While the hotel itself seems devoid of much charm (new construction, sterile decor), the restaurant is fantastic and the location, perched on a hillside, is quite lovely for a sunset dinner. If you happen to be staying in the tiny village of Essoyes during your tour de Champagne, Hotel des Canotiers is a worthy of a grand meal. Upon entering, the restaurant was all-too-reminiscent of a hotel conference room. And, it was dead quiet - a handful of other diners were talking in hushed voices between dainty sips of champagne, and there was NO background music to cut the awkward silence. My guy was like "Don't give in! Just talk normal!", so we did. Which I think motivated them to put some music on, finally. After a couple glasses of lovely, local bubbles, all was well. The food was really exquisite, though the service was a bit cold, or overly-professional. I had a crab salad: a tower of real crab meat, surrounded by little dabs of aioli. For the man, some very well cooked meat (I forget the details). Dessert was a lovely mound of nougat ice cream with forest berries and mango sauce. On a modest day, you could sit on their patio, but they insisted that the sun was too bright that day (c'mon we're on vacation!) and kept us inside. It's certainly not the chic Parisian dining experience, but for a divine meal they definitely deliver. read more

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