"My partner and I arrived at Poule au Pot no more than a minute or two late for a 9:00 p.m. reservation that had been made through the restaurant 's online reservation system almost a month in advance. Upon arriving and greeting the host and mentioning our reservation in French, Thomas , responded to us in English that he did not have a reservation for us. When I showed him the confirmation email, he pointed at the date on the email that notes when the reservation was made and insisted that was the date of our reservation and that we had made a mistake. While my French is bad, it isn 't that bad, and I pointed to the proper date for our reservation noted on the email. Once I did that, he insisted that I had not clicked the Confirmer Ma Reservation link in the email and that our reservation had been canceled. He tried to prove the point by having me click on the link while in the restaurant. When I did so, the reservation website brought up an Authorisation refusee message that the host used as justification for saying that we didn 't have a reservation. The problem? Since it was now a few minutes (no more than five) after our reservation time, this is the message that the website displays whether or not a reservation has been confirmed. I know that I had confirmed the reservation promptly a few days earlier, but since the reservation system doesn 't generate confirmation emails, there was no way of proving it. When I asked if we could be accommodated anyway, noting a few empty tables in the restaurant, we were told that they were booked for the night. I then asked if it would be possible to make a reservation in the next few days. Thomas was completely unhelpful, refusing to look up availability and only gave us the restaurant 's card and told us that they might have availability tomorrow or Monday and to call and ask for him. We then left annoyed by the situation but me mostly mad at myself that I had somehow made a mistake in booking and confirming the reservation. About 15 minutes later we arrived back at our hotel room, at which point the anger at myself shifted to the restaurant and the host, Thomas . In looking online to see if another reservation was available during the remainder of our stay in Paris, I discovered that there was a 9:30 p.m. reservation available that evening, so the host 's insistence that the restaurant was booked for the night was a lie. Furthermore, I discovered that the restaurant is closed on Sundays and Mondays the two days that the host told us that the restaurant may have availability. Since the two of us arrived on time for the reservation, were dressed in a manner and style similar to the other diners, greeted the host in French, and were polite during the entire interaction, it is difficult to come to the conclusion that we were turned away and treated as we were for any other reason than we were a gay couple. I would recommend that any LGBT person who wishes to dine at this restaurant to do so only with the expectation of the possibility of being refused service, and a backup reservation at another establishment in place."
