Le Salon Rose is a formal French dining room with white table clothes, crystal and period furniture. The servers are dressed in black and white with black vests. The room is quiet and subdued. Lunch is a 4-course set meal that costs about $45 Euros. Lunch with wine for two with service (tip) is about $225 Cdn. 

The food and service was impeccable and we enjoyed our hour and a half dining in this opulent restaurant. We were the only diners. When I called for the bill, the server came. The bill was about $140 Euros and I gave him my credit card and players card. 

I told him that the player club desk told us that there was a 10% discount on all food and beverages consumed with presentation of the players card. He looked at the card and we could see that this was new to him. He excused himself and I saw him walk the length of the restaurant to the house phone. I could see him talking and looking at us. He hung up and walked back to us.

He stopped and formally said, “Mr. and Mrs. Robertson, thank you for dining with us today. We would like to offer your meal with our compliments.” We looked at each other stunned and then back at him. As we tried to not look nonplussed we thanked him and he walked away.

We sat there for a moment looking at each other with raised eyebrows. Quickly we got up and exited the restaurant. Outside Le Salon Rose, we grabbed each other by our shoulders and pushed our faces together whispering to each other how that happened. We quickly walked through the casino looking back.

Descending the front stairs we hurried through the exotic cars always parked in front of the casino. We began running through the park to our bus stop yelling, “Start the car, start the car!”, while running up the hill laughing. We laughed all the way back to Nice.

We will never know why our meal was comped at the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco. To a budget foodie, hearing, “We would like to offer our compliments on your meal today,” is breaking the bank at Monte Carlo.