La Table Midi31 — Restaurant in Toulouse

We stayed at the Hotel from December 30th, 2022 to January 2nd, 2023. The restaurant is to be avoided, and the complaint handling was not satisfactory, as follows: About three weeks before our stay, we were contacted suggesting your New Year's Eve dinner in the Hotel’s Restaurant La Table Midi31. We had made a reservation for this New Year's Eve dinner and my wife in particular was looking forward to it. We requested a quiet table at 19 o’clock which the staff had politely confirmed to us. On New Year's Eve, we were the first guests at the restaurant at 19:00 where we were received at the entrance by a black-haired middle-aged woman with glasses. On the list I could see the reservation list casually, which showed only 10 groups over the whole time (the restaurant is quite big and would fit many more guests). She led us to the tables (as the first guests) and we told her that we’d like to sit at the window side. We were told that it was fully booked and we have to sit in the middle row just besides the noisy bar area almost touching a thin see-trough curtain. Bar customers were sitting a few dozen centimeters beyond the curtain chatting loudly, and there were almost no other restaurant customers, but we had to take a seat with a bad atmosphere. My wife is Japanese and she was immediately offended by this response. This is because she had heard that in Paris, Asians won’t be seated at good window tables, but are passed through at bad seats like counter, near toilet or kitchen. After that, no matter how many times I politely asked the waitress and explained that this was not the table I was expecting after a quiet one was confirmed to me at the time of the reservation, she kept saying no stating that all other tables are specifically reserved by customers since a long time. She said we can move one table further in the middle row, so we moved there. Seeing the arrival of only a few guests, no matter how I looked at it, I felt that the window side was not filled with reservations. After we moved a little further away, the waitress opened the curtain abruptly on the side of the bar to make it a passageway and passed through it. This made my wife even angrier, and the waitress who was passing by laughed at her. The waitress then responded politely to other guests in the restaurant who came later, such as explaining the wine menu. Finally we couldn't stand it and told her all the above and therefore we had to cancel. Then she said, please don't cancel. It's a delicious meal. It's okay to be on the window side, we don't discriminate anybody. I also began to feel as strong anger at the waitress who suddenly changed her response. When we left the hotel during checkout, we also mentioned the above to the staff and we were told there was no manager at the time. We just used room service after canceling the restaurant and, got offered a discount of 30% on the room service, which I told was a bit low for how disappointed we were, and settled on 50%. After that, two months passed without any further contact from the manager or any hotel staff. Are the managers of the hotel and restaurant are aware of this? And have you talked to the waitress that you had a complaint? We had chosen a suite room of this hotel, because it is highly rated on the internet. My wife still remembers it sometimes getting angry. It's really unbelievable for an airport hotel and an international hotel chain, where various customers come from all...

We enjoyed our meal at La Table Midi31 the evening before we caught an early morning flight. We stayed at the hotel connected to the restaurant, Hotel NH.

Not only was the food good, but we enjoyed the staff who waited on us and talked with us as they came and went. They were polite, friendly, witty, and got us a nice seat in the breezy shade of the balcony patio outside the main dining room of the restaurant.

One of us took the prix fixe menu for the day we dined there: tournedos of duck, an appetizer of canneloni of Asian vegetables, and a dessert of pistachio crème caramel with ice cream. I had a Caesar salad that came with strips of breaded and fried chicken breast on top of it. With the meal, we shared a half-bottle of local rosé wine.

The strips of chicken breast on my very ample salad (I shared half of it with my dining companion) were exceptionally tasty and well-fried. My friend enjoyed his duck very much. We shared his crème caramel and both thought it was first-rate.

If you happen to be in the vicinity of the Toulouse airport or staying nearby and are looking at a good place to eat, I recommend considering La Table Midi31. Be forewarned, though, that it's not open all hours from breakfast through dinner. Check the website for hours of service...

Toulouse has many vegan-friendly restaurants but sadly this isn't one of them. Apparently (and almost unbelievably) none of the staff had any concept of veganism. At one point they offered me beef. Of course I do eat vegan beef (and vegan ham, vegan sausages, vegan chicken) but they meant non-vegan beef.

The chef's best effort was a plate of lettuce with chips. The receptionist took it off our bill the next morning.

Without wishing to embarrass the chef, here are some suggestions for easy dishes for your next vegan customer: gazpacho, onion soup, ratatouille, bean/lentil cassoulet, mushroom bourguignon, stir fry veg and tofu with rice or noodles, pizza marinara, pasta in tomato sauce or in garlic oil with herbs, vegan cheeseburger. Foods that can be added to the lettuce include cucumber, avocado, olives, walnuts or almonds, grated carrot or courgette, any other vegetables, and it could be served with couscous, bulgar wheat or any other grain, a nice vinaigrette, and some bread.

Also if you make your vegetarian options vegan, both vegetarians and vegans can eat them.

Good luck! The...