Maison Fournaise — Restaurant in Saint-Germain-en-Laye

This was the worst restaurant experience I have ever had in France. I booked a reservation for lunch four days ahead and quickly received a confirmation from the restaurant. After I had left my hotel to make my way there, I received a last minute cancellation with no explanation why. This restaurant is where Renoir painted the Luncheon of the Boating Party which has been my favorite painting for more than forty years, so I decided to swallow my pride and I rebooked for dinner that evening. I showed up and there was no one downstairs to welcome guests and no directions of where to go. My reservation was for the same time that the restaurant opened. There was a large tour group milling about in the yard waiting to be seated, so I assumed that someone would appear to give directions, but no one ever did. I eventually made my own way upstairs and found a couple of waitstaff there who seated me right away. The first part of the meal was great. They served me a delicious complementary gazpacho, the asparagus was also delicious, and the 1664 beer was the best French beer I have had. The chicken was uninspired, but OK. I ordered another beer to have with the main dish. Meanwhile, I watched from the window as my waiter obsessively arranged, then rearranged, then rearranged again the tables and chairs on the terrace below, for more than forty-five minutes! This seemed odd, since the tour group had been seated inside and the main dining room was nearly empty, and no one was going to sit outside on this nippy evening. But my courses were being served by another waitress and I assumed that my service had been reassigned to her. So I waited for my beer for twenty minutes before reordering it. Then I waited another twenty-five minutes. By this time, I had long been finished with the main course and decided I would skip the beer and just order dessert and coffee, when suddenly my original waiter showed up with the beer that I had ordered forty-five minutes before! I explained to him that it was much too late and so I sent it back. He cleared my table and I expected him to return with the dessert menu, but he disappeared again. After another twenty=five minutes of being ignored, I decided to call it quits and I strolled out to get a better view of the balcony where Renoir painted his masterpiece. There was no staff around and I got the feeling that I could have walked out of the restaurant without anyone noticing until closing time. If you love Renoir's painting, I would recommend coming to the location to see it for yourself, but skip...

The setting is lovely beside the Seine. However the use of what is an outdoor space for indoor dining in winter requires better heating than what was available. One end of the dining area on the enclosed terrace has no direct heating and is full of drafts. On top of that the heating was turned off when the main area which had heaters got hot....which led to more cold and breezes at our far end. Supplying rugs is not good enough at all. We really regretted not asking to be moved given we were there early. The staff were charming. However we were served hot amuse bouche well in advance of our aperitif which wete mixed up and served to wrong persons. We suspect our main dushes got lost in transit for awhile. On the food side, the menu has a strange mix of dishes. There are two menus side by side with similar options, but why have two. We took a platter to share for four for starters which had plentiful ham and pickeled fish but only 2 slices of toast for 4. The mains were slow in coming even though we were first to arrive in the restaurant. The food which was tasty (fish, liver, pheasant) went cold fast on the plates given the breeze and coolness of our corner. In spite of being told the child's menu would be speeded through, she got served after we got our main course. Her chicken nuggets which were home made were not fully cooked in the middle. I would question a children's menu that serves tartare sauce with chicken nuggets. The coffee gourmand was ok but lacked a bit of panache as everything tasted similar. Unfortunately the cold took from our pleasure and the service...

We asked for water and after 10min it still did not come so we called another waiter and he asked if we had ordered it, we said yes and he went and got it. The person who took the order was busy clearing tables where people had left so she must have forgot to get us the water. It was 30C and very hot. The 1st course was a piece of terrine and it was very hard and dry. Came with no sauce and felt like it had been taken from the back of the fridge. The glass of champagne was not chilled, temperature was slightly cool. Main courses were mostly beef which was cooked correctly but the steak knives were blunt so not easy to cut the meat. It was our wedding anniversary dinner and I had been looking forward to the food, ambiance and service. We drove from Switzerland so it was a planned event. The wait staff are young and not focused on customer service. This next generation need a lot more oversight on what service means in restaurants that are marketed as good locations. Also the seating is a mix of small wooden garden chairs that curve inwards and press into your legs, very uncomfortable and more modern chairs that have no sides so easier to sit on. Very...