This is a specialist restaurant in Lausanne famed for their steak tartare and Argentinian sourced steaks. I went there about 10 years ago and had the best steak in Switzerland... read more (which isn't difficult to be fair).
All restaurants had to close on 4th November and yesterday (10th December) was their first night opening in over a month. It was my birthday on 9th December, so I made an online reservation, advising it was my birthday and could we please have a "intimate table" in the quiet part of the restaurant.
They didn't not acknowledge my booking (I had to do it via email), so had to call to confirm and again stressed that it was my birthday and could we have a "cosy corner".
When we arrived we were shown to a table next to the door, beneath a freezing air-con unit. We asked to move, but there were no other tables available.
The waitress came to take our drinks order, my partner ordered a red wine (for himself) and she just walked away!! She came back with the red wine and poured it into his glass first, then into mine (ladies first?).
I explained that I wanted a white wine (in French) and she looked at me like I had insulted her! She then poured the red wine out of my glass straight into my partners glass, took away the very nice wine glass and came back with my white wine in a horrible, tiny, wine glass that had the name of some other restaurant on the glass!
We ordered, me the steak (most expensive one on the menu) which came with frites and unspecified vegetables, my partner the steak tartare which came with just frites. The maitre d' prepared the tartare at the table with much flair and put it in front of my partner.
My steak arrived, which the waitress cut up for me (very odd!) and put on my plate. She also delivered a plate of frites and pale non-descript vegetables on a large plate, over a candle-burner (the thing they use to keep food warm except she didn't light the candles). But instead of leaving me to help myself to frites and vegetables, she just piled the whole lot on my plate, on top of my steak!
She then disappeared and we had several attempts at trying to get my partners frites. By the time they arrived, the air-con had blasted enough air on my meal to render it stone cold.
On biting into the (luke warm) steak, every single piece had a piece of grissle in it, the frites were completely cold and the uninteresting vegetables not worth eating.
Another waitress came and took the plates away without even asking if everything was ok. I had left more than half of my meal on the plate, a) as it was not edible and b) in the hope that she might ask if everything was okay.
We were offered desert, but by this time I was sitting with my coat and scarf on because I was SO cold, so my partner asked for the bill. I then called over the manager and asked him if I could have a word.
His reply? "No, I don't speak English". Really - this is the centre of Lausanne which has a massive expat/multi-lingual population. I speak French but not enough to complain, so my partner made an attempt to explain and all he could say, to every complaint was, "you should have said at the time"! My partner also explained that it was a special meal to celebrate my birthday and the manager just turned to me and said a VERY sarcastic "Bonne Anniversaire" and walked away!
One of the nicer waitresses came over (we had been given the bill by this time) and asked if we would like a complimentary liquor and suggested a Limoncello, which we accepted.
The icing on the cake came in the form of a luke warm Limoncello (which should only be served ice-cold) in a very strange shaped glass and was no more than one mouthful!
The bill was over CHF120.00 which my partner paid as it was (supposed) to be my birthday treat.
It's not the smartest of restaurants, more of a Brasserie, but their reputation hangs on their "Beouf" specialities - hence the name. But they couldn't even get that right.
A freezing cold restaurant, no attention to detail from the kitchen, sloppy waitress service and a manager who doesn't care. We will never go back.
Adresse : Avenue Vingt-Quatre-Janvier 4, CH-1004, Lausanne
Téléphone : 
Ouvert du lundi au samedi (fermé le dimanche)
Réservation conseillée le soir.