Chez Pierre — Restaurant in Town of Wilton

Having lived in France, I know a thing or two about French food. Chez Pierre serves the worst French food I have ever tasted. Though, to be precise, it can barely even be called food and is certainly not French. We went to Chez Pierre as a family for my father's birthday and were quite excited about it based on all the rave reviews. Our meal started with a salad: wilted vegetables, some even moldy, drowning in an unpalatable dressing. It then continued with escargots and frog legs as appetizers. These are the staples of French cuisine that are relatively easy to cook and hard to ruin. But ruined they were with nauseatingly heavy butter sauce (likely a disguise for main ingredients that were not fresh!); to complete the picture, the sauce for escargots also had a bizarre and painful bitterness to it. Do they use strychnine as their secret component? OK, on to the main courses. Initially, we were going to stick with the Chateaubriand but the waiter insisted we also order something else to make sure there is enough food for four people. So, we added an order of sweetbreads ("riz de veau"), again a French country favorite. As it turned out, the Chateaubriand would have been plenty (in quantity, that is), so the sweetbreads were a total waste. But, anyway, it did not matter because neither of the dishes was palatable. The Chateaubriand, that crown of French meat dishes, was a piece of cardboard topped with a vomit-green sauce (the taste was just as bad as the sight) and served with more of the moldy tomatoes, this time baked. The sweetbreads were not any better and were, predictably, swimming in an unpalatable, disgustingly heavy sugary sauce (come on, they are actually supposed to be sweet!). OK, so the chef does not the first thing about cooking, so what? Why am I harping? For one, because the prices at this restaurant are comparable to prices at Upscale French venues in New York City! If this cook concocted one of these dishes at any of those restaurants, he would be fired on the spot. Normally, I am very reserved with expressing my discontent with restaurants because, after all, it's always hit or miss. But this time I could not force myself to be polite when the restaurant owner customarily came to our table at the end and asked if we enjoyed everything. When I admitted that the food was not what I had hoped, she coldly shrugged her shoulders and answered that she has been doing this for fifty years and knows what she is doing. Fifty years, huh? Maybe, time to retire from the business. In short, AVOID THIS RESTAURANT...

I would like to start by saying that I have eaten at Chez Pierre many times in the past and have enjoyed the atmosphere and food. I wish I could say my visit on August 14 was as good. Friends and I arrived at 5:30 and were shown to our table. The disappointment started when I ordered a wine from their list and was told they had none. They did serve a reisling which was passable but not up to the standard I expect at this restaurant. The salad was, well, a salad. The rest of the evening was pretty much downhill. The escargot I ordered came out in a small oval dish (not the usual escargot dish with wells for each). They were overdone and the usual butter and garlic sauce was just a watery melted butter with no taste. The steak was beyond wonderful and cooked just as ordered but the limp canned green beans looked like they were reheated several times and the four (4) small pieces of potato in watery melted butter were not worth the time it took to serve them. There were six in our party but the bread basket had five slices of bread and enough saltines to serve everyone in the place. One friend ordered a shrimp dinner which came out as a pile in the middle of the dish that looked burned. She said it was very disappointing. Other complaints from friends were the lobster bisque was salty and the beef tips were tough (comments from two companions) One said the best part of her meal was the ice cream. My dinner cost, with tip, was $132.00. Extremely over priced for the quality of food I received. Sadly as much as I loved going to this restaurant I will not go back nor will I recommend...

Came with my parents for Mother’s Day. Disgusted is an understatement. After waiting over an hour for our food, with empty drink glasses on our table (clearly forgot about us). I asked our server if the food would be out soon (as all tables around us all had finished their meals, having arrived later than us). Our server rudely said “it’s coming it’s coming, it’ll be out when it’s cooked”. I’ve worked in many restaurants and a quick “let me check” would’ve been more than sufficient. Almost immediately after, he brought our food out. From how hot the lemon on my plate was, it was evident the food had been sitting under a heat lamp for a very long time. My mother ordered the crab cakes - they were extremely dry and tasted as if they were made with tuna and oatmeal, rather than crab and breadcrumbs. And for the Clams Casino… uncooked clams, topped with boiled cheese and a slice of fatty bacon, which then dripped into the clam shell causing it to essentially boil the clam as well. I took 1 bite and almost vomited. I let our server know, and he argued that “this is the way we’ve made clams casino for 60 years and no one has complained”. I let him know there was 0 bread crumbs, and he stated “yeah we don’t do them like that”, even though that’s what clams casino IS, and even said on the menu. The presentation was gross, and the pan it came out on is clearly very very dirty…. The scalloped potatoes seemed like leftovers from breakfast. Directly after, the mananger/owner started circling around the tables, however didn’t address our table but rather stared at us. We will...