I have been hearing many good things about Bouquet Garnie for several years. So as we were meeting friends and I was asked to choose the restaurant myself, I took the opportunity to finally give it a go.

It is a small restaurant with pleasant decor which is intimate yet also quite informal, making for a nice ambiance.

We were very cordially greeted and immediately asked whether we would like any drinks. Our friends arrived very shortly after us and we all went for a glass of prosecco.

The manger, who later also informed us that he is part of the family of proprietors, explained the day’s specials and showed us the fish. They have worked out a very clever and straightforward formula for the fish by pricing them all at €19 per person, or at €25 if you would like them as a platter along with king prawns, mussels and clams. Both prices were very acceptable especially as the fish looked very fresh.

The menu itself however, although quite varied and well thought out, is very succinctly written and surprisingly includes no details or secondary ingredients on any of the dishes.

While their wine list is adequate, they were out of stock on the New Zealand sauvignon blanc which I requested, so we had an excellent and elegant Sancerre instead.

For starters two of us had fresh mussels and two the prawn bisque. The mussels were very good and thoroughly enjoyed. The bisque too, although very slightly on the sweet side, was quite delicious. It was served with equally delectable whole king prawns.

We were all tempted to take fish for our main course. So we had a selection consisting of lipp (forkbeard), spigola (sea bass) and awrat (silver bream), along with mussels, clams and king prawns.

I must say that all was most enjoyable and very well prepared. It was also interesting to sample together and to compare the different types of fish. The awrat which is very fishy and oily, the spigola which in many ways is similar, only a bit less oily and with flesh which has a more tender texture. The lipp is very different as its white flaky flesh is not so oily, is much less fishy and therefore much less tasty, presenting an exceedingly subtle flavour.

All the accompanying shellfish was of a high standard and very well prepared.

So all the food without exception was very good and without fault. Their homemade bread which was served piping hot, was to die for and the best homemade bread I have eaten in a long time.

The service up to this point was also no less than excellent. Besides for the manager we were also served by a female and a male server. The three of them were exceedingly polite helpful and very attentive. One simply couldn’t ask for better service. As I was seated in a corner, they could not pass to come behind my seat, so they were compelled to serve me and clear my place from across the table. I couldn’t help noticing that each and every time they passed their arms over the table, they repeatedly apologized to us for this inconvenience. Now how attentive is that!

But alas much to our exasperation and amazement, all notions of service simply ceased to exist some time during our main course. The male server came along to see if everything was fine, to which we most definitely replied in the affirmative and from that point onwards we were simply abandoned and left entirely to our own resources.

The girl must have been let off, as only the manager and the male server were left to easily finish off the three or four remaining tables. But when we had finished our main course all remained lying there in front of us for at least ten minutes, before I just couldn’t bear it any more and had to summon them over to come and clear our table.

Only then nobody ever came to see if we desired desserts. So again after much waiting and patience we finally had to call them over. We were informed that one of the desserts was not available and we opted for a lime sorbet and a pavlova. Both, but notably the latter, was extremely well prepared.

However again nobody bothered asking us for coffees and yet again for liqueurs after that!

There were times we had to call and call always ever louder to be noticed at all. When ordering coffees and drinks they played that annoying escaping game whereby after each individual item you order, they start to set off towards the bar, compelling us to ask them to hold on three consecutive times to get the order in for the four of us.

This outlandish situation continued to the very end, by which time there was only one other table left. Both of them were very busy serving the other guests and more so clearing and cleaning tables and setting up for the following day. So their priority and full attention was entirely shifted onto getting home as early as possible.

It must be said that besides the restaurant being very quiet, this charade started well before 11:00pm, so it wasn’t like we were keeping them up all night.

We painfully went on to order drinks and were told that a few were out of stock. And I would also like to mention the fact that we were offered a last round on the house.

But naturally we left rather bemused and certainly not from a food quality point of view, but from such lacking service, as well as to a lesser degree their poor stock management. It is very annoying for a client to be abandoned at some point in the meal and unfortunately this great fault is quite common in many restaurants. But never have we encountered such extremes in service during the same meal.