Café Normandie — Restaurant in Annapolis

It looks like someone from the restaurant reads the reviews here (just not on help). This gives me hope! My beautiful wife and I showed up ten minutes late for an 8PM Saturday night reservation with the in-laws and were seated after about a 15 minute wait. At a busy restaurant (which it was) this is within the realm of the acceptable. We scored the cozy big table facing the central fireplace! Below there's a pretty big list of "The Bad" but I wanted to lead with the good first because overall our experience was great--we walked out looking forward to returning. The GOOD: Hostess noted my birthday multiple times--good attention to detail. The duck mousse and country pate was superb. Award-winning chef Jean-Louis was working the kitchen and I went back to ask him where he got his mousse from and he informed me with a chuckle that he makes everything here! If you've never eaten duck mousse, you must try it--it's the richest most delicious flavor...to die for. My bride and her mother both got a veal dish which they raved about--particularly the spot-on sauces. My father-in-law got the roasted chicken with perfectly crisp skin and juicy meat--all with a perfect rosemary au jus--delicious for dipping in your french fries. Timely check presentation and payment processing. I hate it when you get great service a whole meal and then it takes forever to get your check. Our waiter didn't have this problem--he nailed this portion as we prepared to leave. The BAD: The following was not acceptable for a restaurant at Cafe Normandie's price point and reputation: No guest should be an island. sat at least 5 minutes (probably closer to 10) without being greeted by our waiter or offered water by anyone. Attention to detail. We had to ask each time for a refill of our water. This is a pet peeve of mine. The first time, 3 of 4 glasses sat empty more than ten minutes. Refilling guests water without them asking is indicative of a not only attentiveness by the waitstaff but also shows teamwork by the bussers which in turn indicates leadership (or lack thereof) at the managerial level. I get the sense that there's not a front of house manager here--there's the formidable Jean-Louis running the show in the kitchen and a young harried woman sitting tables up front. Houdini of a waitstaff. I noticed that we weren't the only table searching at times for our waiter/waitress. I counted 4 total waitstaff in the whole place--they could probably have used one more OR train them to hustle a little more or even a moderate amount? The land of outlawed smiles or Paris of the West? Our waiter never smiled once and didn't seem particularly happy to be there. Of the three working, only one seemed happy to be working there. One busser smiled and the hostess did as well but that was it. Maybe they were seeking to emulate the Champs Elysee resto experience? To bicker or not to bicker, ca c'est la question. The hostess stand was located behind our table and the group of waitstaff there spent a good minutes arguing about how various workers should get tipped out. Evidently one busser? left early and didn't do any of his/her side jobs but said person was still going to get tipped out the same as everyone else. According to one of the staff, they'd been saying since the beginning, the bussers should be getting paid hourly to make it more fair...and on and on. Look, I worked as a waiter all through high school and college--these are valid points but not topics to discuss at a volume where your guests can hear you.

All in all, I'd say the back of the house (i.e., the kitchen) is running well but there's a leadership void at the front of the house which if not addressed could one day sink the formidable...

I hate to do this but I’ve emailed the owner twice over the past month to the address he provided me and he has chosen to ignore me. So, I’m posting my message to him personally. We were appalled after leaving this restaurant on Mother’s Day. —————————

Hi,

I’ve thought long and hard about sending a message to the owner and have finally decided I think that I should.

I have wanted to eat at your restaurant for so long now and finally my husband booked a reservation for four for my Mother’s Day presents I was so excited!

We had a reservation for 7:30. We were there on time and ready! However, the girl working the front desk said you guys were running behind bc she had each table assigned already. She got our number and asked us to wait outside till she contacted us.

Finally, at 8:20 and after we saw countless people leave and other families come in and immediately get seated, I went back in and asked if she was ready to seat us. She said no, there wasn’t a table ready for us yet. I asked how long and she said verbatim “I don’t know. Maybe you should find another place to eat since it’s getting so late.”

At that point, a waitress came up and asked her what the problem was and I told her that we’d had a reservation for 7:30 and that I was being told there wasn’t a table for us. The sweet waitress (I cannot remember her name) pointed at a table of four and said to the hostess “that one is available, seat them there.” That upset the hostess so she sat us down with no silverware or menus. I had to go back up and ask for menus and it was clear she was not happy with me!

