Le Mistral Wirksworth - French Restaurant — Restaurant in Derbyshire Dales

After a morning on the Ecclesbourne railway, a decided to go for lunch in Wirksworth. This place was open and looked inviting, so we went in and asked for a table. We were pleasantly guided to a table by a very knowledgeable member of staff, and seated in comfortable chairs in their underground seating area (my son absolutely LOVED this). Looking around it's lit with a mixture of fairy lights and atmospheric bulbs. The decor is very eclectic French, and suits the place perfectly! ...Food... As with all restaurant reviews, this is probably the most important bit. and with a very picky eater child, can be a surprisingly daunting time.

The menu was well written and everything on it looked like we would have enjoyed it. ...Starters... After managing whittle it down to three contenders for my starter, I had to seek advice from the staff as to which they'd recommend. I'm glad I did, as the Pâté was perfect, the baguette was crispy on the outside, and delightfully fluffy inside, it was also supplied with a beautiful side salad that was perfect in texture balanced in flavour and really good! My son, who is beyond a picky eater asked if he could just have baguette, and they pulled it right out of the bag! It could have just arrived as some offcuts of baguette with some butter, but the way they presented it was beautiful! Even my 9yo son was impressed! My wife ordered a baked camembert which had the same wonderful salad and baguette! ...Mains... This was easy! Or so I thought... choosing between many delightful dishes is hard, especially when you can smell the aroma of cooking food emanating from the kitchens above and want to know what the delightful smell was. Anyway, I opted for the burger, and as it turns out, everything from that kitchen is awesome, the burger was served in a lightly toasted brioche bun, had everything you could possibly require, tasted perfect and could still be picked up to eat without spilling the contents down your front. My son was happily still grazing on his baguette and butter, so no complaints from him. I honesty can't remember what my wife ordered as I was so distracted by my food! But I do remember her saying it was "amazing" multiple times. So that's good.

Sadly we didn't have space for dessert, so we paid our bill and went for a lovely explore around the hills that enclose Wirksworth before another journey on the steam train.

If you haven't been... GO, you won't be disappointed, anyone passionate about food will love this place! And anyone that appreciates a quirky, beautifully decorated, very old bistro/restaurant will also love it!

The food is very reasonably priced considering the quality, the portions generous and the staff are brilliant. Stop reading this and get yourself a...

Frankly disappointing. I've been to this restaurant 20+ times since it opened; it used to be great and reliable. Previous experiences have been of a convincing French bistro with tasty and simple food at a good price.

Came here for a family meal a few days before Christmas and was extremely disappointed. They are now charging £14/£15 for pretty much every dish, and at that price I expect much better. In all honesty I think I could have cooked some of the dishes we ate myself. My food was as if it had come from a canteen - lumpy mash and a bland stew. An obvious lack of care in the kitchen. I know I can get meals of a better quality for even £12 from other places in the area.

As always the waiting staff were lovely, but that doesn't make up for the lack of quality in the food. The atmosphere was a little quiet (on a Saturday night), which is perhaps telling. Really hope they can recover.

Sad to see them go this way. If they want to continue to attract custom then something desperately needs to change in the...

Booked for 7.30, by 8.00 nobody had been to take even a drinks order so I went upstairs to chase. Waitress/manageress(?) said 'he's down there now'. No apology/explanation. We ordered, we waited. 8.45pm I went upstairs again to enquire about our food. 'It's coming now' says waitress lady. As I went to go back to our table from the kitchen a voice shouted 'there are other people in the restaurant love!'. I turned back and said 'I beg your pardon'. Chef reiterates that they have others to serve, I point out we've been waiting an hour and 15 minutes. A bit of arguing ensues with me saying an apology or explanation would have gone a long way. 'I'm f**king apologising now aren't I' says chef!! Food was OK. We didn't order dessert. The bill was discounted, a nice gesture BUT if you're short staffed/over booked apologise IN ADVANCE, offer some bread while customers wait, a complimentary glass of wine or something. Then customers won't have such a bitter taste in...