Daniele T.
Yelp
It could have been better is the description of Yelp when it comes to a ** rating, and I agree, my dining experience a few days go does not deserve more than 2 stars and could have been much better, as it was always the case before at the Canard Pékinois. I am a casual customer of this establishment, I ate there dozens of times since it opened, and when I stop over in Lausanne, it is one of my "to go" place to eat with my friends. On the evening of the 26th of January 2024, during a stepover between California and Lausanne, I asked a very close friend to join me for diner. She is a mom of 2 school age children holding a very busy high executive job and she was looking forward to spending a couple of hours with me to catch up over her favorite food: duck! before returning home to be with her kids before their bedtime. To make sure she could, she left her job early and we reserved our table for opening time, at 19h:00. We arrived on time. We were ready to spend an hour or so together, catching up and eating a great meal. The food is always a sure thing at the Canard Pékinois and their duck is excellent. Unfortunately for us, the evening didn't go as well as we hoped, to no fault of the food, and entirely to the fault of our waiter. This never happened to me before, the staff was always as good as the food. It started fine, him welcoming us, ladies, to diner. My friend and I chatted for a few minutes, reviewed the familiar menu, and landed on the duck, as usual. The waiter felt a bit condescending explaining the various ways of eating duck. We already knew the difference between both ways of serving it but we listen just the same, politely. In the end he was doing his job even if he should have stopped when we told him that we knew the difference between the two dishes. We placed our order around 19h:10 and started catching up. Customers arrived, soon the restaurant was full, people were eating and chatting away and we were waiting and waiting and waiting some more. The goal of the evening was to catch up while eating, not wait for food while catching up.
Around 20h:00, on his own accord, our waiter stopped by our table and apologized for the delay, blaming "they" (no idea who "they" were) for forgetting our order. He assured us that the order had been placed again and that we would be eating shortly... and he disappeared to serve other patrons. We asked a waitress if we could, (as all other tables had) get some shrimp chips to curve our appetite, and we got 5! After his apology we were expecting our entrees to be in front of us within minutes as he doesn't take long for a Chinese restaurant to produce spring rolls and a Chinese salad. Wrong! The entrees arrived 20 minutes later. At this point we had been waiting for 95 minutes, drinking tea while eating 5 chips. Customers who arrived after us were leaving. I politely flagged him down. He didn't like that AT ALL, he came rushing to our table as a bull ready to charge, upset that we had the audacity (so it seems) to call him again, asking for our main course. I told him that we were hungry and I asked if he could please bring us our duck. You think that at this point contrition and apology would be in order on his part but "no", he doubled down on us, pointing to our empty entrées plates and dead candles on the plate warmer asking us what we were complaining about considering that we just ate our entrees... 15 minutes ago! Clearly, he was trying to impress customers and the waitress looking very embarrassed next to our table. It was totally disrespectful on his part; it had an undertone of condescending misogynistic attitude that frankly women no longer want to be put under in the 21st century, any women, let alone a high-ranking executive of a large Swiss conglomerate who wouldn't dare speak to her "collaborateurs and collaboratrices" in such a fashion, regardless of their age or gender.
Both my friend and I agreed that had we been with our husbands, the waiter would not have had this paternalistic condescending attitude towards us. By the end of the evening, pushing 21h:00 on the clock, at bill settling time, we were expecting an apology, maybe the offer for a free coffee or for a free dessert. Nothing, our waiter barely made eye contact with us. He collected his 150 francs and zero tip on my part. Too bad for him because I always tip in addition to the bill, despite service being included. He missed a 20 that evening for being a certified (you know what) toward us and neither my friend nor I will ever set foot in this establishment again. We will take our business to Saint-Sulpice or Vevey. The sad part is that I recommended this restaurant to my friends and family in the US and at home in Switzerland and I shouldn't have. All could have been forgiven had our waiter been mature enough to apologize and make amend. I think his management should look into this because as he doesn't match the rest of his team.
