littlefrench — Restaurant in Bristol

We’re not Bristolians, but were down for the weekend, meeting up with old friends, and we’d booked Little French as we had heard so many great things about it…..but sadly , it did not live up to its reputation.

We met for a late Sunday lunch, and received a friendly welcome from the staff. The ambience was good and the menu looked inviting. The wine list was varied, with a good selection, but a bit pricey.

We ordered starters and mains. 3 of us ordered the skate for main, then the waiter said…let me just check, and returned saying….”we only have 2 skate available,” so back to the menu and one of us chose something else. Then the waiter returned again with “ we only have 1 skate” so again back to the menu, another change, and the order went in. Then 2 minutes later, our waiter returns AGAIN, to tell us…..” there’s no skate” 🤦‍♀️ Disappointing and a real lack of communication. Not the best start.

So our starters arrived. My twice baked soufflé tasted good but was flat, not light and pillowy as it should be☹️ it had clearly been sitting and waiting on the pass. My husband had the kidneys on toast which had to be sent back to the kitchen, as they were just luke warm. The scallops were underwhelming…. but the bone marrow on toast saved the day, it was exceptional! So a dis-jointed first course as by the time the kidneys were re cooked most of us had finished our starters.

When our mains arrived, the guinea fowl platter for 2 was great, and so was the aligot, but the cod was yet again lukewarm warm and was returned to the kitchen. It’s one thing I can’t stand is tepid food. There is NO excuse. The cod had obviously been sitting waiting for the guinea fowl to be ready. Again, we received sincere apologies from our waiter. It was a meal of two halves, as 2 diners ate, the other 2 waited and watched.

This is not a cheap restaurant and it prides itself on its quality, we had expected more, it was really disappointing. After more apologies from the staff about the wait, in hindsight, perhaps we might have been offered a complimentary dessert to make up for everything that had gone wrong? But no… The bill duly arrived and the price of the kidney starter was deducted, at least that was something.

I really wanted to give Little French a glowing review, but sadly on the day, it just didn’t live up...

Last time we take restaurant recommendations from the BBC.

We were really looking forward to this place and it did not live up to the hype.

We were seated by a bald waiter who had so much attitude and ruined the whole experience for us. When we were ready to order, we asked the girl who was hovering by the bar and instead of her taking the order she told the waiter. He rolled his eyes and pulled a face. My partner who was facing the other way, also picked up on the bad vibes. It then took another 15 mins for this waiter to actually take our order. He was chatting to all the other tables and kept walking past but actively avoided taking our order. The table next to us came in much later got their food before us.

The service was painfully slow and when the scallops arrived, they were tiny. Much smaller than the ones you’d find in the Tesco freezer section. The sauce had a pleasant taste and the nicer waiter offered us bread.

It was then a 40 minute wait before our mains. The sides that came with the Cote De Boeuf were ok but for a £72 dish I expected something spectacular. The meat was tasteless and nothing special.

After another lengthy wait, we finally got our desserts. The Creme brûlée was slightly burnt but the custard was nice and wasn’t too sweet.

Overall, it was a very average experience. London prices without the service or quality. There were so many wines that I would have like to try but no one came to ask if we were needed more drinks and I didn’t want to spend anymore given the wait times and poor service.

A very disappointing experience. It might be ‘unpretentious’ food but was definitely...

Food and service was lovely on the day however we won’t go again! So following the email I sent to the team (as attached) on Sunday, I heard back nothing. By next Wednesday I decided to ring the restaurant and just asked how long it would normally take to get a reply. The lady answered my phone said they were only small team so it could be slow. She asked me what my email was about and I mentioned it was about food poisoning. She said something like” oh I saw that and I let the head chef know. We haven’t heard back from any customers who had similar experience.” I was disappointed that the email was read but they did not bother to spare 20 seconds to even just write me an email showing any care, sympathy or just even to acknowledge that they were aware of this and would get back to me. The lady didn’t sound very helpful either although she said “of course we take it very seriously.” I was on loud speaker and my husband also felt they sounded cold, very opposite to the service offered on the day we were there. And it’s Friday now, surprise surprise no reply still. Even my friend who heard of our experience remembered to ask,” did you get a reply from the restaurant yet?” The answer is no. So our answer to this restaurant is also no. My friend who actually recommended this restaurant to us said they wouldn’t go...