The French Goat — Restaurant in Lewisburg

The food was very good and the chef should receive highest compliments. If I was rating only on food, there'd have to be a higher star rating than five.

That said, the customer service was largely awful. The individual who seated us (who was later revealed to be the owner) told us when we asked for seating by the fountain "That's not going to happen" in a very nasty tone of voice. A little taken aback, I figured they were either short staffed or the space was booked and shrugged it off.

We were seated outdoors on the porch and brought water by the assistant. After a few minutes, we received menus and the waiter gave us the specials. We ordered drinks and food (through about three separate transactions).

All but one item that arrived was brought out by someone other than the waiter, who also never checked back in with us after taking the last food order despite walking past us multiple times to chat and tend to the table past us. Since we were largely tended by one of the helpers, we tipped him cash ($20) before we got our check since we felt he'd given the best service.

We waited about ten minutes before the waiter came by and said he would get the desert menu. Another ten or so minutes of him going in and out dealing with closing other tables before he brought the dessert menu. At this point we were pretty frustrated, but continue to wait. Finally, after agreeing we really weren't in the mood for desserts anymore I went in and asked for a split check.

Which we were told they can't do by food item. I looked over our bill and it was roughly an even split anyway, so we agreed to a 50-50 split.

We marked on the checks when we signed that we'd left a cash tip and left a few dollars for the regular server and headed out.

About ten minutes later we received a call from a man from the restaurant (1030pm at this point) He wanted to know if there was anything wrong with the order. I told him the food was amazing ("good, good") and that we'd received excellent service from the gentleman with the water, who we had tipped cash before leaving. He told me that it was that man's first day and I responded that he had done an excellent job and I was very impressed. He said that it was custom to tip 20% to the waiter. I said that since we had received the most service from the other man, we chose to tip him.

He was obviously irate at this point and asked if there was anything else wrong with the visit. I told him about the manager who greeted us and the bad tone and feeling it set.

He exploded. He informed that was HIM and that he is the OWNER. That we should NEVER COME BACK.

No worries...

Since two of my former coworkers raved about this place, I decided to come here with a group of friends after an event. Mind you, we went with food options that were more low budget, so I cannot vouch for any of the pricier meals. However, can definitely say that the service was, for the most part, lovely and accommodating to our various questions. (The other customers giving dirty looks? Not so much. I wasn't expecting this restaurant to be along the lines of fine dining, as it was a casual recommendation, so we didn't necessarily dress the part. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, please keep that in mind if you don't want other restaurant goers gawking at you the whole time.)

This restaurant, I believe, is for acquired tastes and requires a higher budget in order to appreciate its genuine potential. I really loved the cheese platter and the use of truffle oil in some of the dishes (warning about this, too, because truffle oil is also an acquired taste). However, the portion size for some of the items was small for the price paid. What hunger we had after a long day was sated mostly by their fresh bread (which was absolutely divine, by the way. The rosemary olive with the garlic butter? To die for! I would have loved an entire loaf of the stuff!)

Therefore, cannot complain about the food tastes at all, but I am a lover of unique flavors! I will say that if you're a picky eater, you might want to try somewhere else because you may not find something for you here, as a few of my friends discovered quickly.

Another thing that I will add was that there was an unusually long wait for our checks. The remainder of the service was prompt in nature, but once we informed our server that we were ready for the checks, we waited relatively 20 minutes to receive them. Who knows? Something may have happened in between, but I do know it was an unexpectedly long wait.

Would I go back again? Maybe, if I had a special occasion to celebrate. Probably not, if it was just for an after-event dinner. Should you go? If you're willing to pay the price for the wine and some unique cuisine, why not? Just make certain you...

My wife and I met my sister and her husband in Lewisburg for my 50th birthday, and we had many delicious meals in town, including our brunch this morning at The French Goat. We had reservations at 11:30, but my sister hates to be late, so we arrived 15 minutes early. We were seated, and served water right away, with no complaint.

We tend to “graze” a bit, and enjoy spending time together, so we were there for about 3 hours (which admittedly is less than perfect form on our part), but we were kindly served and never made to feel that we were overstaying our reservation. Service was prompt, professional, and very helpful. I’m sorry that I didn’t catch our waitress’ name, because she was excellent.

As for the food, everything we had, which among the four of us was nearly everything on the menu, was excellent. I had a half dozen oysters, a cup of wild mushroom bisque, had an escargot from my sister’s order, and tried one of my wife’s truffle frites. All excellent. I had the Eggs Benedict as my entree, and a fantastic blood orange sorbet for dessert. We even got a piece of Basque cheesecake to go to share this evening. Everything was fantastic.

As for price, it’s not “free”, but it shouldn’t be. All local and/or very high quality ingredients with excellent preparation and presentation. We don’t eat like this every day, but for a nice occasion, the price is commensurate with the quality.

Overall, I don’t have anything bad to say. It was an excellent place to celebrate a personal milestone event, and I’ll be sure to be back on a future trip...