Le Charlot — Restaurant in Town of Southampton

Cutting to the chase of why this was yet another bad experience here, the truly critical flaw of this occasion came at the end. They don't have a dedicated men’s room and I waited for 10 minutes behind a locked door, knowing that one of the staff would be coming out eventually. It’s a pet peeve of mine that these places in the village have staff that need to spend 10-15 minutes occupying the only bathroom, and need to choose the dinner hour as the timing for their daily dump while speaking to their family on the phone. Sure enough, a bandana-ed cook in black came out after 10 minutes holding his phone and having a conversation, clearly having taken a crap. The hand dryer hadn't gone off while he was in there, and I noticed the sink was bone dry. He’d spent 10 minutes in the bathroom, and seemingly didn’t wash his hands, and came out and immediately walked into the kitchen and started handling food. It’s really one of the grossest things I’ve seen in a long time! More broadly, the food is fine, but not great. I used to think this place was too pricey for the value, but given that everywhere else has gotten more expensive, this place finally seems reasonably priced. The real problem here is the lack of training of the wait staff. When this place opened they hired experienced waiters who not only knew how to do the job, but also served up some personality. This place seems to be scraping from the bottom of the barrel for staff, and I’m guessing that’s because of what they pay, or perhaps what they can attract given that it’s often half-empty and good waitstaff can make more at other places. They have really young people working here this year, and while they’re generally nice, they don’t know what the hell they’re doing. Our “waiter” Juan clearly got moved up from a busboy position yesterday. Summer in Southampton is a relaxed, celebratory vibe, and you want a waiter that can match that vibe with some personality, or that at least seems professional. We were seated 10 minutes before we flagged a busboy to get our waiter so that we could order drinks. The drinks took about another 10 minutes to arrive even though they weren’t busy, and when they did, the martini glass was half full, and I had to send it back….not sure if the bartender made it that way, or the waiter spilled half of it on the way. We had to flag him again to order food, and when I asked about bread, he said “you have to ask for it”, so I asked for it. There’s nothing more French that good bread and butter, and so I’m surprised that Le Charlot is being so stingy, and having bread and butter on the table would have made me much more understanding about the service, which could only be described as poor. We had the pâté, the tartare, the steak frites, and the chicken curry…again, everything was a bit bland, but fine. I had to flag the waiter for a second round of drinks, flag him to bring the drinks as they were sitting on the bar, and flag him for a check at the end of dinner. When I heard another waiter (who was appropriately trained/experienced) explaining the fish of the day to the table next to me, I asked our waiter why he had not mentioned the fish or other specials. He said, “we’re told not to offer specials on the weekend” which is about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard a waiter say, since “fish of the day” is a menu item. I saw this waiter scurrying around the restaurant and he was great at refilling water glasses (again, probably promoted from busboy yesterday), but he actively avoided making eye contact with the tables, which is why he had to be flagged down, and is clearly intimidated by the patrons and unable to engage in conversation. Good waiters are such a part of the experience and the vibe, and to have a bad one just makes me feel resentful about leaving a $40 tip, but I did anyway. He’s not a bad person and the fault is really in the manager who hasn’t hired or adequately trained the right...

This place didn’t even give me the chance to sit down🤦🏽‍♂️

As I’m walking on that side of the street, I see a full house outside this place, so I decided to walk in and have dinner in the bar. I asked if I could to the first staff member I encounter, and was told “Yes of course”. I walked in, no one at all inside besides the staff. I am about to pull a chair when an older man who apparently is the owner (what a joke) says “can I help you?” sure, just planning to have dinner here Owner- you can’t, we are short staff today and can not handle one more plate

It blew my mind, laughed at his face, turned around and walked through everyone else (about 70 ppl, outside having dinner) It felt very racial, but somehow I wasn’t shocked because sadly it’s not the first time it happens in South Hampton.

This happened at 7:30pm, I walked by on my way back from having dinner somewhere else at 8:40pm and the bar and the outside was packed. So there wasn’t a short staff issue just a small mind person living in a bubble.

Au propriétaire, merci de ne pas m’avoir laissé m’assoir au bar, après avoir lu les autres commentaires, il semble que vos plats sont aussi détestables que votre personnalité. Profitez de votre petit monde fermé. Oui, moi aussi je parle...

My wife and I had dinner here last night, WONDERFUL ! Greeted like family, the prix fixe dinner could not have been better, my 1st choice had been sold out, so I was UP GRATED to the tiger prawns………SUPER ! The atmosphere is sophisticated but friendly. My wife and I look forward to dining again with friends……..whom we shared with this . UPDATE 👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿 SECOND TIME WAS HORRIFIC THE FIRST TIME THE EINE WE ORDERED WAS OUT SO I ASKED FOR A WINE THE SAME PRICE The Maitred gave us a very good wine and charged the same price $42 dollars Second visit same thing out of that wine SO I ASKED FOR A WINE COMPARABLE AT SAME PRICE! THE SERVER SAID NOTHING IS ! I asked for the maitrd and a different man came over ! He said SORRY NOTHING …. THE CHEAPEST PRICE WAS $57 DOLLARS I told him this had happened before and that the maitreD gave us one THE SAME PRICE.VERY HAUGHTILY HE SAID WELL I SM TELLING U NO ! zI NOW ANGRY SAID I THINK THIS IS A BAIT AND SWITCH GAME U PLAY …. AND I WILL NEVER SET FOOT IN HERE AGAIN! We have never gone BACK AND NEVER WILL !

ANYONE ELSE HAVE...