Sunday lunch...

Friends asked us to join them yesterday for Sunday lunch and chose L'Atelier des Saveurs in Plumartin. It proved to be a good choice, good food in a good ambiance - you could even buy your surroundings if you wished as it is also home to a brocante 'shop'!

How do you like your eggs...

For lunch on our visit to Blois we choose  the 'Au Bouchon Lyoness' on Rue des Violettes just behind the chateau. It proved to be a good choice with a well priced hearty menu with win by the carafe (which we saw being poured from a bottle). For our starters Mike and I choose poached eggs in Beauglais something neither of us had tried before ...yummy!

Dining out in Tours - 'La Ruche' 105 rue Colbert

We always enjoy visiting Tours but when we are there over lunchtime we sometimes find it difficult to choose where to eat as we are so spoilt for choice. On our visit yesterday it was made a little easier for us because, as we were walking done the pedestrianised rue Colbert checking out the menus of some of the many restaurants, a charming elderly lady encouraged us to try the one opposite to where we were standing. She said the food was all freshly made using produce bought locally and at a fair price. After confirming she wasn’t related to the proprietrice and her letting us know she was a local resident with three generations of her family living in Tours, we decided to give it a try.

The restaurant was the small but perfectly formed 'LaRuche' which retains some of the authentic charm of the eighteenth century house it once was. We chose the 'Plat et Dessert' menu at 14.50 euro. We both had a very tasty 'blanquette de veau' for our main, plus our choice of dessert, this is Pauline's below, I had profiteroles. It was all served very professionally by a young man (in a dickie-bow no less) and young woman. You can buy a bottle of wine from their wine menu at sensible prices or by the glass at 4.50euro.   

We would certainly recommend it!

'La Ruche' 105 rue Colbert , Tours,  02 47 66 69 83

Restaurant review 'L'Entracte' in Loches

We had a good lunch at 'L'Entracte' on Rue de Chateau in Loches on Saturday. We had eaten here before a few years ago on their outside terrace to the rear of the restaurant and had also enjoyed it on that occasion.

We chose the 'menue de marche' which consisted of 'lamb crumble' which was very tasty... 

'chicken supreme' with sweet potato and a cooked endive ( which we could have done without), followed by profiteroles all for 16.00 euros per head. Good quality in pleasant surroundings at a reasonable price. 

Reading the menu

Just before Eileen left on Saturday Paul treated us to lunch at the ' L'ère du Temps' restaurant in nearby Lesigny. We have visited it couple of times recently and enjoyed good food and good value for money served by amiable hosts. There was only one problem on the day, where I chose fish,good old reliable 'Colin' again, they went for the lasagne option...without realising it was a spinach version!

Eileen enjoyed hers as she likes spinach and Paul made a very valiant attempt at finishing his - Paul and spinach,who would have thought! Unfortunately it was a bit too much for Pauline...next time she will pay more attention to the detail!

A good idea?

Last week when we were away 'treasure' hunting around Chauvigny we had lunch in the 'Havana Cafe' in the town. The meal at only €10.00 was interesting in that the whole meal, main,cheese & dessert, came on the one plate! It was also tasty and served by friendly staff so all in all a good choice...forgot to mention you get free bowls of monkey nuts to nibble on while you wait for your meal...now that was a first!

Centre-Val de Loire and Southern Touraine - always surprising

When we visited Chedigny recently with friends, just before the village's 'Rose Festival'  we had hoped to lunch in the restaurant in the village ' Le Clos aux Roses' but unfortunately it was closed " in preparation for the villages big weekend"- shame their website hadn't let us know! So, as we had planned our trip to arrive just before lunchtime, we had to find an alternative quickly.

We had a couple of villages near by that might provide us with an option and thankfully chose to visit the little village of Azay-sur-Indre to the west of Chedigny along the D10. Not a very big place but has its (locked) church, river (Indre) views... 

and points of interest  

Happily it also had a restaurant ' Le Relais d'Azay' and it proved to be an excellent choice lovely outside space,pleasant staff, great food and value for money...we would highly recommend it.

 Pauline was happy with the choice!

La Folie...

We had often sat at the traffic lights at the junction where the D50 from Veigne meets Rue Nationale on the way up to Tours and looked over at the busy carpark at the the adjacent restaurant 'La Folie'.

To us this is always a good sign of good food at competitive prices but we had never tried it - we were always either passing before or after lunch as we'd be on 'a mission' of some sort and as anyone will tell you you can't complete much over lunchtime...except a good lunch perhaps!  

On the way up to Tours yesterday to pick up Miki (the owner of 'Le Bourg') we noticed it had reopened after a bit of a makeover so, as it was in fact a lunchtime train we were meeting, decided to try it on the way back to Barrou.

