Le Bon Temps — Restaurant in Tours

Hello everyone, I would like to tell you all about the deeply unpleasant experience that my parents and I had at this restaurant on the 15th of November 2024. The reason I am writing this more than a month later is because of how terrible it is for me to remember.

We arrived at the restaurant at 5pm, we were aware that this was early but we saw via a google search that the restaurant was open so we decided to go as we were hungry. A young waitress of African descent told us to come back at 7pm so we said no problem and went back to our hotel until then.

However, when we came back at 7pm we said hello to the same waitress and she greeted us and did not say anything was wrong so we waited around the tables waiting to be seated while looking around at the tables but we remained standing the entire time. The restaurant is not big, so from where we were standing around to the counter where she was behind, was not far at all. This is where the unpleasantness began.

Another young male caucasian waiter in his twenties came out from behind the counter and very nastily said to us in a dismissive tone that they are fully booked and then said that we “were incredibly rude and had absolutely no manners and that in France we have to go up to the counter first to be seated and not just sit down on our own”, he implied we were uncivilised and then told us to get out, accompanied with hand gestures like he was throwing us out. He said all of this in English. At this point we obviously had lost interest in eating at this restaurant but I felt a need to explain that he was being unnecessarily rude to us. We’re from New Zealand so we tried to explain to him in English because we have limited French, that we will leave after we explain why he is unreasonable and rude, that the waitress standing next to him already saw us at 5pm and did not tell us we needed a reservation for when we came back at 7pm. During this he interrupted me multiple times when I was in the middle of my sentence, telling me to get out and leave. I then tried to explain to him that we did not seat ourselves like he suggested we did and instead was waiting for them to seat us since we were just standing around tables near the entrance of the restaurant like people usually do. He told us to get the hell out again and did the same throwing us out gesture and was extremely malicious and rude to us in both his words and tone. I, as someone who has been to dozens of countries around the world, across 4 continents, have never in all my years of life been treated with such disrespect, abusiveness and rudeness especially by somebody in the service industry who is meant to represent the establishment of the restaurant. While this was happening the waitress who told us to come back at 7pm and who saw us stand and not seat ourselves did not say a single word to tell the truth of what happened and just let her colleague treat us horribly. At this point there were multiple other workers around and none of them said anything. While this was happening other customers came in and all they could see was this happening, I wanted to explain to them what happened and that we were not annoying tourists but because of my limited french I could not explain what I wanted which was extremely frustrating.

After, we left and were in disbelief that we travelled all the way from New Zealand, taking nearly 25 hours of flights in total, just to be met with this barrage of hostility.

I used google translate to explain to a middle-aged couple outside also waiting to eat, what had happened and they were very sympathetic and nice and even began to speak to a different staff member for us, but we just thanked them and obviously still left.

I hope the restaurant can do something about this as this is utterly unacceptable and shameful behaviour from the waiter and a complete embarrassment to the restaurant. Clearly from the other reviews from google, this disgraceful service seems to be a frequent occurrence that has not been resolved.

From some deeply...

Do not recommend.

Make a reservation. We went without a reservation and the experience was quite off putting. In our defence, it was during offseason, on a Wednesday but the staff only gave us a table if we promised to finish before 8:30pm (around 1.5 hr). The place did fill up quickly so I guess reservation was necessary.

Confusing market placement. It is difficult to rate this restaurant. The setting looks like a fancy restaurant. However, the price, the food and the service were more like fast food. I wonder if it changed management. It was ridiculous the sheer number of tables it serves. There was were upstairs, downstairs inside, tables outside the restaurant even spread across to the other side of the pavement. Staffs might not be rude but couldn’t keep up with the number of tables. That said, the 2 of us only received 1 set of silverware, water was forgotten and it took time before we could place order or get our bill to leave. Seriously, our experience was so bad we wanted to get out of there as soon as we were done eating. Didn’t even bother with dessert which is my favourite.

It was surprising how many chipped plates we had in the course of 1 meal. Fortunately no chipped stemware.

We ordered baked cheese with honey, escargots, veal head and something else (I thought I pointed at a duck plate but I guessed the waitress misunderstood. Anyway, some kind of sausage showed up that tasted more like intestine. We don’t have problem with odd parts of animal. It’s all part of experiencing a different culture. Unfortunately both main dishes tasted bland and the salad that came with the veal head was too sour with so much vinegar it was inedible. Baked cheese was uninspiring, just random supermarket Camembert baked with negligible honey. The main dishes tasted like they were boiled in some lightly flavoured water. May be I need better taste buds.

