Mademoiselle Paris - French restaurant and bakery — Restaurant in Florida

Stopped by today for lunch because I was really craving for a good crepe and French pastries. To make sure I have a table, I called for reservation, but I was told it's not needed because my party is less than 5. When I got there with my mom, we were told we could take any table we want. We picked a comfortable table in the middle of the restaurant. While we were enjoying our cups of hot cocoa, this waiter came in and looked at us, then rolled his eyes. A moment later, he approached our table and asked if he could remove one of the chairs. I told him it was fine. Later on, he came back and asked us to move to a table in the corner of the room that was squeezed in by a post and another couple. I didn't want them to do anything bad to our food so I complied. I feel bad for my elderly mom because she was already comfortable in her seat. They tried to bribe us with a croissant which I refused and later a $2 discount from our bill. I didn't want a discount. My intention to go there was to have an enjoyable Sunday lunch with my mother. I still gave them an 18% tip which they didn't deserve. I was looking forward to a nice afternoon in a French cafe and I would stayed longer and ordered other things. If these people who took our table were a party of 11, shouldn't they already have a reserved table for them? I get that those customers will pay more than us because they're a big party, but we were told when we came in that we could choose whatever table we want. I cannot erase the face of the waiter rolling his eyes as soon as he saw us sitting in the middle of the room. He might as well have told us to leave the restaurant because they don't need our business.

Responding to your response: If you didn't want to "disturb" a customer, would you ask him/her to move? I smiled? I don't recall smiling at you. I was trying to be civil in an unpleasant situation. I never said, "I have no problem moving" either. You had a lot of customers in your restaurant but you picked us to move out of our table because you want to please your customers, and according to your own words, "even you." "Even" us, meaning, "despite" being us, in a sea of white people? The very nice lady who greeted us when we arrived told us that we could pick our seats wherever we want. Once you seat your customers and had already served drinks, is it appropriate for you to ask your customers to move? I didn't want to be a difficult customer resulting in my food to be spit at in the kitchen that's why I moved. I was just trying to give my mom a nice lunch in a French cafe which didn't turn out well, thanks to...

Obviously, Florida doesn't scream French Bistro in the culinary world, so when I discovered this place, I was mildly excited at the possibility of some really excellent French Bistro Style grub today.

I am very open minded when it comes to small places in busy shopping centers in Sarasota and at 1030am on a Sunday. We were prepared for a wait and that we got, about 15 minutes before anyone even asked us how many in our party, party of 2. With about 4-6 more standing behind us.

Eventually we were seated and ordered in pretty quick fashion.

It was only then that I had one of the staff informing others behind us that it would be more than an hour wait, even with open tables in the building. None open outside.

Our beverages were served promptly and I had a nice Merlot, and she had a Peppermint hot Chocolate.

We waited about half an hour more for our food to arrive. Again, not expecting fast food, if I wanted fast we would go to a fast food place. I could tell this was a one order at a time operation. I appreciate that.

I ordered a Croque Monsieur with a truffle bechamel. She ordered a hot ham and swiss croissant.

The Croque Monsieur was simply just ok. The amount of ham was a little on the light side and the bechamel had the very faintest essence of truffle. Clearly this was someones interpretation of the Croque Monsieur because the bread wasn't even toasty. I expected a crunchy Croque with a creamy truffly bechamel. It wasn't bad, but just wasn't as good as we had from our favorite bistro back in Ohio.

The ham and cheese croissant was good. Again, no wow factor.

I had high expectations of coming back for the evening menu since I saw Foie Gras and Smoked Duck on the online menu...but I honestly don't see that happening now.

The pastry case looked good. Again no wow factor. This may be due to the latter part of the morning and I am sure there was an early rush on pastries when they opened.

So, I can't say this is a bad review. But it just doesn't measure up to the standards we have set for higher...

UPDATE from 1 star to 5 - For OWNER not staff.

Refrain from ordering online for takeout. This practice can be time-consuming, especially during periods of heavy traffic. Upon arrival, you may discover that your order is unavailable due to stockouts, without any prior notification or explanation. In such cases, they may either refuse to fulfill the order or charge you for it without offering any sympathy or apology.

Additionally, there have been recent reports of poor service at this establishment.

Apparently they can’t find the order until I enclosed a picture of my receipt.

In response to the unsatisfactory take out experience, I initiated an email to the establishment’s owner. Subsequently, I initiated a partial refund for the unserved food items. The owner promptly processed the refund and offered a gift card for our next visit.

However, I am hesitant to return to the establishment due to the lack of training among the staff regarding proper customer service. The incident of making a two-hour round trip with traffic for no food is unacceptable and reflects a disregard for customer satisfaction.

Below is the owners response.

Dear Sapu2007,

We really are truly sorry again for what happened and we totally understand that you were upset. We are currently reviewing our staff training procedures to ensure this type of issue does not occur again.

Thank you so much for your update on the review. I have enclosed a gift card of $20 that you can use in one of our 3 locations : UTC | Anna Maria or Downtown Sarasota. If you want to use it online, please let me know, I need to proceed manually.

Please don't hesitate to let me know when you want to come back and our manager will take good care of you.

Have a lovely day and...