We stopped here on an off day from a guided tour of France, somewhat disappointed with the tour guide's selections of restaurants and menu items, in search of real French cuisine. Our first option was closed for dinner on Wednesdays and thus we braved the forecasted heavy rain to walk nearly 2km just to get here and take a big gamble on the highly polarizing reviews around all cyberspace platforms. We were pleased to find that neither our fears of rain or poor food were founded.
The restaurant is quaint and open-air like I've imagined French cafés to be. The staff we've been told are rather snobby, were actually quite nice, though perhaps speaking some French helps as it did for us. The menu is rather extensive and covers many classic dishes in central France, and we found the three-course menus to be reasonably priced for the cuisine, setting and region we were in (19 euro for one of them). The house red wine is very fruity with prune and apricot notes and low tannins, and was very consistently drinkable glass after glass.
My first exposure to escargot was a positive one even if I learned the dish in general was not going to be one of my favorites, as the garlic herb butter was put together well and the presentation excellent. The bœuf bourguignonne was very tender, better than either version we'd had in Paris, and the tagliatelle accompaniment a good pairing. The potatoes lacked salt but putting the gravy on them helps. The crème caramel dessert is basically a flan but a very luxurious take that isn't too caramelized as to not eat smoothly.
I wouldn't eat here often simply because of the price point, but to taste authentic French cuisine I think this was a good experience and would rate it a solid four stars.
Bref, en français : Un resto au charme désuet proche de la Place de Tours, pas extrêmement cher (19 euro prix-fixe pour Le Menu du Terroir) et un bon choix pour expérimenter la cuisine française classique, telle que la bœuf bourguignonne. Je ne suis pas d'accord avec les articles sur l'Internet, car nous avons trouvés que le propriétaire était sympa. On n'y allait pas souvent dû au prix, mais si vous avez l'argent, manger ici sera une super belle expérience ! read more
