Au Petit Maxime - Romans-sur-Isère

After the Sunday market, they no longer serve coffee after 12. we stopped the coffee machine. poor. next time we're going differently.

Finding myself in the area for work during lunch time, I found myself placing my trust in the high rating of this place… much to my disappointment. So the few pros : Relatively good location albeit a pity to miss out on a view of...the beautiful river a stone’s throw away, however there is a pleasant outside seating area in a square closed to vehicle traffic. Also, the interior and decoration is clean and charming enough. Cons : Sadly, the two ingredients which are most essential to any restaurant experience were the problem here : the service and the food. And shamelessly over priced. Service : Despite clearly emphasising as soon as I arrived that I only had a limited amount of time for lunch to be fair, 75 minutes for lunch should be ample time to eat a meal in any café in France … I still barely managed to get my meal served in time since despite my clearly announced time constraints, I still have to watch the landlady chatting endlessly for a good 25 minutes with the neighbouring table while shooting her desperate pleading looks before she bothered to swagger over and take my order. Her enthusiasm and presentation of the menu was deflating, as was her further service. When my meal finally arrived salmon , it was so severely undercooked that I was obliged to ask for it to be sent back to the kitchen. Instead of gracing me with a kind apology, she bluntly lectured me on how salmon should be cooked in France. Not only is this offensive to any person over the age of 3 who knows how they like their food done, it is all the more condescending when addressed to a foodie residing in France for over a decade and a half, and who is confronted with a slice of salmon still cold and gooey in the center. The service situation finally degenerated to the point where I had to go in to the bar and order my coffee myself since the landlady was in a huff staring daggers at me while chatting to the next table and blatantly refused to come take my order for coffee…. after I was now running late and stressed from having sat at lunch for almost an hour and a half. Hygiene : I was not reassured by the filthy streaks on the water glasses, the less-than-clean cutlery... and was all the more worried as a result by the various lumps and bumps in my food and drink through the meal. Food : My main dish was a salmon, severely undercooked and to my great regret drowned in a bland sauce, accompanied by an ill-assorted salad radish slices with sun dried tomatoes? and carrots bathing in curried sauce RIP carrots, you probably would have tasted great without the unnecessary tampering . The dessert, a firm favourite of mine in almost all circumstances, was a creme brûlée and this dessert has never let me down before. Well there is a first time for everything. It is a creme BRULEE “burnt creme” in French … it is not a creme WELDED LIKE METAL. I have enclosed photos of both the fish and the creme brûlée, but the chef’s liberties with his interpretation of this dessert were the ones that broke my heart the most as a lover of most french foods. The lump-ridden liquid lurking under a centimetre of bulletproof molten caramel which was poisonously sweet and best suited for consumption with a chainsaw…. is surely on some level a crime against national culinary. And to finish it all, the coffee which was meant to redeem this whole stressful experience…. revealed a colony of grainy lumps at the bottom making it impossible to tip the mug and drink it without choking of bits of…. well, look at the photo and let me know what those bits may be. I failed to identify them. I will however specify that no, there was no cookie provided with the coffee, and I was not dunking anything into it. On the whole, a very misleading rating and a highly overpriced experience for the quality of food you will get in your plate, added to excruciating service. During the week I tried several other cafés in surrounding 10 miles, and found every one of them to be better. My advice? Skip it, whatever else you try will surely taste better, cost you less, and annoy you less.

Realy nice people and realy good service! The quality of the lunch and diner is fantastic. The staff is very kind and costumer friendly. We enjoyed

We found this little gem when looking for good food and outside seating. This place checked both boxes, and the food was fresh, copious and quickly served from the crisp, fried calamari with homemade fries to the mini raviolis (specialty of the region). Great...way to break up a long drive!

Au détour des rues de Romans, petit arrêt pour mes copines et moi pour manger. Quelle bonne surprise, les aliments sont frais et les plats fait maison. Les propriétaires....tout dans l'authenticité, égaux à eux-même. Restaurant à conseiller ! Il ne manque plus qu'une soirée spéciale DJ............... ;-)