Restaurant O'Sens

After having stayed several years in the Novotel on a short stop during the holidays, we tried the sea food buffet this year. What we looked forward to turned into a disappointment. The prawn and shrimps were overcooked, as were the langoustines. The mussels and bulots were good, well seasoned. The quiche was nice, but that is very easy to prepare. There were some cheeses, also not the most difficult thing to serve. Buy some cheese and cut to slices. The dessert buffet was limited to a dry sort of cookie, a not too bad apricot tart and some chocolat bomb. I never understood what white whipped cheese is for a dessert (there was lots of it as a dessert) but that seems to be typical french. All in all, limited choice in seafood, on average very poorly prepared. The next visit to Oleron we will be getting our seafood in a different restaurant.

Unfortunately our experience was similar to other comments left on TripAdvisor previously. On arrival we stood for a while at what we thought was the welcome station ….. ie a PC and a tablet as if waiting for those who had reserved. But as no-one appeared and there were no instructions to the contrary and there weren’t many tables occupied, we began to make our way to a table. A man in dark trousers and a white shirt (no indication that he was a member of staff) then gestured to us from a table with menus saying we should wait at the ‘welcome’ , which he indicated was the table with the menus and wait to be seated. Not a great start. We ordered. A glass of champagne was accompanied by a very small dish of olives. And then our starter came very soon after we had started our aperitif. For me, and particularly in such a beautiful location, dinner should be a relaxed affair, with time to appreciate the view without the feeling of being rushed. Plates were removed whilst my husband was still eating. The best part of the meal was the sole ….. beautifully cooked.

We did not stay at this hotel, but had dinner twice here. This is a very large four star hotel and an adjacent spa which is also open to the public, so at any given time there are a lot of people milling about. On one night that we were there, there was also a buffet, which included a lot of seafood. We ordered 2 dishes of the menu, chicken with mushrooms and rice and my boyfriend ordered steak hache. Both very good. and for dessert, creme caramel and ice cream.