Maison Stivalet — Restaurant in McAllen

This was our second time visiting. We originally stopped in for the macrons, of which they have a wide variety--some standard flavors and some locally-inspired. They are perfect and delicious.

The restaurant has a stylish and yet cozy feel. The staff is friendly and welcoming.

This time, we decided to stop in for lunch. Our server was lively and attentive. They serve infused water, which was a nice touch.

After ordering our food, we found ourselves waiting quite awhile for the Baked Brit appetizer. After almost 20 mins, the server came to apologize and advise us that another server had mistakenly served it to a table that ordered after us, and assured us she would have it out. Shortly after, the other server came also apologized for her gaffe.

The appetizer arrived not long after and did not disappoint. I definitely recommend. I might have liked a tad more. Nonetheless, it was tasty.

For entrees, I had the pistachio encrusted trout and my son had the chicken, which he loved. The trout was cooked just right and I devoured it along with the bed of vegetables.

My other mild disappointment is that, even though the servers were attentive up until the entree was served, we were all but forgotten for a good while after. My water sat empty for quite some time. It seemed that, since the restaurant is fairly new, some servers are in training.

Once the server arrived, she invited us to select some pastries. I had the chocolate caramel bar and it was devoured.

As it does go with French cuisine, it is a tad pricey. I may be back...

The food was amazing and so we’re the drinks… But the service can use a lot of help! I was there earlier celebrating my girlfriends birthday over brunch and I started us off with a cheeseboard as an appetizer, which took about 30minutes to arrive at the table. I totally understand that restaurants everywhere are understaffed but the fact that I was up charged about $4 more just to cut the cheese into hearts without them even asking me, then having to find out in my check is very upsetting. Our server also didn’t tell us the gratuity was included witch I calculated was about 18% each ticket.

Another thing was when I booked the reservation, I was told that they would charge a cake fee if we brought any outside cakes which I was fine with. But our server when she split the checks she added the fee to everyones check, even though I asked her to only put it on mine. No one ate the cake it was just for pictures, so I don’t see how it’s fair to charge every ticket a cake fee.

All in all I’m very disappointed in the service, if you’re going to be paying a lot of money for food you’d expect the service to be on par.

Would I recommend this place to friends and family? If you go in a small party about 2-4 people, of course! They should be able to handle that. But if you want to do a special celebration and go with a large party over 6, I really hope you don’t mind waiting about 1- 1 1/2 hours for your food to arrive. Also, just watch out for the gratuity and make sure your checks are accurate because they like to up-charge for...

Hands down, marvelous place to eat in McAllen. The place gets pretty crowded so a reservation in advance is highly recommended. We came here for brunch, since we heard that they have Macaroons with special flavors like Mole or tamarind, which unfortunately are seasonal, but anyway we decided to try out a couple of dishes and some Macaroons. To drink we got a Mimosa and a Cold brew (made of Coffee from Chiapas, Mexico), both were extremely good. To eat we got the Barbacoa plate which was mixed with potatoes and a green salsa to die for and a couple of eggs on top (we asked them to be overeasy), it was extremely good . Moreover we got the Burger brunch which had a Wagyu patty and an overeasy egg as well, it came with a side of choice so we decided to get the normal french fries and OMG, best fries I've ever had (seriously), they were just cooked at the perfect point, not too salty, lightly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Every single item was perfectly cooked and really well balanced in terms of flavors, without mentioning that the presentation was also very nice. As dessert we decided to get the macaroons, they had some interesting flavors, such as Lavander, Chiapas Coffee, Dark chocolate, Flaming Chocolate (which was some sort of smokey slightly spiced chocolate), goat cheese, red velvet and pistachio, all of them were pretty good although our favorite ones were goat cheese, dark chocolate and Lavander. Definitely we'll come back next time we...