The food here was pretty good but not really amazing. The portions are pretty large, but the dishes…read moreare a little on the heavier side (but food in Lyon tends to be on the heavier side). The restaurant is pretty big and has two stories - we had a reservation on a Saturday afternoon (it was easy to make reservations online via LaForchette.
We both got the menu du jour which for 3 courses was 29€, and there were 3 choices for the entrées, 3 choices for the plats and 3 for the dessert. For the amount of food that we got, this was a decent deal, but I didn't find the quality of the food to be quite as good as other places I've gone in France, for similar prices or even cheaper.
Entrées:
- Le Fenouil - Velouté de fenouil, espuma de Serrano, chips de fenouil, noisettes torréfiées - This was a fennel veloute with a cream on top and some hazelnuts on top. It was good, but just really rich and more cream flavor than fennel flavor. I know it's a cream based soup, but it was just a bit too rich for my taste. I preferred my husband's asparagus entrée to this velouté.
- L'Asperfe - Crue et cuite, pain perdu aux noix, sabayon au Riesling. This was better than the fennel soup, and a bit healthier with raw and cooked asparagus, served with a hollandaise sauce. I expected the pain perdu to be softer and more like a dessert pain perdu (but savory), but it was a bit hard and flat. The taste of this entrée was good though, and I would recommend it.
Plats:
- La Lotte - I got the lotte (white fish) which was cooked with cumin, onions, shitake mushrooms and carrots, but didn't really care for this dish. The portion was large, but when it was served, it was a like a big bowl of rice with vegetables mixed in and topped with fish. The texture of the rice was a bit mushy and the fish was chewy and also kind of mushy. I ate this, but didn't really love it. I've had much better fish dishes at other restaurants, and would pass on this one.
- L'Agneau - My husband got this lamb dish and really loved it. The portion was huge and the texture of the lamb confit was nice and tender and fell off the bone. It was served on top of bean sprouts. I think this was one of the better lamb dishes he's had in France.
Desserts:
- La Pomme - I thought by the description of this dessert, that it would an entire apple cooked in honey and white chocolate, but it was more of a deconstructed green apple dessert. It was like a half-sphere shell of white chocolate, filled with an apple mousse and with pieces of green apple. It was actually pretty light and refreshing.
- Le Chocolat - My husband got the chocolate dessert which was like a cake/brownie in a coffee sauce, and with a mousse on top. I thought it was okay - I normally love chocolate desserts but this wasn't terribly memorable for me.
Overall, decent portions and prices for lunch, but I wasn't really blown away by the food here. The lamb my husband had was good, but most of the other dishes for me were not super memorable and the quality of the produce and meats weren't quite as fresh for my liking. If you're in the area and looking for somewhere to eat, this is fine but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat here or come back.
