First time to France

[lizziee]

Sorry Cabrales. I haven't eaten at Rotonde, but Michelin says it is open for lunch on Sunday.

Enjoy Auberge. I think you will be suitably impressed.

[cabrales]

lizziee -- Thank-you for your continuing advice. On Rotunde, I am considering it. It's located in a casino, so the Sunday opening makes sense.

I am using a helpful guide called "Lyon Gourmand" by Andre et Christine Mure (2001 edition, 31st edition), in addition to Michelin and other guides. This particular local guide was inexpensive (7,47 euro), and purchased at a small newspaper stand.

For 2001, the other ratings at the Auberge de L'Ill level (the highest level, other than Bocuse, who is at a level all to himself called "Hors Concours") are: L'Alexandrin, Blanc, Chapel, *Domaine de Clairefontaine*, *Le Fedora*, *Larivoire*, *Guy Lassausaie*, Leon de Lyons (to be visited), Les Loges (ditto), Pierre Orsi (very interesting, but may not be included in visit), Pyramide, Rotonde, Christian Tetedoie, *La Tour Rose* and Villa Florentine. I would be interested in additional member input, if available, on the restaurants marked with an asterisk.

Edited January 24, 2003 by cabrales (log)

[lizziee]

La Tour Rose was the winner for our worst meal in France EVER!!!!! They just lost their only star and deserve to be taken out of Michelin entirely.

We stayed at Les Loges, but did not eat there. However, we were doing business with a very knowledgeable "food and wine" person from Lyon who felt that Rotunde was superb. Somewhere, I have the review from La Belle France. If you want me to summarize it, I will be happy to do so.

Are you going to Leon de Lyon for lunch or dinner? We felt lunch was a better alternative - more Lyonnaise specialities.

[cabrales]

I have the review from La Belle France.

lizziee -- When you have a chance, what is La Belle France? Why, in very broad terms, was your meal at La Tour Rose (P Chavent?) so poor? (What are your views on La Tour Rose (G Vignant)?)

I'd further appreciate members' input, if available, on Bernachon Passion.

Edited January 25, 2003 by cabrales (log)

[lizziee]

Cabrales,

La Belle France is published through Terence Y. Sieg and can be found at www.labellefrance.com. Over the years, I have found wonderful suggestions.

As to La Tour Rose - Here is my post:

Now for our worst meal on this year's trip. Also in Lyon, it was La Tour Rose - The Ultimate Disaster.

We had eaten at La Tour Rose when it was a one star and had a wonderful meal. This year it lost its only star and, although we were worried, Francois, the concierge at Cour des Loges had heard good reports from the guests.

He had not yet recommended it. As it turns out, a good thing.

The chef was so distraught at losing his only star he had to be hospitalized (only in France!) and currently there is a new chef (at least they call him that) plus new servers, manager, etc.

The restaurant is absolutely magnificent. It is located in another of the 14th century hotels in old Lyon. It is as if you were sitting in a glass "cage"--the ceiling and 2 sides are all glass. You are sitting in the middle of history--colonnades and little passages are all around--in the "old days" these were used for smuggling. This particular night we should have used them to sneak out of this experience.

With our champagne --amuse--strings of fennel (I think, as our server hurriedly mumbled his description). There was a pronounced licorice taste. The green stuff had been made into greasy, oily tempura strips.

1st amuse--cream based soup of small bits of almonds, foie gras (according to the waiter) and an aromatic olive oil swirled on top. There was no taste of foie gras (I doubt it was there) and after a couple of bites, it was boring to eat.

2nd course--after a long (over 30 minutes) wait, we were presented with a tart of anchovies. This was a greasy mess of mushy eggplant and tomatoes swimming in olive oil, with fishy smelly obviously tired anchovies laid over the mush and topped off with a stale, tasteless, greasy wafer.

3rd course--cold oyster soup flavored with lemon and served with 3 tiny egg-white quenelles on which were place about 5 grains of caviar. The oyster taste was there, but with no presence of real oysters and so little caviar--no texture or crunch. This was a rendition of a classic dish--mediocre at best.

4th course--lightly cooked, lightly smoked salmon served on an array of mixed greens. The salmon was old, smelly and rancid. We had one bite saying --even the cats of Lyon would reject this mess.

By now we had eaten one piece of fennel, two soup spoons of the foie gras (?) soup, one piece of anchovy, and one of salmon--not a very good picture.

What was hard to understand is that the room was full of what appeared to be convention types, a table of 8 American women with badges on, but also a number of tables of "locals." They were all scarfing down this stuff that we could not even get past our lips--we hope they all did not die of ptomaine poisoning that night.

5th course--we were dreading the next course, the filet of boeuf. It arrived, a stringy, flavorless hunk of beef swimming in a brown mess of sauce that had no finesse. I wondered what sort of "reduction" methods the "chef" had used on this. It also did not help that we were supposed to cut this leather stuff with butter knives--we asked for the standard steak knives that are used in every French restaurant--they were grudgingly provided and still the meat was tough--only ate our "standard" one bite.

Wine--and a wine story. For wine we chose the 00 Gangloff Condrieu-- and St. Bonnet), wonderful and the 99 Gangloff LA Serein Noire, Cote Rotie. This is a wine we had not heard of from Mathilde et Yves Gangloff--higher priced than the La Barbarine that we love.

The sommelier was very enthusiastic. It was very good, but not spectacular. I had to ask for the proper glasses--which did not help. Certainly a very good Cote Rotie, but not any kind of value.

Now--the story.

The Gangloff has a very unique label. They had just poured one glass of the Gangloff for us and we waited to enjoy it with our meat. My husband, then, sees one of the comis pouring our wine as wine by the glass for some other couple--well-what to do, limited French but we are being screwed out of 30+ % of our 130 Euro bottle...

My husband took action by pointing out the mistake to the Maitre d' who immediately verified it with the comis who poured...no real apologies from anyone other than the kid who screwed up, but they eventually brought us another bottle of the same wine--making good on our money--except the new bottle was freezing cold...the sommelier had become very snooty all of a sudden--embarrassed or something--he did not present new glasses, and poured the new wine directly into the old--who knew if the new bottle was bad..but ..it was so cold we wouldn't have been able to tell anyway.

Toward the end of the meal, I went to the bathroom and mentioned to the manager, Yves, that La Tour Rose used to be a wonderful restaurant with memorable dishes like the sliced potatoes with creme fraiche and caviar. He sort of shrugged his shoulders and said, "What do you expect from a restaurant with no stars?"

We have eaten in many non-starred restaurants and have had some wonderful experiences at places like La Cote Rotie in Ampuis, Can Peio in Junas, Le Saint Laurent in Macon and Le Mimosa in Saint Guiraud, etc.

What a mess - considering food, wine, service et al--this ranks as one of the 3 worst dining situations we have had in years. At this point we gave up entirely on the meal, even though we had quite a bit of red wine left. We decided to make sure that the "staff" did not get the pleasure of our wine and became mixologists with a new "recipe" just for our servers. Our special recipe--1 part red wine, 1 part Evian and 1 part left over white wine.

[hollywood]

Cabrales,

La Belle France is published through Terence Y. Sieg and can be found at www.labellefrance.com. Over the years, I have found wonderful suggestions.

I agree about La Belle France. Last time I tried the website in December, it wasn't up. Under construction. But the newsletter is still going.