Aux Bons Enfants - Cannes

People. What annoys me about cannes - and for that matter most of the port towns of the cote d'azure is exactly my experience last night at this soggy dining spot. Ask yourself this; are you the kind of person who would consciously plan to go to dinner in a street side bistro on leicester square, london? or st mark's square venice? or piazza della signora, florence? if you give half a damn about food and value your dignity, probably not. To sit 'al fresco' is one of the great metropolitan endeavors of the common man - i get it and i love it. But to entertain the hope that just by chance, lying off one those main attraction squares or promenades - or in this case - port side restaurants with the best views and the prime location, that there should be an accidental find of gastronomic serendipity hitherto unknown is to be foolish. to be a dreamer. What history has taught us In fact, what you get - by way of money back guarantee - is an abundance of AVERAGE. and, if you really don't give a toss and can't be bothered to research just a little, then you will no doubt be satisfied with the majority of SUB- average taverns, plying their lazy sub-standard wares to a mute audience who don't care anyway so what difference. We did our trip advisor due diligence and came up with Aux Beaux Enfants. we didn't want fancy, we didn't want gastronomy, just a good bistro experience, lacking in pretension. The place itself is nicely decorated and comfortable. the food is just average. teetering, from dish to dish, to below average. the sole meunière was deep fried like a thai cat fish. the pate was pork on the verge of high. the artichoke pate with cheese, was like a salty, chewy block of wax with a tiny piece of tinned artichoke, easily mistaken for mush. The sides were tasty and comfortingly overcooked into a baby food consistency; fennel provencal, dauphinoise, rice and sweet potato, pommel frites...all the same texture with various shades of sweet and salt. the deserts were generic and over-burdened with white sugar sweetness. the listless, perfectly average staff had the spiritless glazed-eyed look of the surrendered. it's my fault. what did i honestly expect.

A typical small, family run restaurant in the French tradition. An interesting local menu with, unusually, large and well prepared vegetable sides. A pleasant atmosphere and good value.

Would recommend this restaurant, good authentic French food and wine at reasonable prices and very friendly staff.

We arrived at Aux Bons Enfants with high hopes, having read the glowing reviews online. It's just not that great. We went for my birthday and expected to pay a little bit more for a 'special' night out....we were in and out in under 50 minutes, £60 worse off! Service is efficient and very brisk, but pretty bored and unsmiling. We each had a glass of house wine (one rose one red), and both tasted sharp, like low quality wine. Portions pretty small. In the farci nicois, the vegetables were peeling back at the edges from the meat, as if reheated from lunch service. You get a mix of side dishes on a shared plate dish - the gratin dauphinois was burned on top, courgettes mushy with a strong taste of raw garlic, and everything just quite bland. It really feels like a place where all the customers are tourists, and they just ain't that bothered about people coming back. I know that area of Cannes is pretty touristy and maybe not full of incredible restaurants- but having arrived expecting to have all 3 courses on the €31 menu and 2 or 3 glasses of wine, we were all too happy to cut our losses after a starter and main, and one drink each. Seriously, there have got to be places nearby where you can spend less and/or have a more spectacular and uplifting experience!

Their menu is outstanding. Choices are infinite, and all is very good, some dishes are excellent. Very good stuffed vegetables, marvelous grilled kidneys. Try them rear! Perfect house flan. My friends had very good fish soup, grilled pork, fish of the day. Excellent and original shared sides.All of them were happy, diligently served. We were a group of seven. We all agreed it was a delicious experience during Festival. Even better: very good price for this quality. Very traditional: no cards, no phone reservation. Closed on Sunday.