Well inside however an absolutely fabulous room opens up - high ceilings and beautifully renovated. The excellent food is prepared by the young chef Yohan Renard. The service is absolutely perfect, professional and very friendly. They serve both set menus and a la carte. The food is traditional southern French cuisine of highest quality. We have never been disappointed in all the visits we have made to this restaurant. When we at one occasions had some comments on the food we were well compensated and the chef took great interest in our opinions.
The restaurant serve only wine of the Abbey´s own production and it is excellent. A choice you have is to include wines on the menus. In those cases you get wines that match every dish in generous glasses. After your meal you can take a lovely walk in the fantastic nature, have a guided tour of the abbey, visit the shop or buy some bottles of wine in the wine shop.
Revisited regularly at least once a month on
our own or with friends: This is the place we go to most often and we love it. The staff and
the chef know us by now and Johan always comes out and chat with us if he has the
time. When it comes to time it is quite impressing that one chef, one sous-chef
and two young people with no experience in the kitchen can cook for a packed restaurant.
When we were there last week it was two coach-loads of people plus a lot of
ordinary lunch eaters and despite of the stress, the food and service was
absolutely perfect in every detail. On our visit today it was packed as usual.
We got a new favorite – it was pigeon baked into a “mille-feuille” with a
fantastic sauce on wine. The week before I had their set lunch-menu fish dish
as my favorite. It is a cod prepared as “morue”. It reminds of the Portugese
bacalao, but I loved this as much as I hate the Portugese dish. It is served
with a very fluffy sabayon flavored with horse-radish, which suits my Swedish
task perfectly.
Revisited October 2013: They have changed their menu, which always is nice. As always the food was excellent and the service very nice. I always try the odd things so I had duck hart for starter, which was delicious, very tender and tasty. My main was cheek of pork made a la boeuf bourguignon with mushrooms. The others had fish which they were very happy with.
Revisited March 2014: As always very good. Some dishes are changed since last year.
Revisited April 2014: An unforgettable birthday - the chef designed a special birthday-menu for me. Even our French friends who are very picky and are old restaurateurs were absolutely astonished by the quality of the meal.
Revisited June 2014: This time we celebrated an 80th birthday. The new menu was very good and it was a very nice experience as usual. One of us had the "baron d'agneu" and was not as happy as the rest of us who had the fish-dish. The new "d'amuse-bouches" on octopus was really good.
Revisited August 2014: For the first time we were sitting outside, which was lovely. The restaurant was as always packed. We had a la carte this time to get the fantastic dish with tagliatelle and scallops in a fantastic sauce. It costs a little more but when the weather is nice and in good company...
Revisited March 2015: My birthday and fantastic reception as always. They have new menus and everything we tried were delicious.
Revisted March 2015: Another birthday and a specially made lunch of four+ dishes. If you have not had their ravioli with scallops and morels, you have to go back and try it.
Revisited May 2015: The verdict from our Swedish friend was - "One of the best meals they ever have had".
Revisited July 2015: It was the first day with the new lunch menu, which always is a little special. We tried most of it between the four of us, but not the fish-dish - we'll have that next time. It was delicious - we could not really agree who made the best choices, but we were all happy.
Revisited though 2016: It is getting even better. Now they change menu every week.
Revisited several times 2017: Splendid.
Revisited 2018: It pays to be a regular customer. When we visited the restaurant in the summer for a birthday with Norwegian friends they told us that we should not order from the menu as the chef had composed a special meal for us. Do I have to say it was fantastic.
When we just dropped in on a chance the other day we got the last table and ordered the lunch of the day. To our surprise the waiter came with an extra dish that is our favorite with the compliments from the chef.
Revisited January-March 2019: We have now had two birthday lunches this year at the restaurant and the chef has composed a special menu for us. It has been absolutely fabulous.
Revisited October 2013: They have changed their menu, which always is nice. As always the food was excellent and the service very nice. I always try the odd things so I had duck hart for starter, which was delicious, very tender and tasty. My main was cheek of pork made a la boeuf bourguignon with mushrooms. The others had fish which they were very happy with.
Revisited March 2014: As always very good. Some dishes are changed since last year.
Revisited April 2014: An unforgettable birthday - the chef designed a special birthday-menu for me. Even our French friends who are very picky and are old restaurateurs were absolutely astonished by the quality of the meal.
Revisited June 2014: This time we celebrated an 80th birthday. The new menu was very good and it was a very nice experience as usual. One of us had the "baron d'agneu" and was not as happy as the rest of us who had the fish-dish. The new "d'amuse-bouches" on octopus was really good.
Revisited August 2014: For the first time we were sitting outside, which was lovely. The restaurant was as always packed. We had a la carte this time to get the fantastic dish with tagliatelle and scallops in a fantastic sauce. It costs a little more but when the weather is nice and in good company...
Revisited March 2015: My birthday and fantastic reception as always. They have new menus and everything we tried were delicious.
Revisted March 2015: Another birthday and a specially made lunch of four+ dishes. If you have not had their ravioli with scallops and morels, you have to go back and try it.
Revisited May 2015: The verdict from our Swedish friend was - "One of the best meals they ever have had".
Revisited July 2015: It was the first day with the new lunch menu, which always is a little special. We tried most of it between the four of us, but not the fish-dish - we'll have that next time. It was delicious - we could not really agree who made the best choices, but we were all happy.
Revisited though 2016: It is getting even better. Now they change menu every week.
Revisited several times 2017: Splendid.
Revisited 2018: It pays to be a regular customer. When we visited the restaurant in the summer for a birthday with Norwegian friends they told us that we should not order from the menu as the chef had composed a special meal for us. Do I have to say it was fantastic.
When we just dropped in on a chance the other day we got the last table and ordered the lunch of the day. To our surprise the waiter came with an extra dish that is our favorite with the compliments from the chef.
Revisited January-March 2019: We have now had two birthday lunches this year at the restaurant and the chef has composed a special menu for us. It has been absolutely fabulous.
WEB: http://www.fontfroide.com/abbaye_de_fontfroide_-_restaurant_la_table_de_fontfroide.htm
LATEST VISIT: March 2019
NUMBER OF VISITS: >40
Reasons for the ♥:
What can I say? Affordable gourmet food with the same quality every time. How it is possible to do that with hundreds of eating guests at the same time I can not understand. A real favorite near us there we feel like honored guests every time.
Thank you so much for this post !
ReplyDeleteIt's always a pleasure to welcome you at La Table de Fontfroide