This is a Chinese Vegetarian restaurant in the Old City of Lyon.
If you think about it, that makes no sense.
The Old City of Lyon is the most touristy part of all Lyon.
There are lots of "bouchons" which is the name for traditional French restaurants that serve Lyonnaise food.
The menu for those is very standard: Andouillette sausages, Tete du Veau, Quenelles.
The menu is as standard as that for Tex-Mex restaurants which always have tacos, nachos, enchiladas etc etc.
About 1/3 of the bouchons are legendary gourmet quality places.
The remaining 2/3 are tourist restaurants of quality running from average to maybe less than average.
Finding a Chinese Vegetarian restaurant makes little sense in such a setting.
Finding a GOOD Chinese Vegetarian restaurant in the tourist district ????
Seems as likely as cows flying.
But Carre Jardin really is a FIRST RATE vegetarian restaurant.
The menu is small.
The dishes are highly original.
This is not the standard stuff of Chinese "fake meat" restaurants.
Nor is it the cliched vegetable dishes of Chinese take-out joints.
These are original well crafted wonderful vegetable dishes.
* * *
My suspicion is that some good urban planning has gone into Carre Jardin being here.
In most European tourist districts, the restaurants are either
a) cliched stereotypes of local cuisine
b) artisanal high performance versions of local cuisine
c) cheap mass produced eats and alcohol for the tourists.
* * *
This does NOT apply to Old Lyon.
What is striking is how many GOOD restaurants are in Old Lyon
And how they do not necessarily represent either "traditional Lyonnaise cooking" or "mass produced cheap food and beer blasts".
There are many forms of international and French/non-Lyonnaise cuisine represented ...
And the food provided is actually good.
I suspect that a lot of work was put in by the Lyon authorities to insure that Old City food would NOT turn into tourist food ...
That there would be real dining and serious dining that defies tourist stereotypes.
French cities and Japanese cities are among the most carefully planned cities in the Global North.
The French are known for excellence in historical preservation ...
And excellence in controlling tourist flows without making their cities feel swamped with tourists.
The tourist presence is suffocating in Barcelona, in Prague or in Venice.
Paris has more tourists than any of those places -
Yet, Paris always feels like a real city ... even when you are in the heart of the most heavily visited tourist neighborhoods.
Decades of careful and precise planning are what lead to this positive result.
I think the Lyon authorities have done as fine a job in Lyon as the Parisian authorities have done in Paris.
And having great Asian food in unexpected places is a part of keeping the Old City vital.
* * *
But never mind the sociology of this and the sociology of that.
Good food is good food.
Go to Carre Jardin.
Eat your healthy vegetables.
This will leave you in great shape for stuffing your face with French pastries mid-afternoon,
and pork cracklings, tripe and chartreuse for dinner.
You can't eat pig guts all of the time. read more