Here’s why it’s difficult to rate. If it’s a fancy restaurant it failed miserably. It would be a zero, I cook better. If it’s a fast food or cozy farmhouse dining then it fits the expectations. Either way, nothing prepared us for all the chipped plates. I wondered whether our experience would have been different if we made a reservation. Certainly not going...

Madame, monsieur bonsoir,

J'ai, et nous, avons expérimenté Le Bouillon Le Bon Temps. Que dire de négatif ! Peu de choses en réalité, mais suffisamment importantes pour décevoir une clientèle indulgente et aimable. En effet, le cours du repas nous a délivré une expérience haute en couleurs. Mais de belles et souriantes couleurs (au départ du moins) ! Je m'explique, malgré les quelques oublis de dressage et certaines approximations hasardeuses (parfois presque fausses) sur les produits proposés et sur les nombreux manquant non annoncés (riz au lait, coquillettes jambon, chocolat pour les profiteroles et caramel, j'y reviens ensuite), le repas s'est déroulé avec le sourire et la bonne ambiance grâce à une serveuse disponible et gentille. Vint ensuite le moment tant attendu de la fin du repas et du dessert. Décevant. La qualité de la nourriture avait été jusque là au rendez-vous pour les entrées et les plats maisons, bien que la sauce gribiche de la tête de veau était un poil trop moutardée ce jour-ci mais je pinaille peut-être un peu. Faisons un bref listing : "Clémentine miel et grand Marnier", nos palais étaient à la recherche de ce miel et ce grand Marnier, "Brioche façon pain perdu", ici, visiblement, c'est la façon qui s'est perdue, la brioche est arrivée nue et sèche suivie d'une précision orale "désolé nous n'avons plus de caramel". Heureusement, 5min plus tard, elle est repartie en cuisine pour y être au moins endimanchée d'une jolie glace vanille qui se faisait presque attendre (le dessert n'aurait pas dû être servi s'il manquait un ingrédient principal si je puis me permettre). MESDAMES, MEDEMOISELLES, MESSIEURS, restez avec moi un faible temps encore, je vous prie, je suis sur la fin des desserts. Le dernier "Pain perdu" avait beau être incomplet, il était arrivé à l'heure. CE N'EST PAS LE CAS DE SA COPINE LA "Tatin". Tout d'abord elle ressemblait davantage à une tarte au pomme dont la frugalité n'avait d'égale que le délai d'attente (10min) entre l'avant dernière personne servie et la dernière. Parce-que oui, parlons de cette dernière "Tatin", notre serveuse aimable comme tout est partie nous la préparer après avoir compris que la cuisine avait plié ses affaires...Avant la fin du service...D'où le délai... Mais jusque là, croyez moi messieurs dames, nous passions une bonne soirée, malgré ces quelques attractions bénignes non quémandées. C'est au moment de payer que tout a basculé. Après une augmentation significative et maladroite du volume sonore de la musique, nous comprimes, et le responsable nous le confirma peu de temps après, qu'il était l'heure de vider les lieux. Devant la caisse, petit soucis, la table précédant la nôtre n'avait pas été informatiquement fermée, nous avions donc dû devoir répéter plusieurs fois nos consommations de la soirée (on était 12) devant l'agacement incontrôlé et désagréable du responsable. Ici, messieurs dames, je dois reconnaître que l'impatience générale commence à croître. Devant une addition à 300€, j'attendais un petit geste professionnel et commercial, peut-être d'une bouteille ou deux de vins (30€ pour les deux), histoire d'excuser les quelques soucis de cette soirée et nous donner envie de revenir. Cependant le responsable nous à sorti l'addition tel quelle sans excuse. J'ai donc dû expliquer les soucis rencontrés du repas (expliqués ci-dessus, vous l'aurez compris), dont le nouveau problème de notre table mal tapée, auxquels le responsable m'a proposé d'offrir la brioche façon pain perdue (4€), soit un geste représentant environ 1% de l'addition, quelle générosité...Le responsable à préférer m'expliquer qu'il avait donné les consignes des manquants aux serveurs/serveuses et donc, implicitement, qu'il avait fait son travail. Donc je suis censé faire quoi moi quand le responsable n'est pas responsable ? Ah si je sais, je n'ai qu'à partager...