Le Chien Fou — Restaurant in Tours

Where to start...

The reviews seem amazing but I could not recommend people more to stay away from this place.

Firstly we arrive to an empty restaurant, very excited with our choice as it seemed to be in a nice part of town and a very nice atmosphere. The waiter seats us and we compliment how nice the place seems and we chose to sit outside. Initially we were quite charmed by him.

As we start ordering it didn't seem to be done quick enough nor did he try to really help us make a choice, he seemed rather weird and short as well as just a weird attitude towards especially me. The restaurant is still completely empty so we didn't really understand this attitude.

We pick a wine which was once again uncomfortable rather than informative.

Food arrives and I have to admit the starters we had were not bad. The salad was old but within the limit I'd say but the food was tasty. The waiter remains weird, friendly but also indicating he doesn't really want to be of any service, short, weirdly friendly yet it was clear there was no actual intent to help/serve.

The mains were just terrible, the steak first time was completely dry and overcooked we sent it back without trying. The second time it was still flavourless, with a terrible sear. A supermarket for 10~ € could have done better.

The chicken was dry, overcooked and just not good. Sauces were okay. Grandma's mashed potatoes was a mix of instant potato powder and perhaps a few real potatoes.

All 3 of us work, or did work in service/ restaurant industry frankly it's unacceptable.

Extremely disappointing service. Ignored us basically all night, couldn't care less about the service he provided to us we saw he was friendlier with the French people around us stopping for a chat and offering them tap water instead of charging us 6 Euro's for a "still water" tap water was not an option.

Perhaps "Jean" if you treat some people like you treated us, don't tell...

I really don’t understand the 5 star reviews on here - it’s average at best, and I’m being kind. We came here for dinner whilst visiting Tours and didn’t have a reservation. Initially we got sat outside on the terrace by one waiter, but were asked to move inside by another. This was fair given we didn’t have a reservation, but the atmosphere inside was flat.

We arrived not long after opening and already they were out of the chicken, which was disappointing. We ordered two steaks and asked for them medium-rare, but they came out far too rare. They were a good size though. I gave it a try and the meat was just far too chewy and had very little taste. I have no issue with it being rare but it took easily 20 minutes or more for a waiter to come back so we could ask for the steak to be cooked to medium. I had to flag them down and it still took another 10 minutes. The steak was then cooked to medium, which I was happy with, but my partner had finished her meal by the time I got mine back. Also, the chef here really needs to season their meat before cooking. The steak had no flavour at all!

Once we were finished we weren’t even asked if we wanted desert as the waiters were so busy with guests outside, it felt like we were forgotten about. I even had to go up to ask for the bill. Overall, my issue with this place was the lack of waiting staff, which meant we had to wait far too long for our orders to be taken, our food to be recooked and then to get our bill. The staff were very friendly, there just wasn’t enough of them. Oh, and the food itself was ok, but really nothing special and not worth 5 star reviews. Nice enough place, but very...

This restaurant is located in a walk only area. I’ll be only reviewing the food. Service was great. I placed my orders. I notice how the hot orders was prepared by one cook. She was very efficient sending plates after plates within a couple of minutes from each other. I commented how fast she was. Then I realized once I had my main in front of me that it was not prepared hot…like cooking from a raw product until cooked for me. It was prepared ahead of time then was kept in a warming rack and plated when a customer orders it. So my fish dish came to me room temperature and my other diner had poultry which was room temperature also.

To me eating out is to enjoy a hot cook meal. Not something prepared hours ago then gets plated. Very disappointing when you travel half around the world to eat food that was cooked hours ago!! This would be a great restaurant except for that practice.

PS. Sorry, I was so upset that I forgot to...