Aux Vieux Garçons

Terrible experience, food not good! We chose this restaurant last Friday evening after walking around the fabulous city of Chartres. It looked to be in quite a nice area of the town amongst some other restaurants and offered the type of dishes we were looking for. We sat inside near the bar, where there was a rather unpleasant smell which drifted in the air from time to time. This seemed to coincide whenever somebody used a door near to where we were sitting. The initial service staff seemed quite friendly and polite. We ordered steak and chips and a crispy fish burger with chips. When it arrived, the steak was very small and seemed to be folded in half. The meat was very tough and after taking the first mouthful it tasted like it had been cooked in rancid butter with a very upleasant taste indeed. The chips looked and tasted burnt. One mothful was enough not to want any more. My partner's fish burger appeared to be microwaved. The bun had a hard texture and the batter on the fish looked very pale and uncooked and was stuck to the bun. She took two mouthfuls and had to spit out the second one as it tasted rank. Her chips were also burnt. After trying the food, we decided that we would just finish our drinks, which were ok, and go. We were both left with a horrible taste in our mouths. The waiter, different one to the one that showed us to our table, came and asked us if we were happy with our meals, to which we replied no with an explaination why. He then went and came back with a bill for 50 euros. I asked him if we could just pay for our drinks as the food was not edible. He refused to do this and went off to chat to some other staff. When he came back he still insisted that the food was good and what we had ordered and we had to pay. He also seemed to become more agressive in his attitude and body language towards us. I did argue that we we were very usatisfied with the meal and felt we should be let off some of the bill. After it started to get more heated, I decided to just give them the 50 euros and call it a day. Over the years we have visited many restaurants in France, some very good ones and some not so good ones. This one is by far the worst restaurant we have visited in any country both in terms of food quality and quality of service! We do not recommend you go there until they have made some big improvements!

Smells like death outside under the « halles », thanks for the garbage cans and the dead rats around them next to the tables. That should have been a dead giveaway for the rest of the experience. The staff is clearly still in school and have acne spots depicting their extensive experience. No knowledge of how to properly place dishes on the table, pay attention to the clients… loooooong waits. The food is good, I’ll admit but way overpriced. All in all, they are way over their head and cannot keep up, looks a bit like a tourist trap.

A really great meal here, starters, mains and pudding all delicious. Menu has lots of unusual and attractive sounding dishes, but not fussy. Chef is very good. Wine list, particularly Loire selection, nice too and the poire eau de vie we had was pretty special. Friendly and efficient service, cosy unpretentious setting.

Excellent lunch menu at reasonable price and very good quality. We had the sweet potato parmantier with pulled pork for the main course and an original viennoiserie pain purdue. The service was fast and efficient with the staff being very friendly.

Friendly staff were always on hand, made us feel welcome and were patient with our amateurish French. Nice beer and cider. My partner had a tasty steak with potatoes but not enough salad, I had john dory (perfect) served with a stodgy risotto which was delicious but had the texture of rice pudding. My plate also lacked green veg or salad other than a few leaves on top.

I made a reservation by TheFork application. This restaurant was making a fake advertisement by showing that they allow TheForkPay. Before the reservation they called me to inform that it is not possible to pay via TheForkPay and when i insist, they canceled the reservation and made me to loose my discount on the app. I contacted the app so i think they cannot keep lying to people. At the end I cannot evaluate their food but the respect to customer is 0 over 100.

Excellent restaurant !

I had quite a good salad here, nothing extraordinary. Great location and friendly staff are a big plus though.