Restaurant Toulouse

Visited this lovely Saugatuck restaurant for New Year’s Eve. We’ve had many wonderful meals here during the summer months, and we had high expectations.
We were surprised to find a very limited menu. There were but three appetizer choices, no salads, and one soup choice. The one soup was offered as a sweet potato bisque. Main course choices were very limited, and included two steals, two lamb offerings, and pasta dishes.
On the plus side, the bruschetta was outstanding. Unfortunately, the meal went downhill after that. The sweet potato soup ended up being a salmon chowder. The pasta was cold. The broccoli was not fresh, and we had to send one of the steaks back to the kitchen because it was still rare in the middle.
This is a great place during the busy months, but we will not be back during the off season.

Has the best green lip mussels and New Zealand lamb out side of New Zealand. Such great food and service. We have been 5 times over 3 years always great food and service.

Absolutely horrible food and extremely slow service. I was very disappointed and embarrassed I took out of town guests here.

We had a great time! Amazing dinner outside in the quiet courtyard, we’ll be back:)

I am not sure about all these bad reviews… we had a very pleasant experience on a Friday night, visiting from Chicago.
The service was attentive, drinks appetizers and maincourse were delicious.
Live music out in the courtyard was very lively.

LOL at all the people claiming the staff was rude and slow but the experience wasn’t «authentically French».
Anyway, it was a good spot for lunch. A beer and croque monsieur is pretty straightforward and it tasted good. I’d go back and sit on their patio if it was a nice day.

Sat on the patio to share a beer and a couple of apps and people-​watch. Ordered hummus and Brie. Food was mediocre at best and presentation was strange and outdated. Will not return.

We had dinner here last weekend after checking it out earlier in the day. We requested a table on the patio, and the frazzled hostess seemed to be all over the place, tending after a large group of young ladies. «Our inside dining room isn’t set up for service, but you can have a table in there if you’d like.» This should have been used as a warning sign.
Our table was a deuce against the wall of the building on the patio, which was fully occupied. Out server was new, and was not able to answer questions very effectively, which is forgivable, of course. We ordered salads and I had the tuna entrée, and my partner had the salmon. Nothing came to the table for quite some time. I wondered why the salads were taking so long. Our server apologized and said that the bread was being baked and would be out with the salads, so it all came out at once.
The salads were delicious and the bread was worth waiting for, but the kiss of death was that our entrees arrived just as we were just getting into our salads. The experience turned from a potentially nice French restaurant to a night at the local Applebee’s. The server was barely visible after that. The entrees were delicious, and well presented, but cooling, as we had to finish our salads first.
We did not stick around for dessert and strike three. The entertainment — a beautiful red haired young lady who sang, and an artsy gentleman who played the guitar — was quite lovely, though. I would not recommend this restaurant on a subsequent visit to Saugatuck. It is definitely a luring tourist trap.

Extremely disappointing lunch here today — stay away! Less than mediocre food and service. Satellite radio music that was painful to listen to at any restaurant, let alone a French restaurant. No manager on premises to complain to.

I can see how this restaurant probably was amazing at one point, but it is definitely not worth the trip now. The food is really expensive and not good.
First, our food took forever to come out. Apparently there was a party of 15 people that placed and order, and the kitchen, which is pretty big with a huge patio, couldn’t keep up. I found that very odd.
I had the Coq au Vin, (which the waiter couldn’t pronounce… should have seen that as a sign), and it was the strangest thing I’ve eaten in a long time. It was basically chicken with what looked like red jelly on it. The truffle potatoes were basically just blah mashed potatoes that had about a cup of truffle oil dumped on it. My husband had the lamb, and it was WAY over-​cooked. His potatoes — which were not supposed to be truffle potatoes — were also smothered in truffle oil.
The best part was when the bill came, the waiter tried to claim we had ordered an $ 8 bottle of water. I know $ 8 is not a lot, but he was so rude about it! And when we asked about desserts, he only told us two that were on the menu. Apparently there were more because we overheard another waitress listing off a bunch.
I would absolutely NOT recommend this place to anyone.

