Brasserie Bodu — Restaurant in Lucerne

This restaurant is an embarassment to french culinary excellence, but first the good part. In the summer, there are tables both on the balcony on the river side as well as outside in the square, some with glimpses of the river through the buildings. For those in the square, there was live music the night we were there. When we arrived, they were very nice to have kids coloring sheets and colored pencils which kept the kids occupied during the meal. The Salade Nicoise that we ordered was quite nice, and as described, with excellent quality tuna and good haricots verts and potatoes. However, the other two dishes were not all good - and downright did not match the description in the menu. First, I ordered a ravioli that was supposed to come with burrata and be flavored with lemon and mint - but what I received was a run of the mill ravioli drenched with tasteless cream sauce with absolutely no hint of lemon or mint. Second, my husband had ordered cordon bleu to share with one of our kids and it was terrible! It was soggy frozen mixed vegetables, french fries and a cordon bleu that looked like it could have come out as a hot pocket AND it was 46 CHF which makes it a complete ripoff. Service was quite slow in bringing menus and taking orders, but relatively quick in bringing the food (which should have been a bad sign). When we mentioned that we were not pleased with the food we just got an "oh" response but...

Beware if paying with a foreign credit card!

The dinner experience was pleasant until I handed my US credit card to pay for the bill. The server did not hand me the machine and pressed the buttons to make sure the bill is paid in Usd instead of the local Francs, which is a common interchange scam. You are paying with the worst exchange possible for the customer. It's around ~8% more than paying in Francs and letting your bank handle the interchange. A lot of tourists fall for this, BUT this is always their choice when the machine is presented to them. Have traveled a lot and have never seen the server choose the worst option for the customer (best option for the restaurant) happen in an upscale place like that. Server said they could not reverse the transaction, did not apologize. She called the manager who refused to apologize as well, and told me they don't hand the machine over because the usd exchnage rate is better through their machine.. Of course it is not. Don't have to lie about your shady tactics of getting extra revenue, just apologize! This was not a big amount, but stealing 5 francs is still stealing! And I wonder how many other tourists don't even realize this is happening.

The whole interaction with management left me angry and dissapointed, and taken advantage of - not the feelings you should have after going out for a dinner with your friends. Future tourist customers should be aware of...

One of the worst interpretations of moules à la marinière ever tasted: Arrived without the wine sauce Took 5mins for the sauce to arrive, moules already getting cold The sauce arrived and the waitress poured it in a separate bowl like a soup, for what reason? Who knows? She also kindly poured a little in my lap I poured some of the sauce in the same bowl as the moules and tasted. Nothing like a wine sauce for moules à la marinière. They had added an unknown extra herb beyond the traditional parsley. Far too much garlic and onions and the wine taste barely discernible The moules themselves were not fresh and minuscule, almost impossible to eat they were so small The frites arrived 10mins after the moules and they didn’t bring bread, only on request. No problem, the sauce was anyway inedible so no bread necessary for dipping Then after the entire table having finished for 15mins the waitress brought the water bowl to wash fingers. Of course both guests who ate the moules had visited the bathroom in the meantime to wash...