The new interior is very modern and comfortable. We had a lamb tagine (there was thee other choices) which was very tasty. A couple of things we didn't like so much were the fact that you selected your desert from a chill cabinet and had to take your coffee from a little machine (you can see it on the left above) but overall it was tasty and good value for money.

La Claise restaurant, Preuilly-sur-Claise

 Last Friday, along with friends, we visited the recently re-opened 'La Claise' restaurant in Preuilly-sur-Claise We had eaten here in the past when it was a pizza restaurant and were sorry to see it close. It always seemed like a great location for an eatery, so we were pleased to see it re-opened on an earlier 'drive-by'.

We had the €12.00 lunch menu, starter,main.cheese and dessert - all very nice. The price also included a half carafe of red wine -great value for money. On Friday nights and weekends they offer 'gastro' menus at €18, €25 and €31.

Good food in pleasant surroundings in good company -all you can ask. 

Worth celebrating...

We had a great meal last night at 'Le Savoie Villars' in Le Grand Pressigny to celebrate the end of our rental season and...38 years of marriage! Both worth celebrating. I didn't take my camera...I am sure it would have felt like a gooseberry! Though the presentation of the food deserved photographing - will just have to go back soon. 

We have lunched here before and even for that they go all out on presentation...

They had 20 covers in the dining room last night,which was good too see - and what was also good was that they accepted a couple at 9.00pm - without a reservation!

If you haven't eaten here you should try it.

Will do more on our 'season' in another post.

Patrimoine...a break for lunch

For lunch on Sunday Karen had booked a table for us at the 'Auberge de la Tour' in Chatillon-sur-Indre which had a good write-up in the Michelan guide.

 Karen &Pauline - anticipating.

We chose the three course €26.00 menu - though we were given an amuse-bouche of Gazpacho to start. 

 For entrées I tried the carpaccio de beouf...

...Pauline and Karen had the 'nems de Gamba'...

...and David the 'tartare de saumon'

The main courses were all as tasty as the other - above is my 'trilogie de viandes grillées'

We all chose the 'café gourmand' for desert...mmmm

We all enjoyed the meal,my only criticism would be that the service was a little slow - but the restaurant was full and it was Sunday...maybe I just need to embrace the two hour lunch more. 

Chinon restaurant review...

When we visited Chinon last Friday we decided to return to a restaurant we enjoyed dining in on a previous visit and one our friends had not tried, The restaurant is l'Ardoise on on Rue Rabelais first brought to our attention by Jean & Nick.

We choose to eat on the first floor front terrace.

Our lunch was very tasty, well presented and served by friendly staff.

All you need from a restaurant...and at €15.00 for three courses including this delightful 'café gourmand' - great value.

 Pauline thought the we had actually paid more the last time we were here but the quality was still the same.    Not surprisingly the restaurant got very busy over lunchtime.

Sparkling day out...Part II

After our visit to the 'Cave des Producteurs' in Vouvray we headed over to Montlouis-sur-Loire to visit our favourite vintner...but we had planned our trip to fit in lunch first. Pauline and I had eaten at our chosen restaurant,'Le Bas Rocher' on Quai Albert Baillet, before but our friends hadn't. We had actually been checking out the 'Toque et Vins' gourmet restaurant next door which looked inviting but the menu on that particular day wasn't to our taste and to pay €21.00 for lunch it had to be.

We were heading back to the car when we noticed 'Le Bas Rocher' and although it is advertised as a 'creperie' it is more than that.

We had eaten inside on our first visit...

 and remembered the highlight was their 'cafe gourmand'  ('Relais de la Mothe' take note)

This time we sat on the terrace and our friends agreed (thankfully) that it was a good choice. Good food in a good setting with a very pleasant hostess. We had the straightforward 'formule midi' at €11.90 ( 3 choices for each course) but all had the cafe gourmand and coffee, plus wine of course and including the tip it was only €15.00 /head...great value.

Two strikes and you're out...

Almost a year ago we reviewed the 'Relais de la Mothe' restaurant in Yzeures-sur-Creuse and although it wasn't a great experience we did agree that we should give it a second chance. Well it took a long time but yesterday with friends we visited it again for lunch, sadly we were not impressed. We went for the lunchtime menu of main course and 'café gourmand' at 14€. The main consisted of a not large fish 'parcel' including a vegetable selection that left you looking around for something to add some sustenance. At least we had the 'café gourmand' to look forward to. Sadly, when it did arrive it bore little resemblance to what we have become used to here in the Loire Valley - you would normally see at least three samples of desserts sitting beside your coffee but not here...this is what we got.

The restaurant had only two tables for lunch which perhaps tells its own story. The staff were very pleasant but the general consensus was that it will be another long time before we are back.