I had previously had there just one appetizer there in Nov 2022 (and we were in and out - this Mother’s Day was first meal to eat there) which was artichoke and crab… it was divine. So I wanted to order it again for the table. The closest thing we could find was the artichoke stuffed with crab dip. What was delivered to our table was physically inedible. The artichoke was burned to a crisp and couldn’t be chewed and the amount of “crab” in the artichoke was so small. I almost cried bc it was so expensive and no one could eat it. It got taken away later having not been eaten except for the few bites we tried to chew.

Each of us ordered our meals. My daughter got the roast chicken and my spouse got a crepe. Both of them were satisfied with their meals.

I ordered the chicken du Normandie and my son ordered the Veal du Normandie. My chicken was so overcooked that (even though I never do this) I had to send back. The waitress informed me that there was no more chicken so what should she bring instead. I said the veal was fine. By this time it is about 9:15 and the restaurant was clearing out. She brought the veal out and it was even more tough: I couldn’t cut through it. At that point, I almost cried. My son’s veal was just as tough. We were both hungry at that point.

Needless to say, we paid our full bill bc it was pushing 10 and our kids had school the next day. I was so upset bc of how hyped your reputation is and bc of how excited I’d been to dine with you all.

We are and active duty military family so a meal that is $250 or higher for 4 is an investment. I was so disappointed and like I said, I was on the verge of tears.

I don’t want to leave a negative review so I thought maybe emailing you about our experience would be a better choice.

I do hope to hear back from you.

PS I still haven’t heard back… maybe this review will get...

Treated like a 2nd class citizen, simply put this was some of the rudest treatment I have ever experienced at a dining establishment. We we're seated at 5:40 PM at a table for 4 with the provision that there was a 7 PM reservation, sure no problem at all. Its early in the evening, not busy and we're all starving. We ordered promptly receptive to the fact that we had to be up by a certain time. I ordered from the early dining 3 course pre-fixe starting with the Endive salad which is where the positives end. Bread didn't come out for 25 minutes, salads shortly to follow. This tight time constraint was never communicated to our server, she was very professional and provided us good, polite service. Entrees arrived at 6:45 PM, I ordered the Duck with raspberry sauce and specifically requested the cooking temperature as medium rare. For what advertises itself as a respectful, fine dining establishment what they did to my duck is appalling. The meat was cooked all the way through, tough and generally flavorless. The skin wasn't crispy and it will go down as the single worst duck I've ever had, even ranking above at home screw ups which were really horrible. It's pretty easy folks, medium rare on the inside, crispy skin and you have yourself a fantastic dish. Of the other three entrees only 1 in our party had complimentary things to say about his dish. When the plates were served they were piping hot, a tell tale sign that they had been sitting on the expo window for to long. We rushed through the entrees and asked our waitress to box up the leftovers and dessert so we could vacate the table in time, which was the first time she had been notified the table had a 7:00 reservation. What occurred in the next 10 minutes was rude, condescending and completely unprofessional on the part of the hostess. We we're checked on no less than every minute for over 10 minutes as we're awaiting our boxed up dessert, bill and finishing our wine. I don't mind being rushed but being pointed at, talked about and talked down to when we did everything in our power to move things along is disrespectful. If you couldn't seat us then don't, just be honest or communicate to your servers that this is a time critical table so they can expedite service. When it's your mistake, OWN IT, don't point and attribute blame to our table...I ate my rock hard duck in 6 minutes, the only reason I didn't send it back is because I was trying to be respectful of the other parties reservation. The absolute last thing you should do is put the party waiting for their reservation hovering right over our table while you are pointing at us frustratingly as if this is somehow our fault. When my wife approached the hostess after we vacated the table she brushed her off, turned her back and removed the glasses from the table. No apologies from the hostess (to be clear our waitress apologized on numerous occasions for putting us in this awkward situation). Did I mention the arriving 7 PM reservation was late and we vacated the table as early as we could at exactly 7:08 PM!? I'm sorry but if I wanted to be treated like a second class citizen, talked rudely to and be served poor or subpar at best food l would rather go to Burger King and save myself the $250 bill. This was my personal first experience dining here and it will be my last as well as the 3 other recurring visitors you've also...