively quickly after being seated.

We had to ask for water 3 separate times. We waited for long periods of time between each ask and watched as our server brought water and other items to neighboring tables.

We asked for straws for our drink (our drink required straws and should have come with them to begin with...) but he never came back. In fact, our server never came back to our table at all after this. We ended up having to ask a busboy to help us because he was the only one who acknowledged us.

Nobody seemed to be assigned to our table at all. The original server ignored us most of the time and eventually he was too far away for us to get his attention any more. 2 other servers were working near by but no one ever came to our table. When we wanted to pay the bill, we had to flag down a server quite aggressively in order to do so.

I talked to the manager who took our bill about the problems we had. (He walked around talking to and checking in on other guests but never came to us.) He said, "sorry" but it was not sincere apology. There was no real acknowledgement of responsibility for our experience. To make matters worse, he also said "thank you" in a language we don't even speak, assuming our ethnicity incorrectly.

I hardly ever leave a review in Google, but I felt I...

Overall, very good experience. Le Galet has a waiting area where you can order drinks while you wait for your table. And it’s even closer to the water than the dinner tables. Very smart. We didn’t order anything though because our table was ready quickly. Lovely table with a great view of a rising full moon that was just stunning. Live music played the entire time we were there. Instrumental jazz mix of French and American music.

The service was good, but due to communication mishaps somehow I ended up with 2 pasta dishes. Despite knowing exactly what I ordered, I paid for both because I tasted the one I ordered (Cacio e Pepe) and didn’t like it so I said I wanted to keep the other one (next one on menu - red sauce pasta with burrata).

When the bill came we realized we had been paying for our bottles of flat water. I understand paying for sparkling water but we didn’t request bottled water for the non-sparkling and would have been happy with tap. They were in these cute bottles that I assumed were just different presentation than your typical carafe. There was no seal so it wasn’t obvious they were “bottled” water and there is no way of knowing they weren’t just opening the top and adding tap water. I expect there to be some hiccups lost in translation at some point when traveling outside my own country but haven’t experienced it quite like this at any of the other restaurants I’ve eaten at over the past 2 weeks. We speak intermediate level French and our server spoke about the same level of English. One star deducted for what ended up being a pretty expensive miscommunication that could have been better shared between customer and business. (About 40 euros with the unwanted water and pasta.) The place is not getting 5 stars on the food side either. It was good but not great. Had a better salad at Le Cocodile. Had way better pasta in many places. You go here for the ambiance. That was 5 stars so enjoy...

Nothing to write home about.... Overall, we were extremely dissatisfied by this restaurant. From our initial interaction with the host to the quality of the food we were served, this place was a major let down. The restaurant tries to come off as an upscale, beachfront spot and their host will judge you accordingly. However, don't expect their nasty attitude to reflect the quality of their food whatsoever.

Upon our arrival at the restaurant, the host told a guest in our party that there would be a 2 hour wait and that they did not take reservations. We thought this was a bit odd given the fact that several other parties were seated after we were told this. We decided to have another member of our party approach the same host and ask for a table. Low and behold he was seated and the rest of us joined him at the table. Also worth noting that after we were seated, we noticed several empty tables that were not filled during our time dining here. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and indicate that maybe this host simply didn't know which one of his tables were open or not.

Our interactions with the host aside, the food each of us ordered was very lackluster. We weren't expecting much given the pricing. However, compared to other restaurants we patronized that are operated by the same owner, this one was by far the WORST in terms of how the food tasted.

The only real thing this place has going for it is it's location which is why I gave it 2 stars rather than 1. That being said, there are other beachfront restaurants in Nice so you should not feel obligated to choose this one- which we will definitely NOT be...