Interesting and unique atmosphere. Nice outside seating with music. Great people watching.

This place is overpriced bad food.
The hummus I ordered had the consistency of sand. The only saving grace were the fresh veggies they served it with. Other than that, it was the worst hummus I’ve ever tasted. I didn’t know it was possible to ruin such a simple side dish.
The French onion soup was lacking. There were almost no onions in it and it was salty.
The entrees were pretty gross as well. My husbands dish looked like a bean soup on a plate. It was very wet and unappetizing.
The food was bland and tasteless. I would not recommend this place. If you want good French food, head a couple of hours west to Cite in Chicago.

Overall bad experience. Ordered a tomato mozzarella salad and the tomato was not ready to be eaten and the salad lacked flavor. My husband ordered the French dip and the beef was dry and cheese was under-​cooked. Also ordered a Brie small plate that was brought 30 minutes after we finished our other dishes. It was supposed to be stuffed with fruit… not so much. Won’t return despite it’s nice outdoor patio.

Made a reservation in advance for thirteen people and had dinner on the patio. From the start the experience was horrible. The wait staff told us we could only have one tab. They were out of the wine we ordered, bread, crepes, hanger steak, filet mignon and napkins! I requested the manager and she said that everything we had ordered would be comped from that point back and she was new. After two hours we finally requested our bill and they took 20% off instead of comping the meal not to mention the bill was completely screwed up. Unbeknownst to us, the tip was included so everyone doubled tipped the wait staff which didn’t deserve a dime. They were uncaring and aloof. Awful experience and sub-​par food. Never going back and will tell everyone how much this place sucks!

Awful, awful, awful. How does this place stay in business? How can anyone possibly like the food and service? In the 12 years we’ve been going to Saugatuck we’ve never eaten at Restaurant Toulouse, and now I know why. We were in town over the weekend, and decided to have brunch on the patio at Toulouse. For starters, no one greeted us as we came in, which I would think would have made the staff happy since there was only one other table. The staff was all hanging out at the bar, paying no attention to customers. We sat down and received menus, and ordered drinks. My husband got a bloody mary and I ordered a mimosa. well, tried to order a mimosa. I was told «Oh, we aren’t serving those right now.» Umm, okay, why? You have orange juice and champagne (I assumed), so why no mimosas? I don’t know the answer because our waitress didn’t elaborate. Alrighty. I ordered iced tea with lemon.
About 10 minutes later our drinks arrived. I have to again point out that there was one other table of patrons on the patio, and they were already done, so I don’t know why we had to wait so long for iced tea and a bloody mary. When our waitress came back to drop the drinks and take our food order, I asked for lemon for my iced tea. I guess it’s good I didn’t want any sugar or sweetener to go with it, because I never got any. I ordered the croque madame and my husband ordered the croque monsieur. Oh, the horror. I don’t know if the chef or food prep person at Toulouse knows anything about a croque madame/​monsieur, so here’s a tip: the bread used for either sandwich? Yeah, it’s not supposed to be slices of Wonder bread that have been in the toaster for a few minutes. They SHOULD be prepared with a thick, crusty French bread (or something equally crusty) and GRILLED. The crap they brought out to us was disgusting. There was way too much béchamel sauce on our sandwiches, and they were lukewarm at best. When the waitress came to see how much we were loving our food (not), I AGAIN asked for lemon for my iced tea. She said «sure» like I hadn’t already asked for it twice. I never did get my lemon. Maybe they weren’t serving lemon that day. I also never got a refill on my iced tea. She also didn’t ask my husband if he wanted another drink. As if all of this wasn’t bad enough, they were playing Rod Stewart thru XM or Sirius and it was so loud. I’ve got nothing against Rod Stewart, but, it was too loud and not the right background music for the patio on a Sunday.
I ate maybe ¹⁄₃ of my sandwich, and when she came to clear our plates, she either didn’t notice that the majority of my gross sandwich was still on my plate, or maybe she didn’t care. I don’t know how the service could have been so bad given how few customers they had. I’m shocked they’ve been open for this long. I can only assume that the people giving this place anything more than 2 stars don’t know any better. How unfortunate.

