Frédéric Bistro — Restaurant in Maidstone

We have heard so many lovely things about this restaurant and have tried many times before to get a table, but on a Friday or Saturday they were always fully booked, which I guess goes a long way to tell you how popular it is. We had a day off, it was a weekday so we thought we would try our luck & amazingly they had a table for lunch. We got there a little earlier to sit outside and have a drink. Now, it is not in the most desirable location in Maidstone. It is on a mostly pedestrianised strip that runs between 2 other roads, but you will get the occasional delivery vehicle or bin lorry that needs to come down, so the only view you get is other buildings. Also, the outdoor tables are on the outer edge of the pathway, so you can get people walking right past your table. Not so much of a bother if you are just having a drink, but we decided we would not want to dine outside. Inside however was lovely. One part of the restaurant had the walls covered in wine racks. The other had copper pots & branches covered on fairy lights & nice big windows (for those people watchers out there.) Their wine selection was good & their gin selection even better. Expertly paired with just the right Fever Tree tonic. The food was divine. Wine, cheese, bread, paté what is not to love. For 2 of us on the lunch menu for 3 courses each with 3 g&t's, 3 glasses of white wine & a desert wine each we paid around £120 which does sound like a lot of money, but considering what we had and the quality of the food we found it very reasonable. Most definitely worth a visit, but I would recommend...

A very disappointing lunch visit. Initial impression, we stood at the entrance for several minutes being ignored by all members of staff until a lady came over to seat us. I appreciate that it may have been her role to seat diners, however 2 other members of staff looked at us and ignored us while we stood there. Manners and acknowledgement go a long way when welcoming guests.

Ordered steak baguette and french ploughman’s. Simple meals that arrived in good time but both were sadly underwhelming. Steak baguette in chimichurri sauce had very poor quality, chewy meat and too much sauce.

Ploughman’s was a disaster. Baguette was stone cold, no butter served which had to be requested. Camembert also cold and rock hard. The chutney was 90% water, the salad garnish miniscule and 90% red onion. Pate’s were bland and also hard. I left the majority of the dish.

I have heard great things about this restaurant and had hoped to experience a tasty, relaxed lunch and had spoken about visiting for dinner on a night that entertainment is scheduled. Instead we left hungry and reluctant to return.

Plus points; simple and pleasant decor. Waitress that seated us was polite. Negatives; Lack of attention To detail. Warm the baguettes, serve butter as a standard, improve the quality of the ingredients, aknowledge customers upon entry even if it’s just to say ‘someone will be with...

I generally had a good experience here, table for six for my partners birthday party. Enjoyed the food and atmosphere was good, with a great selection of wines. I bought two champagne’s as it was a special occasion, we were recommended the house champagne which was great. Service was a bit slow and I had to get up and ask for someone to take our orders. I’m used to fine dining in London so this was a little slow for me. On the whole food was good and we had fun, the massive downer for us was the waiter at the end of the evening who felt the need to come over and patronise us for having a birthday balloon which had the words “Birthday B**” apparently some of the older staff may have been offended and we were encouraged to think long and hard before bringing such items to a restaurant in the future. This I found not only offensive but highly irregular, anyone who starts a conversation with “I don’t want to put a downer on your night” usually means to do just that, and guess what - you did. We won’t be returning to your establishment and there’s very little chance we will offend either yourself or your retiree clientele...