Les Terrasses de Clairefontaine

Excellent lunch in a beautiful and quiet setting. Service and food were outstanding with attention to detail! Of course all made in house with beautiful and local ingredients.

BY FAR THE WORST RESTAURANT EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE. To be clear, my parents owned 2 Michelin star restaurants in the UK, I know very well the importance of the customers experience. I booked 3 weeks in advance for our table of 7, on the day if the booking I arrived early 12:00) to explain that half the table will leave at 14:00 to catch their ferry/boat back to England. No problem. We arrrived at 12:20 and sat down, we were given menus and an explanation of the food. We quickly ordered to avoid wasting time. Starters/main courses arrived after 1.5hrs leaving us short of time for anything else. I explained this again as before, to the restaurant supervisor 1, asking for the bill. The bill arrived at €442,50 for 6 starters and main courses. With a 1 child’s menu and 3 glasses of wine. To say I was surprised would be an understatement, I was horrified and embarrassed for my friend who had offered the lunch as a treat for staying with us. What happened next was unbelievable, I asked the restaurant manger if there was a mistake. No! Was my response, he explained their set menu was their set price. I reminded him that I explained our time constraints when we arrived. He said he didn’t understand my French I work for a French company and have been living in France with my French partner for 10 years). We had 6 starters and 6 main courses +1 child plate and 3 glasses of wine) for €442.50. Upon continuing discussion of the bill the restaurant manager began to insult and argue with me, my family, and my friends who wanted to leave in good time to catch their ferry who became increasingly anxious. My friends left and after I was accused by the restaurant manager of refusing to pay, complète lies as I gave him my bank card 4-5times to pay which he refused) I explained this also to the chef which came out following the heated discussion. Eventually they finally accepted my payment in full, the restaurant manager again lied saying he owned the restaurant and that I had to pay without discussion, he also stated he hated talking in French to the English) So, now, my wife in tears and a Sunday ruined we left, almost €500 less for a 2 course meal that was less than average. The customer service you receive from McDonald’s is 100x better. What a terrible restaurant front of house) I can’t believe they are allowed to contrite business with this criminal attitude to their customers. Never, ever, ever again........

We more or less wandered in, just arriving in the area. It was a Wednesday, and a lot of local restaurants were closed. We felt like treating ourselves, so we decided to give Les Terrasses a go. I have to mention we have experience with high end dining (mostly in Belgium, by the way , so we can compare price/quality. The place was badly lit: and I don 't mean it was dark, it was in fact too bright. All the lamps had these cool, white lights, so atmosphere was a bit chilly as opposed to cozy. Also: what restaurant of that price range thinks to put a tv screen with a repeated cooking show of their own kitchen on? Bad idea. Anyway, the restaurant is only 40 minutes from Paris, but acts like it 's in 1950. My partner (male got a menu with prizes, while I (female got one without. Since the dinner was my treat, this felt like a personal insult. Hey, this is the 21st century! The first course were four seasonal bites: a soup with a straw (my French is not very good, but it tasted like pumpkin with a hint of truffel , a salty sweet dense sort of creme brulee, some steak tartare, and an oyster with a sauce. I wonder if the staff has tried to eat these in sequence, because it didn 't go down very well with us. The combination was terrible: especially the tartare was after the strange creme brulee starter incredibly sour. You couldn 't taste anything but acid. We both felt we couldn 't do the oyster anymore after that. Not ok. Luckily, the second dish was a lot better: we both had foie gras, which was served with a 'black pear ' a charred slice of pear, of which the smell was half of the tasting experience. A lovely combination. I preferred to combine the foie gras and pear with a piece of home made bread from the basket that we got, instead of the small, dry bun that was on the plate. A much nicer combination! I would have like to have an extra piece of pear, maybe, for a better balance with the rather hefty foie gras. Main course for me was fish, for my partner it was steak. We enjoyed both, so we started to forget about the entree debacle. It was a perfect quantity, didn 't feel to fatty at all, and all was very well cooked. Then we got a small complimentary dish in between courses, which was a surprise: mostly because of the colours. This was an ash grey mousse (that didn 't really taste like much, maybe like a mildly sweet whipped cream topped up with a pitch black sugar cookie, that had a volcano feel. It looked really good, never had grey and black food like that. The dessert was a brand new experiment by the cook, and the waitress who was super nice by the way! wanted to know later on what we thought about it. It was alright: a chocolate bomb of some kind with a cold, white, glossy substance that looks a bit like a slug (ugh next to it (I had it before, didn 't care much for it then, nor now . The chocolate bomb was maybe a bit too heavy, and it was laced with too much truffel (oil? . I suggested that maybe to temper the truffel, it would be nice to combine the filling with rosemary. It would also be a bit more modern, and more surprising. All in all, mixed feelings. Wouldn 't go back. Again: the girl at our table was wonderful, and I suspect it was the owner was very friendly.

This was a return trip to Les Terrasses for us, when we stayed at the Moulin de Vilgris. We really enjoyed the delicious and refined food and wonderful outlook onto the lake. It is always a wonderful treat to eat at this modern and well-run restaurant.

Good food, not the cheapest, not the dearest. The only restaurant open in quite a small town. We were staying an excellent b and b in the town, this place was only a short walk away.