Restaurant la Claire Fontaine — Restaurant in Nice

We had dinner at La Claire Fontaine in Nice, on the summer terrace. We spent over €100 and left a generous tip for the service.

After we finished dinner, I decided to step inside the restaurant, and at that moment, a highly unpleasant incident occurred.

A man exiting the restaurant blocked my way and told me I wasn’t allowed to enter. I had no idea who this person was—unlike the restaurant staff, who wore uniforms, this man was dressed in a yellow tank top, shorts, and had a weird crossbody bag.

He didn’t resemble a staff member in any way and looked like a random visitor. Yet he rudely stopped me again, shouted at me, and said, “You’re not coming into this restaurant. Who do you think you are? You’re nobody,” along with other harsh words in French that I could only interpret by tone.

I was stunned by this behavior. I told him I am a guest and asked why he was speaking to me that way and who he was.

In a very aggressive tone, he claimed it was his restaurant—that he was the owner. Later, he said he was the manager and administrator.

I tried to de-escalate and asked why I wasn’t allowed inside, but he didn’t respond or explain. He just kept yelling that I wouldn’t be allowed in. I asked again why I couldn’t enter and why he thought it was acceptable to treat me this way. Still no answer.

I also pointed out that I couldn’t recognize him as a manager or administrator—he was dressed casually, behaved inappropriately and aggressively, shouted without explanation, didn’t greet me, and gave no reason for denying entry. He simply started yelling and being rude for no apparent reason. I perceived him as a strange visitor, not as a staff or someone I could trust and respect.

I repeated my question calmly. He seemed confused by my confident tone and persistence, and finally said he wouldn’t let me in because I was wearing shorts.

I’d like to note that this is a city-center restaurant in a tourist town, in the day time, with temperatures around 30°C. I was dressed in casual attire: a polo shirt, denim shorts below the knees, and classic suede shoes. The man who was rude to me wore a sportier tank top and shorter shorts, as I recall.

So claiming that I couldn’t enter because of my shorts is extremely odd—especially since nearly all the guests were wearing shorts. That’s no excuse for such rude and aggressive behavior.

This man’s conduct—his tone, manner of speaking, and shouting—was simply outrageous. I said I wanted to speak to the owner to file a complaint about this unacceptable behavior.

When he realized I was serious about speaking to the management, he simply ran off, turned a corner of the restaurant, and disappeared into the crowd, leaving me completely bewildered.

I even asked a waiter if that man was really the administrator, and the waiter confirmed: yes, he’s the boss, "patron".

Conclusion: If this man is the owner and is reading this review, you need to seek help from a psychologist—or better yet, a psychiatrist. You clearly need it.

If there is a higher-level manager or owner of the restaurant, you must urgently address this employee’s behavior, regardless of his position. Such conduct is unacceptable and brings shame to your establishment. This is an unstable individual, and corrective action must be taken...

Let me qualify this review by saying that;

1. I'm on holidays and a very easy going person.
2. I don't expect perfection
3. Good service will always beat ordinary product.

My wife and I wanted a relaxed meal in the piazza/square where this restaurant has prime position, where we could sit, eat and have an enjoyable time.

We politely asked the waiter if there was a table of two available and were promptly ushered to the closest available table on the edge of the walkway/border of their restaurant's outdoor seating permit - not a problem we thought as that is prime position to enjoy the surroundings.

After taking a seat at the table that was yet to be made up from the previous guests, we anticipated at least getting a menu to start perusing what to order.

5 minutes passed. Nothing. 10 minutes passed. Nothing. 20 minutes passed. Nothing.

Finally after 28 minutes (we had checked the time by this point), the head waiter realises we were sitting there with nothing but an empty table, and promptly brings two menu's. Great - we're off after a delayed start.

Over the course of the next 10 minutes, we had pur cutlery, table mat and cups brought out in three trips. Starting to get annoyed but quickly self-calmed with the understanding that it's busy and we're in no real rush.

Finally, we had our orders taken. Bare in mind it's been 40 minutes at this point...

And just like that our drinks arrive. The waiter spills my wine on me, looks at the serviette and says "just use that"... Yeah good mate, I'm sure one paper serviette will wipe up the red wine all over my clothes.

He walks away and within a minute is back with our pizza. Just like that. 40 minutes waiting. Served in 3 minutes.

We eat our pizza and finish our drinks. No sooner does the empty glass touch the table, the same waiter removes our plates, bumping the bottle of water all over (you guessed it) me!

At this point I was pretty peeved with the service (lack thereof). Without prompt, the bill arrived and we are being rushed to leave the table.

The food was ok. Nothing sensational but not bad. Price was good. Wine (that wasn't spilt) was tasty. The service... well there was none.

Give your money to another establishment that will enjoy your business,...

Of all the restaurants in Old Nice, I can't believe my wife and I chose this place. I wish I read the other reviews before eating here. The service is useless. The servers are very unorganised and act as if they are held against their will. There were plenty of tables available, yet the staff didn't know where to sit us. No reservations, so not sure what the issue was. In the end one of the servers just pointed to a group of tables and told us and another party to sit there. We all just hovered because we didn't know what was going on. A server was by one of the tables setting it up, and was so slow at it as if she didn't care at all. After we sat, we waited for 5-10 minutes before I got up and grabbed our own menus. Ordering food was the next problem. My wife wanted one of the salads, but wanted to replace the goats cheese with normal cheese that comes with the caesar salad, but the server said it wasn't possible. She then asked for the caesar salad itself, but asked to change the ham to chicken, again the server said this wasn't possible. He started to get an attitude problem, and told her that there's so many dishes so order something else. The food itself was horrendous. My wife ended up ordering the mushroom risotto which was so dry. I ordered a cheeseburger with fries, and asked for the patty to be cooked medium. It came medium rare. The fries tasted like yesterday's McDonalds fries that were reheated in the microwave, and some didn't have any potato in it. I'm not one to waste food, but I couldn't finish it due to how horrible it was. And to think I paid €16 for it. We should've seen the warning signs, as other customers also didn't finish their meals, including ice cream! We were greeted with yet more attitude when it came to paying. Was simply entering my PIN number, when the server snatched the card reader out of my hands as if I was going to steal it. And to top it all off, as we were leaving, we saw 3 different tables receive a salad. Convenient that they now have it hmmm. Oh and finally we also visited the toilet. 3 cubicles. 1 was filled with tissue paper to the brim, 1 had brown stuff all over the seat, and the other had yellow liquid all over the seat and...