Le George — Restaurant in Torcy

Had a strange evening here. The food itself is quite good, and the server was kind and helpful. But then mistakes were made, and it became a headache to have them acknowledge it, let alone set it right, and eventually we were quite angrily sent off with the difference in price refunded. The story:

This restaurant has an offer for a two course meal and a three course meal. Some items on the menu don't participate in this deal, and my friend wanted one of these items, the entrecôte. So I would order the three course meal and then he would order the entrecôte. The waiter told us they were out of entrecôte, and recommended the bavette. My friend and I talked for a moment - change of plans. We'd both order a two-course meal. He'd get the starter and the bavette and I'd get a burger and a dessert. The waiter took that order, and I double checked: "So that's two times a two-course meal, right?" Yes, he said, two two-course meals.

The first time the bavette came out well-done even though my friend had ordered medium. The waiter was absolutely fantastic about this. He took one look at the bavette and said: "No problem, we'll do it again." We were actually positively impressed by this, so when time came we had no problem paying the price owed plus a reasonable tip. But when we checked the receipt, it looked like a mistake was made. There are two bavettes on the English menu, a 200g one (French menu: bavette d’aloyau) and a 250g one (French menu: Faux-Filet), and only the former can be ordered with a two course meal. However, our receipt showed the latter.

When I went back with the receipt, I spoke to a staff employee and I told him what happened: our server apparently had punched in a course that was excluded from the two-course meal option, though we did ask and double checked. The employee went back to what I can only assume is find the waiter and get his side of the story.

About a minute later another staff member came out. He said we had initially ordered the entrecôte, and pointed to the part on the menu where it said that some options are excluded, to which I said that we ended up not ordering the entrecôte and that we explicitly double checked our choices were included in the offer - we could tell, because the options that are included in the two-course meal have an asterisk. Then I was told that we had gotten something that is not part of that deal. Yes, I said, that's the problem, we chose the other menu item with the asterisk exactly because of that reason. It went like that back and forth a few times, until the staff member threw up his hands, opened the till and put the difference on the counter with the speed of a seasoned host, looked at me and said: "There. Is everything to your satisfaction now?"

At this point he was looking quite angry, and there was clearly nothing to win here. I just muttered a "Yes, fantastic", took the difference and left.

Look, I understand that customers can be difficult and complain about the smallest things. I'm not complaining about having to ask twice for sauce or something, doing so is unreasonable and embarassing and no person worth hosting would complain about that. But giving a guest a similar but incorrent order from what they asked, charging them for it, and then "resolving" it in such an unpleasant manner? That does not honour the quality of the food served here. This could have been resolved in a much more pleasant and professional way, and I'm still not quite sure why communication broke down.

All in all, though the food was good and the waiter was pleasant, the way our issues were resolved left a bit of a...

Big disappointment. I chose this place for a very special celebration : introducing my English special someone to my French friends. Upon arrival, our little group of 5 ( which had booked a table weeks in advance ) waited by the entrance without receiving a simple hello by any of the 3 waiters who passed us. That didn’t start very well but we got seated at a very nice table, and the venue looked absolutely great.

It was important for me that my partner, who only speaks English, felt included in the dinner. Upon asking our waiter to wait on us in English ( the little UK flag was on his nametag, indicating what we can imagine is an English speaking proficiency), I was answered that it was difficult for him. The very few times he came back to the table, he spoke to the table in French, my partner not understanding a thing of what he said…

We had to wait for ages before ordering our drinks and meals. Drinks were served quickly, but who puts cinnamon in a classic gin and tonic ?! Entrees arrived shortly after and were very good. I recommend their meat, even though we ordered two different cuissons ( saignant and bien cuit ) and got the exact same meat cooked the exact same way. Despite that, the meat was really good.

3 of my friends wanted to have desserts, and the server never came back. We had to call him so we could order and he was clearly annoyed. My friend tried to know what was in the café gourmand and the waiter had no idea, only able to tell us what was one dessert of the day before ( please note that this happened at 10pm on a Monday night… what did he serve all day ?).

Id like to give a thumbs up to Florian (probably a manager ?), who was efficient, friendly and accommodating in splitting the bill for us at the end. He’s the only nice person we met that night.

Being french, I hate the fact that we are known for offering poor service but my English partner was absolutely shown what reflected the bad french reputation tonight. We received no bottle of water, no bread, and the server never came to ask how the food was…

To wrap things up : if you don’t care about receiving a nice serving experience, if you just care about a good location and good food, then yes, the George is for you. If you come here to celebrate and have a good time in a friendly environment, I’d honestly try to find...

Five stars to the employees. Zero stars to the Chef de cuisine.

A note to start... Grateful that we had so much great food and wine before coming to the Magic Kingdom, which has given us a hard lesson in perspective. France offers so much more than this...so much more.

Pro: Decent ambience. Breakfast buffet is far superior in comparison to most american buffets (which tend to be dismal). Prompt service. Courteous, friendly and attentive staff who are doing their best to work with what the've been given.

Con: Dinner service was sad food. Watery risotto, as if from a box; chewy porc & mushroom fricasee bathed in some odd mix of shoyu from a jar; partially raw shrimp (gamas) that had not been de-veined; "au point" beef filet that was dark grey/charred & served with the same nasty shoyu "sauce" that was used in the fricasee; pommes de terre gratin overly spiced and mushy ...EVERYTHING was wrong with the food. We didn't dare order dessert.

The establishment suffers from the weight of countless tourists looking for something special in the Magic Kingdom nearby. You can see it in the faces of the servers who do their best to cater to the masses...Bless the fortitude of the long...