Au Bon Graillou — Restaurant in Toulouse

Visited Au Bon Graillou for lunch at a Saturday with two friends, while visiting Toulouse. I kind liked the fixed price menu that included a starter,main dish and dessert for 24€. My friend chose this option with salade Gascogne, steak and raspberry tart with white chocolate. The other two of us decided to check out the option à la carte and try the Magret, 24€/ plate. To drink we decided on a bottle of red wine (price range c.a. 29€, do not recall the name).

Regarding the food, I must say that the best was the salade which was truly divine. The steak beat the Magret without a doubt; the Magret was off good quality but it lost my interest for being overcooked.

The service was good and the staff was focused and attentive to the costumers needs. Was fairly easy to communicate in English.

The vibe was good but from a personal point off view, the environment was a bit chaotic. The restaurant is centrally located in a market and seems to be very popular (a lot of costumers). It also shares a inner space and a balcony with several other restaurantes. When costumers start arriving endless lines forms and the noise of kitchen, people talking, eating was too much for me. Thankfully we got a good weather day and a place in the balcony, way quiet.

In the end, I would recommend for the experience (for me was different)...

Firstly, finding how to join the line or find a table is extremely confusing as there is no real entrance or guidance. I personally had to find someone at a desk and ask for a table at which point we managed to get on a list to wait for a table.

The service as we were waiting was very good, offered us drinks and made sure when the table was free we were invited to dine.

In terms of our food the selection is limited depending on what menu you want. I personally wanted to order a main from the set menu but I was denied, therefore ordered something else but I don’t understand why this can’t be done?

Another point to mention was the tables around us including our table had a massive problem with cooking steaks. We ordered medium rare which was clearly rare. I would expect at best this was 1 minute either side?

Apart from this we had a great meal and service was good but it was a let down. Personally, I wouldn’t come here again.

A side note - there is a huge bias to certain customers whereby they let certain people cut the line or pay...

We used to come to this restaurant very often until my husband got sick after one of the lunches he had there. We stopped going there for a couple of months and then we decided to give it another chance this weekend for a lunch with friends. We were a group of 8 people. The manager of the restaurant told us that they could not sit us until everyone was there. He reassured us that they were keeping a table for us. At 12h00, we were already 7 people. We asked him again to sit us. he repeated that he could not although the number of the tables needed was the same for 7 and 8 people( very arrogant attitude). The 8th person arrived at 12h15. When we informed him that the 8th person was there, he told us that has just given the table to another group. From his attitude, It was obvious that he did it in purpose. All in all, he was so arrogant and not polite.. he certainly does not have the right profile for the job he is doing. I will never ever return...