Del Mare - Camaret-Sur-Mer

Frankly, I was astonished at many of the negative reviews that I read about this restaurant, though I do note that they were all written prior to 2015. I would have no idea why they became more positive this year.Walking into this place on a Monday in Novemeber, when there wasn't very much else open in town, we were immediately charmed by the decor in the small dining room. The meals my wife and I ate (we both took the "formule" of the day) were much more than simply good - they were truly excellent! And for the 19 Euros or so that we paid (plus a bit extra for a glass of wine and a coffee) it was a terrific value.We went back a second time several days later, once again taking the "formule" of the day and, while it wasn't quite as outstanding as the previous lunch, it was still very, very good. It would be pointless to comment on the individual dishes we had since, obviously, they will change according to the chef's proposals for any given day. I'll just say that we were not disappointed with any of the dishes we had.This is a small "mom and pop" operation (with some occasional outside help), with the husband the chef and his wife as hostess. The latter was extremely nice (so again, hard to imagine some previous reports about them being inhospitable)! The restaurant has some tables out front for nice weather and the view is directly on the port (from across a narrow street), so quite agreeable. I believe the restaurant is closed from about mid-November to sometime in spring. In any case, there are plenty of other restaurants in town, though many do close out of season.

Well, we might have been served - had we stayed. But we walked out, so we can't give you an idea of the quality of the meal. It was Sunday, lunchtime, and when we entered the restaurant, there was only one other couple, already eating. We chose our table, received our menus, which, along with the blackboard specials, were very confused as to whether the set-price menus were available on Sundays, or not (it turns out that the Euro 17.50 three-course menu is). Anyway, as we studied the menu and decided what to order, other customers filtered in, but we noticed that some of them not only had their orders taken, but were starting to be served, and still no one came to take our order. When the server came to the take the order of the couple next to us - who had also arrived well after us - we finally got up and left. If a restaurant can't respect "first come, first served," then they'll never have our business!

The welcome wasn't as warm as perhaps we might have liked but we put that down to the language barrier. After that, though, we enjoyed the good food and service in a quaint, atmospheric restaurant. I would recommend it.

Small dining space, small quantities of food, high prices, bad service, a very disappointing menu. ****************************************** **** To be avoided absolutely **** ******************************************

We walked around the harbour and chose this Resturant as it looked great from the outside. The service was ok and the food was good. I would eat there again but try other places first.