La Francese Ristorante “Bistrot mare” — Restaurant in Gaeta

STRONGLY RECOMMEND STAYING AWAY FROM THIS RESTAURANT!!! Since new ownership recently took over La Francese, the restaurant has become an absolute disgrace! On a recent visit with friends, we encountered the most rude obnoxious uncaring disgusting miserable server. The server shown in the image, who sat us, had the manners of a misbehaved untrained dog - truthfully this server should not be serving food to prisoners in a jail, and that is being kind. Even worse we learned later that the server is a former restaurant owner who inherited his family's restaurant business and ended up putting it out of business, which based on his lack of professionalism and his horrible personality is no wonder. Our experience started with him not greeting us but pointing us to our table without walking us to the table and ended up with him making multiple mistakes with the dishes we ordered but never taking responsibility for what were clearly his mistakes. In the middle of ordering our food, he blatantly walked away to speak with another table while one of our guests was speaking to him - we hadn't even finished placing our orders - no wonder there were mistakes. Even asking for extra lemon (in the country of lemons) for a drink was a major problem for him that he chose to ignore when asked for multiple times. Unimaginable is that I asked for a plate of Cacio e Pepe and he brought dry pasta with a shaker of parmesan cheese and a pepper grinder (which he slammed onto the table as if he were annoyed) - only an uncaring moron would serve that to a guest. Multiple times there were issues - and with each issue, we got more and more bad attitude from him, even at one point we were talking to him he turned his back and walked away with his back toward us pointing his finger at us. This person shown in the image made what should have been a fun night out with friends a terrible experience. Making matters worse when I went to speak to a manager I was met with another uncaring "goon" who did not say if he was or was not a manager but gave me more uncaring bad attitude.

Overall Frances has become an overrated overcrowded expensive disco-like experience rather than the fine dining experience the restaurant portrays to be.

We would never spend our money at this place again and nor should you, AutoGrill has better services and...

Finally a good place to eat. La Francese is nested in a vibrant spot in the heart of Gaeta Vecchia, right by the harbour, with very elegant but relaxed settings creating a very pleasant atmosphere. The service was very good giving a lot of attention to details and making you feel well looked after. Relatively limited menu choice of fresh fish and seafood but with enough attractive options and with a couple of specials of the day adding extra options. Very good wine list. Dishes are all of good quality, well prepared and very well presented. A special mention to spaghetti alla polpa di ricci, simply superb. The price was right for the service and quality offered. Overall a very enjoyable experience....

Yes, the food was delicious — credit where it’s due. But unless you enjoy playing roulette with your dinner, don’t bother. Starters dumped on the table with mains, one dish simply vanished into thin air (except, of course, on the bill). At one point we were served a completely different plate, which was good — but I didn’t come here to play ‘guess what the chef felt like making today.’ And when the bill finally came, surprise: we were overcharged. The kitchen clearly knows what it’s doing, but the service team couldn’t organize a glass of water...