My husband and I travel to Saugatuck from Chicago for the day, often. We have been looking forward to trying this restaurant for over a year. It was awful! Terrible service, terrible food! Expensive! I would NEVER recommend this restaurant. We ate outside and that was a below average experience too. There seemed to be great entertainment inside, however, it was freezing inside!

Stunningly bad experience here for friend’s 40^th birthday. Service was slow and incompetent. Took 4 visits to table to get drinks. Lobster mac n cheese had a half inch of grease in bottom of bowl. Stuffed burgers were far overdone, greasy and nearly inedible. Fries were over cooked. Asked for honey on side w Brie appetizer and it was poured over top. BTW overheard the bartender telling a customer she «didn’t know how to make a Bloody Mary.» Really. Not kidding.
Something’s terribly wrong with this once fantastic spot. But even then, $ 30 for cassoulet?! Come on! If you’re gonna charge high prices, the waitstaff and kitchen have to deliver. This used to be one of the best restaurants in Saugatuck but no more.

If you want to feel like an American in France, go here every stereotype goes with it. In the middle of America we felt like the trashy Americans even after our large party and tab along with wine. After ordering the «Lamb Chops three double rib chops» and receiving ONE single lamb chop they where none the apologetic. The insisted the «one chop» actually had «double the protein» so that is why they only served one single lamb chop. In addition the owners sat at the table to our side and refused to do anything for us and charged us for the full price of the meal.
On top of that insult they called us a cab, told us to wait around the corner instead of in front of the restaurant. When we saw the cab turn down the street we went to speak with them about it and again instead of apologizing they reprimanded us.

We have visited Toulouse before and would have given it a 5 star rating on past performance. But our last visit was most disappointing and that’s what I’m writing about here.
My wife ordered the special fish entrée with a vanilla sauce. The sauce was quite overpowering and perfumed the fish in such an unappetizing way. Our waitress made no attempt to correct the problem. After our repeated requests, she finally took the dish back and then offered to get a new entrée for my wife. My wife ordered another fish entrée and it came back with so many fish bones in it as it was clearly not fileted properly. Again, we had to make a few requests for our waitress to take it back to the kitchen.
After 2 disappointing attempts at ordering an entrée, my wife gave up and instead picked at my dinner selections. I on the other hand was quite pleased with what I ordered: seared foie gras and escargots as appetizers and Coquilles St. Jacques for my entrée.
We were surprised that no manager, owner or kitchen representative came to our table to inquire as to how this visit could be made better. The 2 entrees my wife ordered and did not eat were not on our bill — as it should have been. We were disappointed that there was no attempt to improve our experience overall by inquiring about a replacement entrée or to maybe even comp the dessert as a gesture of goodwill.
For a restaurant that aims to be a fine dining establishment, the service and the food on our last visit just does not measure up.
I would like to give Toulouse another chance as this restaurant is the closest to us in Lansing offering classical French cuisine.

Absolutely horrendous — DO NOT GO there — the service was terrible, the food tasteless and left everything do be desired for. The waitress was friendly but absolutely clueless. She brought our Appetizers with the food and she did the same for the table next to us, who had the better sense to return it. What’s the point of calling it apetirzers when you are going to keep the patrons hungry for ½ hour and then bringing it with the food.
I ordered fish and honestly I had to douse it with pepper and salt to bring out some taste. I can make better fish with only two ingredients — lemon and pepper. It was absolutely terrible. My partner ordered steak and she ordered it medium. First they brought out a meat that was too well done. On returning it they brought out steak that had blood in it — she ate part of it and left the other. It was terrible.
And the worst part — far from apologetic — not a peep on the fact that most of the food was left on the plate. Save your money and DO NOT go there. It would be a big favor for future patrons if this horrendous excuse for a fine restaurant shuts down.