Café la Vie — Restaurant in Clayton

I do now want to be mean, especially during Easter. I do appreciate the staff's effort working during Easter, but this was the worst Easter brunch experience I've had. I took my husband to St. Louis for a romantic getaway, and I searched carefully for what I thought was an upscale Easter brunch. We wanted a more refined place, not focused on children, and with unique food. We normally dont spend that kind of money but we knew Café la Vie, and we were excited for good pastries and tarts, but mostly for the ambiance. However, when we arrived, we were directed outside the café (which was empty) to this overflow kind of room, a dull conference room, with oversized tables and a set up reminding a high school event. We were seated on a table for 4 people, 5 feet from each other. My husband was able to move us to a table for two, which helped. The table was decorated with flowers, that's fine, but that's not what we paid for. We paid to eat at Café la Vie. We also thought that the food would be an upgrade for $65 a person, with amazing chocolate desserts, but the food was a downgrade based on the regular food served there. The savory food was OK, and the omelet was good, but the only chocolate dessert was a dry brownie. I'm sorry to say, but the desserts were worse than Walmart pastries. Also, when we left, we were chased down the hotel lobby accused of not paying our bill when, in fact, I paid the full amount online. I dont blame the staff that asked us about it, but this certainly shows a lack of organization. In sum, we drove 3 hours from Springfield to have the most amazing brunch to find out we had been mislead into purchasing an experience at Café la Vie and offered something else. I wish I could have...

My guest and I arrived at 10:25 AM and waited at the entrance for more than 20 minutes. During that entire time, no one came to greet us, acknowledge us, or confirm our reservation. We were completely ignored, and it was only when I went to the back to ask about our seating that someone informed me, without any apology, that “there are no tables available.” This was extremely frustrating, especially given that I had a reservation and could clearly see several empty tables — including high-top seating. When we were finally seated, the service continued to disappoint. Our table had no sugar, no salt or pepper, and not even a glass of water was offered during the first 20 minutes. We had to flag someone down just to get basic table essentials. There was absolutely no sense of care or attention from the staff. To make matters worse, the food was unacceptable. The bread that came with my meal was so hard I couldn’t even cut into it, let alone eat it. My guest’s meal was served cold — including the egg, which is hard to understand. How can a freshly prepared egg arrive at the table cold? I had carefully planned my Saturday morning around this reservation, expecting a smooth and enjoyable breakfast. Instead, I was met with poor communication, lack of service, and food that was clearly not up to standard. The entire experience felt careless, and frankly, disrespectful to paying guests. I truly hope you take this feedback seriously. What happened during our visit reflects a complete breakdown in hospitality and quality. Guests who reserve ahead should never feel neglected or regret choosing your...

I went here with 4 friends and we tipped our waiter his name is RAY 40 in CASH and he decided TO do fraud and wrote and added a service tip to my bill and my friends bill without us knowing and when I tried to ask for my original receipt the waiter RAY and the manger of the cafe couldn’t provide our original receipts (they said they didn’t have them) which is very scandalous and doesn’t even make sense because what restaurant doesn’t have a receipt log? You literally have to enter that information into the computer !!!! However when we left they were able to email us the receipts but the writing on the receipt wasn’t my hand writing and in fact the waiter RAY tried to tell his bosses that we was lying so now instead of firing Mr RAY whose been working there for 3 years the director tells me instead of trying to figure out whose lying ima just give you theTIP money back he stole off your Card so now I have to go through a process to get my money back & we tipped RAY 40 in cash just for him to steal 40 more dollars from us out of our bank accounts. As for food wise I had salmon and salad the salmon was dry as hell! And blend as hell the cocktails and drinks are good tho ! Service just sucks . You can really tell they been stealing from people for...