L'Amiral — Restaurant in Quimper

I have never before felt compelled to leave a negative review, but our experience at L’Amiral was profoundly disappointing. A caterpillar was found in my daughter’s dish, two mains arrived incomplete without notice, and yet we were charged over €200 with no apology or goodwill gesture, not to mention the extremely long wait times between courses. Worse still was the conduct of the waiter, Ismael, who repeatedly interrupted and spoke over both myself and my mother, made condescending remarks about tourists, displayed rude body language, and openly disrespected his colleague who had been serving us politely. His manner was insolent, argumentative, and wholly unprofessional. Instead of resolving issues, he argued and treated us with outright disrespect. In years of dining out, none of us have ever experienced such a lack of professionalism or basic courtesy. We left genuinely shaken and would not recommend this establishment, which should reflect seriously on the standard of service it allows to represent its name.

As a note to future guests: order your dessert with your mains — the neighbouring table, who ordered the finest dishes on the menu, were refused theirs entirely after the same waiter failed to inform them of this policy, leaving them...

Appalling service - find somewhere better.

Things go bad everywhere, but it is how this is then managed that separates a good restaurant from a bad one.

Son, had an assiette de fruits de mer for his main course. This was brought out while we were having our starters. He had almost finished his main and we were still waiting for our mains to arrive. Rather than simply apologising we were told by two different waiters (1) it’s not my fault the kitchen is short staffed, (2) I forgot to order out your mains because I am also looking after another area.

No consideration for the impact on the customer.

Staff then followed up by taking an age to bring out dessert and then not bringing the bill to the table. Manager stayed away and didn’t engage....

I dined here on many of my fieldwork visits to Concarneau while writing my book: Researching Literary Tourism. After a visit to L'Amiral, 1 Avenue Pierre Gueguin, Concarneau, France with Paul, we decided to use his photograph of L'Amiral on the front cover of the book. The picture is taken from over on the ramparts of the Ville-Close. We were trying to cover the whole scene from the opening of Simenon's novel, The Yellow Dog, Le Chien jaune. Try the oyster as a starter, and, if they still offer this, the Simenon menu. If you are reading the detective novel whilst you are in this fishing and seaside town do let me know and share your thoughts... you can find me as staff on University of Plymouth website and the book on Google...