Flamme Bois Bistro

My food adventures at Manali were yummay, it was a pity that I couldn’t explore more though. On our way back from Manali, we stayed overnight at Chandigarh. As we caught up with a few friends, we decided to go out for a quick dinner.

First off, Chandigarh is a beautiful city! It’s quiet, not exploding with people and very clean, We stayed near the Panchkula side and had a wide variety of restaurants to choose from at 10:30 pm (I thought of Bangalore when waiters would nudge me at 10:30 asking for our last order :/)

Anyway, we decided to go to Flamme Bois Bistro, which was a very popular hangout for the people of Chandigarh (or so I’ve been told). The restaurant looked very nice, like your typical café given a classy makeover. It was well-lit, there was good music being played and the aromas from the kitchen filled the air.

Despite being a late Saturday night, the place was only half-full. We didn’t mind though. We managed to get a table and looked through the menus. When we were ready to place our order, we were frantically waving to every server around, but everybody ignored us. By ignore, I don’t mean that they didn’t see/missed us. but they saw us and never came upto us. Finally, one of the servers lazily came up to us and took our order. (I’m very glad that we placed our entire order at one go, I can’t imagine multiple scenarios like this)

First up, came my Chicken Hawaiian Salad. The chicken was tender, tossed in mayo with other veggies and chunks of pineapple and served in a pineapple boat. This was one of the best salads that I’ve ever tried. The salad was very refreshing and delicious, and it was also a decently large option. It earned brownie points for the unique presentation as well.

Next, my friend, a regular here, ordered the Chicken Wings, which were supposed to be a specialty here. The wings were de-lish-ious. Really. The meat was soft and warm and coated in this wonderful honey soy sauce with a slight hint of chilli that made these wings delectable. My only grouse was all that honey made our hands very sticky and made for a not-so-pretty sight.

My sister then ordered the Pan Seared Fish with Lemon Butter Sauce for the mains and I ordered a veggie pizza. The fish was lightly browned on the outside and cooked to perfection on the inside. It was seasoned just right and the lemon butter sauce wasn’t too overly lemon-y either (I’ve tasted horribly sour lemon butter sauces at some fine restaurants). The accompanying mash and veggies paired well with the fish. 

The pizza I ordered was a simple Tomato and Mushroom pizza. The pizza tasted great and the thin crust was nice and yum. I generally prefer pizzas with fewer toppings so that I can enjoy their taste more rather than overfilling them with every possible topping, and this pizza was perfect in every sense. And extremely filling as well.

My friend finally finished with ordering the Blueberry Pie, another signature dish. I wasn't the biggest fan of the pie's texture as it was VERY crumbly and dissolved the moment my spoon touched it. The blueberry preserve was sickeningly sweet and neither of us could finish it (despite having ordered only one portion for four people). My friend concluded that it was one of their worst desserts so far, and ruined an otherwise great meal. We concurred.

During the course of us  devouring dishes, we were trying desperately to reach out to the waiters for water, seasonings, sauces, etc. Every request was simply ignored and while the water finally came 15 minutes later, I had taken the cutlery, seasonings and sauces from an empty table next to mine. Let me add that the waiter standing by the side saw me do this and didn’t come forward to help.

Also, the place was only half-full, and many of the waiters were just standing by doing nothing and ignoring a lot of customer requests. I failed to understand this complete nonchalance, and thought it was outright rude and insulting. When the bill came, I noticed that there was a 10% service charge (in addition to the VAT and service tax). I told the waiter that I didn’t want to pay the service charge as I didn’t like it and asked him if he could cancel it. He said that it was compulsory and that I had to pay. I told him that it was compulsory for him to have given me good service.

A minute later, the owner came over to my table and said in his most indifferent tone “Service charge is compulsory, but if you didn’t like the service, don’t pay it”. So I didn’t. I was also surprised with the fact that the owner didn’t bother finding out what went wrong or had even the slightest hint of apology while telling me that I didn’t need to pay it. Anyway, what’s done is done. I would request all of you to carefully check the service charge, NOT the tax while dining out. Speak to the management if you didn’t receive good service. I think customers should be allowed to pay what they deem fit depending upon the service they received. This kind of ‘forced tipping’ is not something I enjoy.

Food – 8/10

Ambience – 9/10

Service – 0/10

Overall verdict – Go for the food, and maybe a takeaway might be a good option :)

Have you had a similar experience at a restaurant? I would love to hear about it! Do leave a comment!