C'est La Vie - Pastries Breakfast & Dinner — Restaurant in Sarasota

Waste of a perfect location! Hopefully a cafe with service worthy of prime Sarasota real estate replaces this place soon!! My family and I used to love this place on Saturday mornings after the market going to enjoy a typical European brunch however the service has gone downhill so drastically it is not worth the aggravation for good not even great food. We have excused bad service each time knowing the servers are only human but after waiting a good month between visits this last time was the LAST time we will be spending time or money at this establishment. Having previously lived and dined in France I can honestly say this place is a disgrace to European dining experience and I hope Sarasota is not judged on the rude, disorganized and unprofessional manners of the staff. After being left with just our drink orders for 26 minutes, being brushed off with a laissez-faire look when requesting a spoon to stir the latte, being forced to flag down a sweet young waitress (who was not our server), and finally placing our meal order- our original server returned not to apologize but to verbalize in a sarcastic, rude manner that he “had to take a 30 minute lunch”.... even if I excused this instance because yes, everyone should have a break that does not begin to excuse the past 6 negative experiences with this same server. Dropping off menus is not a servers job, providing service to the patrons is your job. Just as you expect a tip, I expect not even exceptional but atleast appropriate service. To those looking to enjoy French cuisine, you’re in luck- the new C’est La Vie opened on University. It’s not on Main Street but worth the drive for far...

This is our third time here in the past 5 months and we’ll never be back due to poor customer service. They’ve either changed the filling for eclairs or filled it with cream that went bad. We’ve ordered eclairs before and they were delicious. Looking forward to them, we’ve ordered 4 and all four (both chocolate and vanilla) were sour. Instead of the light Bavarian cream, they filled it with what appeared to be a sour cream based filling because the texture was different and it tasted sour. Even my kids refused to eat them and they have a sweet tooth. The puff pastries we also ordered had the Bavarian cream. When we brought this to the manager’s attention, he claimed that the cream was the same in both and never changed and that he eats these pastries every day, basically implying that we are liars. I offered him to taste the one we didn’t touch. He refused. I had to open up the eclairs and the puff pastry to demonstrate the visual difference in cream. The cream in the eclairs was clumpy and thick. The puff pastry had a smooth slightly runny cream. Only after that did the manager agree that it was different and took the eclairs away. He could have handled this situation better, perhaps by asking the chef to check on the cream before adamantly insisting that there was nothing wrong with the cream. Two other pastries we ordered also tasted like an egg omelette, but we didn’t say anything because of the way the situation with eclairs...

We have collectively ate at both locations trying various items and I have to say. I am highly disappointed... in everything. I almost was ran over by an angry waiter, there always seem to be fighting and arguing happening with the family/staff. And the rudeness in general.. unprofessional. Now the food. Who keeps these restaurants in business? Have you ever had food from France? Have you ever had delicious food in general?? Lack of quality, lack of taste, lack of menu items/ingredients, lack of love for true French food. This is no different that McDonald's. Cheap, gross American product from French folk. Highly embarrassing. If they took their aggression with each other and utilized it in their love of creating truly authentic, delicious French cuisine- They may have better outcomes. Again, I'm not sure who is so happy and jacked up on this place. I assume it's folks that lack palate, sorry. We have tried many, many times. Our last meal was just a huge miss.. we couldn't even finish it 😔 I don't enjoy leaving bad reviews. But I have higher expectations for folks who come from their home country and don't deliver. Have yourself an authentic Italian meal from the Italians down the road at La Mucca Ballerina. They show you how it's done and...