Spa Hôtel Restaurant Au Lion d'Or

We visited for dinner on July 4th and were deeply disappointed. The evening began with confusion with no lighting or staff in the hotel lobby to guide us to the restaurant. When someone finally appeared, they were unhelpful and unfriendly. Service at the restaurant itself was cold and disengaged. Drinks were served without care (a warm Coke, no water offered), and the food was largely mediocre. The biggest issue, however, was finding a dead fly in my partner’s dessert. When we alerted the server, there was no apology or concern—just a silent removal of the dessert from the bill. Given the serious hygiene concern and lack of professionalism, we will not return and cannot recommend this place to others. There are far better dining experiences in the region.

I’m going to be as detailed as possible in this review because I think it’s important for others looking for a romantic dinner to be aware of what we experienced. We had reservations for July 4th at 7 p.m. We arrived on time, but when we approached the entrance, we were immediately confused: the lights in the main lobby of the hotel were completely off. There was no one to assist us, so we wandered around for about five minutes, calling out “hello?” until a staff member finally appeared at the front desk. We told him we had reservations at the restaurant, but he said nothing—he just pointed forward. When I asked for clarification, he sighed heavily, clearly annoyed, and shuffled out from behind the desk to step between my partner and me, pointing again without a word. Only then did we understand where to go, since it was not obvious from his first gesture. We thanked him, but he remained silent and returned to the desk as we made our way to the restaurant. When we arrived, we were greeted by a scent reminiscent of a nursing home—not a dealbreaker, but certainly not a promising start. Hoping the food would make up for the experience so far, we pressed on. Unfortunately, things only went downhill. The server approached us after we stood there awkwardly for a couple of minutes and, in a monotone voice, simply said, “Reservation?” I responded “yes” and gave my name. He didn’t reply, just pointed us to a table—a trend I noticed throughout the evening, as if we were visited by the ghost of Christmas future or something. I ordered a Coke and my partner ordered a Riesling. The server brought me a warm Coke with no ice, never offered water, and didn’t bother to ask what kind of Riesling my partner wanted. He also brought out bread without any oil or butter—this was all before we even placed our food order. When we finally ordered our three-course meals, I started with the beef carpaccio. It looked like it had just come out of the freezer, with some pieces still showing visible ice crystals. It tasted average at best, and it was served with pathetic shreds of iceberg lettuce. Overall, I’d rate the starter a 3/10. For the entrée, I chose the filet of beef. The vegetables were clearly microwaved, though to their credit, the steak itself was cooked correctly to medium-rare. Without the steak, I’d have rated the dish a 1/10, but the beef saved it slightly, so I’d give it a 4/10. For dessert, I ordered the mousse, which was just average—nothing special, deserving a 6/10 at best. However, the real issue was with my partner’s dessert. She ordered the dessert taco, and inside it, we found a dead fly—clearly something that had been killed in the kitchen and ended up in her food. We were horrified. I brought this to the server’s attention, and all he offered was to comp the single dessert. Considering they served a literal fly, the least they could have done was comp her entire meal, but they didn’t. Worse, the server barely seemed bothered, which was both di