39 Rue de Jean — Restaurant in Charleston

Primary complaint is the place was dirty and being run by indifferent staff. Walked in happy to arrive with a reservation made weeks before and we were ignored for a while then greeted by an apathetic young lady who didn't care about the reservation, (never did check us in and we got a stern note from OpenTable about no showing while we were sitting there!) I had to ask/then urge her to seat us outside in the beautiful weather which was in the reservation. She escorted us out to a table at end of outdoor seating quite far from all the other diners...3 empty tables we passed were not cleared and therefore our first impression was of piles of dirty dishes, linens and food garbage with bugs buzzing around them. I joked with the hostess about those tables needing to be cleared now that we're sitting in that section and not only did she NOT take 3 mins to clear them but neither did our server, a manager who came to ask about a bottled water choice or ANYONE the entire meal. Gross, eating an expensive lunch in a place we had expected to be 'smart' and charming and it was like we were in the wrong restaurant. The cute bistro we saw and read about online was just a dump full of lazy staff and dirty dishes. Who trained this staff to put place settings including water glasses and silverware on the outdoor tables early in the day- outside -hours in advance? Obviously they're full of/covered in pollen, leaf bits, bugs and dust- Waiter poured water right into them. On a visit to the ladies, I walked past a bunch of staff sitting around a table chatting in an area not being used- Heaven forbid one of them or ALL of them pop outside and clear the piles of garbage away from paying customers. It would have taken less than 3 mins and the whole time I was there I felt like cleaning it up myself. Food was mediocre, edible but not delicious, not nicely presented. Nicoise salad was missing olives and doesn't come with the traditional tuna, not even as an upgrade option. French bread was especially disappointing - undercooked- still white and doughy, not a nice baguette with crunchy crust and airy, light inside. It resembled a take and bake loaf that needed to be finished in oven and wasn't; seems like the basic minimum they should be able to execute. Service was earnest but too youthful to be professional or very good, should be trained to pronounce the French words dishes and wines on the menu on the first day on the job, it's not funny- it's a total miss- like the glasses full of pollen and bugs- that's all...

I am by no means a french food critic. However this place really ruined my and my best friend's last night in Charleston. We were so excited to try something new. We got dressed up and walked into a restaraunt that we could barely hear or see eachother in 😂 Our waitress was nice. But it took SO long to get our appetizers. The duck croquettes were lukewarm like they had been sitting on a counter somewhere for a while. It comes with four. I ate one and my friend the other. We left the other 2 on the plate. They tasted GAMEY and paired with the temperature it was not good at all. The artisinal cheese board was okay. One of the cheeses was SO horrid i had to spit it out, but I know that's more of a personal taste so I dont think I can hold that against them. I would have loved to know the names of the cheeses to ensure I never ate that again in my life. Our entrees of steak and pork were again lukewarm. My friend said her steak had such a thick blackened crust that she felt like a cow chewing cud. My pork was prepared medium and tasted offish and meh. Every bite I ate was dipped in the sauce with bite of potato so I'm not sure if this masked the flavor or texture. But, because the only light we had was a damn tea candle I had to shine my phone light on it and saw that the center was not medium cooked pink but UNCOOKED slimy pink. Now I know that as long as pork reaches the proper internal temperatures it is safe to eat. However I did not physically see the meat thermometer and the fact that it was lukewarm had my confidence in the safety of the meat slim to none. Unfortunately, I had eaten 90% of it before I decided to shine a light on it. The potatoes and apple chutney that came with it were really good. My friend and I were so disappointed in the food that we decided we didn't even want to chance eating dessert there. Good thing no one even offered for us to see a dessert menu 😂 The fact that I paid 180$ to eat THAT food in the dark makes me feel like the dumbest person on planet earth. To top it off we were battling nausea the rest of the night. The best thing about that place is the delicious bread and butter they give you while you're waiting 8 years for your breath warmed food to get there. I feel like I was swindled....

Myself and 14 other individuals patronized this establishment and it was the worst experience ever. All of us did not arrive at the same time, our reservation was for 1230 but some of us showed up a little earlier. The hostess was nice. When we sat down the manager prepped the table and gave us water. Our waitress arrived and would take a drink order, leave for a long period of time, bring the drink back and repeat the same action. We were squeezed at two tables and requested to move. At this time we had been there over 2hrs. We moved to a larger table. The waitress finally took our order. The food was not appetizing. I ordered a burger and it was overcooked and dry. There were no refills given on the water until asked. Fast forward, a cake was brought to the restaurant, they had it in the back. They brought it out and told us we could not cut the cake, only they could. So we had to sing happy birthday then give the cake back to them so they could cut it and put it in cake slice trays (that was brought from home, the birthday girl is a baker) and hand it back to us. By this time we’ve been there 3.5hrs. It was time for the check. They already told us we would only have 1 check but they’ll take multiple payments. So we thought we’ll just let them know what we had and we can cash out. Then we were told they could only split the check evenly. First check she sat on the table was $432, so everyone would have to pay $30. Some ppl paid in cash and had to go. The manager then comes out with a handwritten note saying the balance is $487 after receiving $190 in cash. Where’s the itemized bill??? Then we get the bill and just told him to split the remaining balance on the ticket, which should have been $46 but somehow everyone got charged $52. By this time we were too tired to ask questions and argue. We’ve been there 4hrs and was about to be late to our next event. They do not accommodate well for large groups, at least not ours. The staff is scared to deal with the customers and constantly ran and got management. The food is subpar and overpriced. 4 hrs to feed 15 people in a practically empty restaurant is ridiculous. We did not feel welcomed at all and definitely will not return to this...