Cachette Bistro & Creperie — Restaurant in Bethlehem

My family and I went here for lunch today and it was not a good experience at all. With all of the choices of places to eat in Bethlehem PA, I would NOT recommend this restaurant. As I walked back to the parking garage after the rest of the day shopping, we passed by many many eateries and I regret not going to another place to eat and I regret not reading the reviews on this restaurant before eating there. Although the wait wasn’t that long and it was not that busy, the service was terrible. It took an exorbitant amount of time to get glasses of lukewarm water. Our server had no personality and barely spoke. We waited a very long time to order and also waited a very long time to get our food. My food (a salad from the tapas menu) came first and my husband’s and daughter’s crepes came to our table 10 minutes later. I waited for a few minutes and then started eating because the chicken on my salad would have gotten cold. My other daughter’s crepe came out a few minutes after that. After waiting that long, we all started eating and unfortunately we were extremely underwhelmed. My daughter ordered the BLT crepe and it had no bacon on it. None. The server (or anyone for that matter) never came over to see how our food was or if we needed anything . I had to flag down our server (and I noticed in other reviews this has happened as well to get any attention) and I told her that my daughter’s crepe is just (very dry) crepe, lettuce and tomato. She said okay and pretty much just walked away. 10 minutes later a 7 or 8 year old boy brought a side plate with partially cooked microwaved bacon slices, dropped it off and walked away. Our server never came back to our table for the rest of the time we were eating. I flagged our server over and I expressed to her how dissatisfied we were with our service and our daughter’s meal and asked to speak to the manager on the floor. A few minutes later I spoke to the manager ? and told her that I would like her to comp my daughter’s meal. She didn’t bat an eye. But I went on to say that the service was terrible and our server never came back to our table. She said she was shy. At that moment, a diner sitting at the table next to us told the server to take back her soup, that it was inedible. Our server only came back to drop off the check and to say she was sorry about the crepe. In a nutshell, with all the choices of restaurants in this lovely tourist town, I would find elsewhere to eat and enjoy a nice meal with your family and friends. The curbside vibe that this restaurant lures you in with does not match the food or drink served. I strongly recommend doing your research and finding a better place to dine and...

If you have never had or seen a French crepe before and you love going to restaurants which like to capitalize on local European-envy while serving food that is worse than diner food -- or if you only measure your restaurant experience in terms of how much fat, sugar, or "dollars per pound" you got -- then you might really like eating here. Otherwise, if taste, the quality of ingredients, thoughtful preparation, and authenticity to other countries' cultural traditions is at all important to you, I wager you will leave here poorer in both your life experiences and your personal finances. We ordered a crepe with beef bourguignon (I forget it's marketing name), and another "California" crepe with vegetables. These could each best be described as a thick pancake roti that has been stuffed to the gills with an overabundance of dry flavorless low-grade ingredients and folded into a vaguely triangular pyramid and then smothered in a quart of fatty flavorless clumpy cornstarch-laden "sauce". Needless to say, either the chef has never set foot in France, or they haven't tasted what is coming out of their kitchen in a very long time. Perhaps they're counting on all their customers not knowing any better and only needing to see an apparently French name to be wowed, or maybe they think all their customers are believers in "more is always better" (even if it's more garbage). We weren't stupid enough to try the desert crepes after our abysmal encounter with the unappealing "savory" glop given to us, but we saw what we were missing at the next table over: Horrific mounds of unappetizing nasty brown coarsely cut fruit shrouded in thick pancake blankets, like disfigured burritos drowning in syrupy sugary sauce. They called this restaurant "Cachette" (pronounced cash-shett) which means hideaway, but the only thing that's hidden/absent in this place is any trace of culinary skill. Perhaps the predatory proprietors will reduce their appetite for your cash long enough to restore some small amount of dignity to this establishment at a future date -- but until then, I recommend dropping the first 2 letters from this...

BUG ALERT! And bad customer service to boot! I had been to this place several times and liked the food, but on my last visit as we were sitting and eating suddenly a huge roach (or other big black bug) dropped off the ceiling and splash landed in one of our water glasses. Surprising and disgusting, right? I got the glass with the bug in it off our table and onto one in the server's area, then notified the first employee I could find - the host. He proceeded to notify every employee in the place (even the person who I guessed was the manager) and they all came to look at it. One of the female employees told me she didn't know how I didn't run screaming out of the place with a bug that size. And get this: the manager didn't come over to apologize AT ALL! The only employee who said anything was our server who told us they would "comp our dessert." WHAT?! A huge black bug dropped from the ceiling into our water glass and the best thing they could offer was free dessert?! In a place that cares about customer service, a manager would have come over apologizing profusely and offered to comp our entire meal for that experience! And it gets worse - we had two desserts, but they only comped ONE. How cheap can you get?! I will never again set foot in this place (or its sister restaurant, Tapas) There are other better crepe places in Bethlehem - go...