Restaurant Sarlat | Le Bistro de l'Octroi — Restaurant in Sarlat-la-Canéda

We made a reservation for dinner at 8 pm this morning.

We arrived at 7:40 pm. There was a couple just in front of us who did not have a reservation, but was seated next to the front entrance. When we came in, they could not find our reservation. When they finally did find our reservation, they sat us next to the first couple. We asked for a table by the window, but our waiter (tall and skinny) said that all of the tables were "closed" despite the restaurant being almost completely empty. So you have an almost empty restaurant, with the two couples sitting very close to each other.

The waiter took the order of the couple before us. Three tables came after us and the waiter took their order before us. He then gave all of the tables bread while they were waiting, except us. I had to ask him for some bread. When the the couple before us finished the main plate, he took their dirty plates away and ask if they wanted desert. The customer said no and asked for the check. The waiter came back shorty with his bill. When we finished eating, we had to wait a long time to get the waiter's attention to ask for the bill. We waited some more for the bill. When he finally brought the bill to us, he did no take away the dirty plates!

The food was good. The service was absolutely horrible and the waiter infriendly. My wife and I have traveled all across France, and this has been our worst dining experience by far.

Total time for wine and just two main plates... one hour and forty-five minutes.

Finally, there were several tables by the window that remained empty during our entire...

We knew we would be arriving later in the evening at Sarlat, from a long trip from Denver, Colorado, so, to ensure we would get a meal that evening, we made a reservation with the restaurant at 2000 hrs on 27 April, and verified by email. We were excited to arrive at the restaurant on time on a very rainy evening. To our surprise, we were denied, said we didn’t have a reservation, so we produced the email, and the person helping us, must have been the owner, agreed that it was a valid reservation, but he still turned us away. This review is not about there food quality nor the atmosphere, but about the turn away with a reservation, we counted on them for a meal after a long journey to get there, and walking through a rainstorm. We did our due diligence with a reservation and arriving at the scheduled time.Needless to say we went to bed without dinner.They were open and had tables available. We have been traveling to France since 2019 and have never had any problems with the proverbial rude French, which we have never seen before this, and hope never to see it...

Our experience was mixed, but overall I would not recommend. The service was very good. We had a young waiter who was extremely busy, but when he arrived at our table was very pleasant. The first course, pate en croute was very good so we were looking forward to the rest of the meal. I had the beef with Bergerac wine sauce and it was not eatable. So tough I could not get a knife through it, a few frozen peas and carrots, an unidentifiable vegetable purée and three boiled potatoes which turned out to be the highlight. Dessert was walnut cake which lacked texture and flavour. In the end I came home hungry but the good news is I had a lovely plate of...