Restaurant offering refined cuisine, good value for money, in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
It's an authentic bistro, created in 1892 in the heart of the village. This Grand Café Riche has stood the test of time to become an institution. In a typically Provencal setting, the welcome is excellent and your meal will be delicious! For starters, you can choose salmon mimosa eggs, followed by fillet of sea bass, beef entrecôte or veal chuck, and finally one of the original, not-too-sweet desserts such as baba au rhum or orange saffron cream. A true delight from start to finish. I absolutely love this Grand Café Riche.
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Members' reviews on GRAND CAFÉ RICHE
The ratings and reviews below reflect the subjective opinions of members and not the opinion of The Little Witty.
Plats bons. Portion un peu petite cependant.
Service et accueil chaleureux et impeccables. La décoration est agréable et les fauteuils confortables.
However, it’s also about the service, isn’t it?
We arrived there for lunch on All Saint’s Day with our two children (the big one is 4y and the smaller just 10m). On the occasion of our visit, it happened that they forgot to prepare our order because the printout of it slipped .
Sure, this can happen, and normally I am a very understanding person for such small mishaps. But it’s mainly about how you handle a situation once you realise it. And here, literally, there was nothing from their side.
It took a good hour , and couples eating next to us had their coffee already while we were still waiting.
The fun part was that initially, I was very impressed : at less than ten minutes after we ordered, they stated to serve the kids’ menu for our 4y old son. And it was nicely presented for a child menu - I loved it. But then, their service came to an halt as far as our table was concerned.
Once they realised it, no apology - other than an empty “desolée”. After I had to ask where do we stand with our order - it was not that they would have stopped at our table to explain the mishap. And other small things: once you realise you messed-up a table, wouldn’t you pay particular attention to it? E.g. no bread. Not at the beginning, not when the final plate was eventually served. So, I asked . « Bien sûr« she said . But nothing came. The waiters were always rushing through the place without paying real attention to their guests. So, I stood up and had to remind the lady of her « Bien sûr« .
And I must say: normally, when working as a waitress, you should notice that for one table, nothing’s moving forward, shouldn’t you?
What frustrated me most was their incompetence to utter a simple apology which did not sound hollow. Take half a minute to speak to your guests. In particular as we were there with two small children. And even as I walked up and down through the restaurant with our toddler in my arms to calm her down, staff didn’t take the chance to mention that the order would be late .
So, for our second child, it was already complicated enough to make them prepare a simple side dish. We didn’t ask for much, she’s 10m old. Steamed or mashed otatoes or plain rice. But that was seemingly a complex undertaking. Eventually, we could arrange for a portion of mashed sweet potatoes which they had as as side dish on the kids’ plate in any case. But also this came only at the same time as the parents’ dishes when the 4y old had long fished his plate.
Others examples of too less attention : I had to remind them to bring the wine menu, had to remind them of the high chair for children after she said they have one - and at the moment we arrived shortly after noon, it was still quite empty - it only filled up later.
I forewent my dessert (I had the menu de jour with dessert included) after we finished the main dishes. When paying the bill, the waitress just acted surprised why I would not have wanted it - but missed the last chance to say anything about the situation.
Overall, such an experience can really ruin your mood for the afternoon.