Au Cap Compas - Gravelines

I had tried to get in to my favourite restaurant in Gravelines but they were closed for the summer. So as I had my boat in the Marina decided to have lunch at the Restaurant there. Feeling like a whole fish I ordered what was one of the most expensive items on the menu. It was overcooked and dried out and not at all pleasant. the service was poor but I was dining by myself and so of not much interest to the staff. I certainly would not eat here again and eat on my boat by preference if other restaurants in Gravelines were not available.

This was our second visit to the restaurant. The location is convenient as there is a good carpark. So we returned for lunch on our next trip to France. We were on our way to Zeebrugge for the ferry and having found earlier in the year that eating in Belgium if you are French or English speaking and have no Flemish can be difficult. So decided to revisit Au Cap Compass. It was fortune that we arrived early, just after 12:00, because the dining room quickly filled up. There was a good buzzy atmosphere and the moules frites were good. The kind lady who served us was happy to speak English for us, although we do have French.

Friendly people, chef attending all tables more than once; excellently prepared seafood never tasted like this before (even "simple" shrimps were deliciously prepared). A lot of locals (we were there at lunch time during the week) gave a lot nice French atmosphere. The main dish' langoustines with home made risotto (prepared with fish bouillon) was more than superb.

If you like a skate wing (succulent, large, with cream and capers sauce) this is THE place to come as it is on the 3 course menu of only €16 ! Other dishes were also OK. We were here for lunch Sunday and dinner Friday. Only hiccup : in the evening they like to lit the restaurant in disco-style so one minute your food looks red, then 1 minute later all is blue and your dessert can turn green…

Stopped on way to channel tunnel and wished we hadn't. Things were going well at first, friendly helpful waitress, clean toilets and a willingness to accomadate veggies.Then I saw the maggot crawling though our goats cheese salad (shudder) unfortunately after a few mouthfuls.Mistakes happen even in the best resteraunts but we were not offered an apology, a free drink or anything resembling good customer service.We spent the journey home wondering if we were going to get ill! Not pleasent