La Girandole — Restaurant in Versailles

By far the absolute worst experience I have ever had with a restaurant. The waiter mixed ketchup, mustard and God knows what else, into our beef tartare because he was offended that we (politely) asked if it came with crostini.... He asked we were from and though we were obviously tourists, it was not our first time having beef tartare. It may be our first time having it in France, but we weren't in anyway acting as though we presumed we knew better. He then proceeded to vigorously take all the condiments from the table and mixed it into our beef tartare, all the while everyone stopped eating and starred. He gave us a smirk and placed the dish in front of us and saying something along the lines of "this is how we eat this in France" As he stepped away, we noticed he caught the other waiter who was also serving people outside and started speaking to him in French and laughing. The other waiter didn't seem amused. My husband and I were left humiliated and flustered. It was downright shocking. A person from the table next to us leaned over and murmured, "yeah, I wouldn't eat that if I were you." From a far, we noticed the waiter took a glimpse at us and realized we haven't touched our dishes. He came back and asked us why we haven't touched our food, in which we took a beat before replying, "I guess we lost our appetite." We were still stunned. Without another word being exchanged he darted back to the restaurant and haven't come out for the reminder of our stay. We ended up staying for few minutes (or 5, 10, 15, I mean, who was counting... we were SOO flustered) trying to figure out what the hell we should do. We quietly muttered to ourselves until we've decided to just leave money on the table -- paid in full --...

This restaurant seems not to understand anything about severe food allergies!!!

I explained my severe food allergy to the waiter in French and also provided him with a French Chef card (for my allergy) he said there is no need to show the card to the chef as he will remember it! When he brought my food the ingredient that I was allergic to had cross contaminated my food in a completely obvious and typical way, I returned my food and told him to make a new one from scratch due to my allergy!!! He returned the food in less than a minitue by just taking out the allergen from my food and reserving it to me!!! I was shocked and when I confronted him, he become rude, defensive, raised his voice and told me, what he did is good enough and if I am this much allergic I shouldn’t be eating anything at all!!! After arguing with me infront of other patrons, I firmly stand my gound l and speake with the manager which finally resulted in me getting a new dish without the allergen from the scratch.

Avoid at all costs if you are severely allergic to anything, this resturant either does not understand the concept of food allergy and cross-contamination or it doesn’t care, risking allergic patrons health and maybe...

La Girandole at Versailles is a nice place, between trees and in nature. Their coffee is not good at all, but the toasted sandwich with chicken and cheddar is really tasty - totally recommend (price: 9 euros).

The simple sandvich (the one at 7.5 euro) - the baguette was so hard that we got lips scratches and could barely bite into it - but it was buttery and tasty.

The location and atmosphere is really nice, there is also a restroom nearby.

All in all, we appreciated that the restaurant is well thought out - with taking things on a tray from the cashier and cleaning after you. When we went, Sunday, at around 12:15, it was not very crowded and we could even pick the table to sit at. When we left (around 1) it was a different story: many people waiting in line (only 2 cashiers) and all tables occupied :)

Just don’t waste your money on coffee. The sandwiches can be ok, but I...