Au Bureau — Restaurant in Saint-Julien-en-Genevois

So, me and my mate get a seat at the terrace, never been here before and hungry. Decide to have a dinner. Order two fish and chips. Food not coming. We all good, keep drinking cocktails and chatting. We get our food 1h20 minutes later. All good we don’t really care, we are old mates that did not see each other for long time. We eat the tasteless food, pay and slowly move to another place to continue our good evening.

As we arrive to other club, two people from Au Bureau approach us visibly angry (well, the girl was not angry but the guy was). “Tu n'as pas payé!”. My French is really bad, and I apologise about this million times (I don’t live in France), and try to say in French that “I paid, but if there is misunderstanding I’ll come and sort it out”.

The guy is visibly angry, “No you did not pay”.

I’m like, no problem, I can walk with you and we can sort it out. The guy starts racing back, I’m 3m behind them trying to catch up. I stop and say, now in English as I’m getting irritated “hey, is there anything wrong? I am going with you and will pay if there is an issue, but I paid”.

We are now back at the Au Bureau. They are now both shouting at me that I did not pay.

I’m trying to explain to them how the person that served me looked like. They keep saying “no English”. Guy is so angry, it looks like we could easily get into a fight if he was off work. At last I remember how to say “métissé” to describe the person that served us. And at last I see her.

She comes over, and nicely says I paid and there is no problem.

The angry guy, literally just walks away.

So here’s the thing. The angry guy, probably the shift manager, is a beefhead who would probably scare anyone senseless with this behavior. Unfortunately for him, it was me. I did not have time to deal with this as my good old friend who I did not see 4 years was waiting for me elsewhere.

So, now you know who I am. I am coming back to Au Bureau and I cannot wait to...

The bar advertises itself as a British bar. It has the normal street signs and pictures you would expect but it is as far away from a pub as it is possible to get. One you arrive, you can't order at the bar but must be shown to a table by a waitress who then disappears! When she finally returns (which in my experience of 2 or 3 visits takes about 10 minutes) she will take your order and then disappear again. The staff must all be in hiding from someone or must be very shy because they avoid eye contact or even looking at tables to see if you need to be served. As I have said, I have been there 2 or 3 times and it is always the same. Having said that, the food is ok and the terrace is nice in summer, being as it is in the square just...

Tout se prêtait à passer une très bonne soirée, la planche de finger food était très bonne et les cocktails l’étaient aussi, quant aux prix ils sont raisonnables ! Toutefois, nous avons eu un premier incident. Par mégarde, le serveur fait tomber un verre de son plateau sur la table, ce dernier se brise sous le choc et les débris fusent sur mon amie. Le serveur s’excuse à plusieurs reprise, nous ne lui en tenons pas rigueur UN accident ça arrive. Nous espérons toutefois intérieurement un petit geste commercial, il ne nous dit rien à ce propos. Une vingtaine de minutes passent, nous faisons une nouvelle commande et qu’elle ne fut pas notre surprise quand le même serveur arrive avec son plateau bien chargé, la main tremblante… Ni une ni deux, une bière Ruby (la bière était donc rouge) tombe sur moi ! Je suis donc recouverte de bière, mon téléphone posé sur la table prend également un bain de bière. Je suis donc trempée, le serveur se confond en excuses et va me chercher des serviettes pour que je puisse m’essuyer. Fort heureusement, mes vêtements étants sombres je m’aperçois pas de tâches. Il me donne tout de même sa carte pour l’appeler si je rencontrais des problèmes à faire disparaître certaines tâches. Les accidents arrivent certes. Mais après 2 accidents, à 20’ d’intervalle et ce à la même table, nous osons espérer un geste commercial. Il n’en est rien. On nous propose 2 boissons gratuites, toutefois après ces aléas nous préférons éviter de commander à nouveau. Lors de l’addition on nous explique que les boissons étant déjà tippées, elles ne peuvent être déduites. Un peu gros à nos yeux… Dommage, nous n’y retournerons probablement pas de sitôt même si tout se prêtait à y...