Lilia Abaibourova

Review of Hotel LES AIRELLES

This review is for Piero TT (2 Michelin star Pierr...

This review is for Piero TT (2 Michelin star Pierre Gagnaire restaurant within Les Airelles hotel). Short version: delicious food but extremely disappointing service. I was tempted to give it one star but the food was really amazing (despite our main course being cold because it was prepared way too early). When paying over 500 EUROs for dinner good food is not enough though and needs to be accompanied by great wine and service. Neither of those were provided to us and our most looked forward to dinner in Courchevel was essentially ruined.
Longer version:
Even though there were 2 wait staff and a sommelier in our small section with three or four tables they drastically mismanaged our dining experience and we had to ask for things multiple times before we actually got them.
1. We asked for an apple juice for our daughter along with Champagne for us when we sat down. Champagne came right away but it took asking TWO more times and waiting 15 more minutes before they finally brought the juice to us.
2. They brought the wrong soup for our daughter and insisted that it s better than the one we actually ordered and they were doing us a favor by not charging us the extra for the price difference between the two. Extremely patronizing and off-putting.
3. We were told that the sommelier would stop by to talk to us about wine after we placed our food order. It NEVER happened. We asked the server multiple times and kept being told the sommelier was coming soon.
4. As we were enjoying our appetizers the 2 wait staff kept coming by trying to take our plates away making us feel extremely rushed. I finally realized that the main course was sitting nearby on a tray getting cold. Completely unacceptable for a fine dining restaurant!
5. As they brought the now lukewarm main course we still had not had a chance to order wine. We finally flagged the sommelier down ourselves. He didn t even apologize that he hadn t stopped by yet. At this point I didn t want to bother with a bottle and just ordered two glasses of wine. By the time we finally had some wine the food was truly cold.
6. I was very disappointed and upset about the whole experience but wanted to end the evening on a high note so we decided to go for their specialty tiramisu for dessert. At this point we were out of wine and water. Trying to get a second glass of wine and more water was once again an ordeal requiring asking more than one person. It really confuses me why out of three people taking care of a table in a place of this caliber they didn t notice that ALL our glasses were empty.
7. At no point anyone asked us how we enjoyed the food which is also very odd. Thankfully the food was one thing that was phenomenal at that place. The scallops crudo appetizer was a particular highlight. The crab salad with truffles was incredible too. Sea urchin tagliatelle and and langoustines would have been a lot better if they were hot but still it was fantastically prepared and innovative. Tiramisu was assembles table side and was delicious as well.
No matter how yummy it was I expect a Michelin restaurant to have a much better level of service and awareness of how to pace a meal and have the basics down like offer wine with dinner and more when it runs out, also bring you what you actually ordered. Plenty of other restaurants in Courchevel and elsewhere that have amazing food AND great service.