Le Bistrot la Nautique

LE BISTROT LA NAUTIQUE - 12 rue des Nauticards, Port la Nautique, 11100 Narbonne

We visited a new restaurant today. It was Bistrot la Nautique which is situated next to the camping site La Nautique on the inside of Etang de Bages outside Narbonne. The environment is pleasant next to the boat harbor and we sat outside with a sea-view. The place is very simple, quite rustic, but on purpose. The food is mainly sea-food and it was good, but not exceptional. They have a quite large wine list for a place like this.

On the negative side however is the prize. It is far too expensive taken the food and the venue into account. For a starter and a main and coffee plus a small carafe of rosé we paid almost the same as we do for a fantastic multi-course lunch at one of our favorite Michelin restaurants and the difference is enormous in everything - including the view.

WEB: https://lanautiquenarbonne.com/
LATEST VISIT: July 2018
NUMBER OF VISITS: 1

CAFÈ DU PORT

CAFÈ DU PORT – Borne 436, Canal du Midi, Paraza

You can’t miss it when you come to Paraza. It is a small restaurant just at the Canal du Midi. The food is really good and the service friendly. We had nice salads and gazpacho for starters and the confit de canard for main was fantastic as the entrecote was. One of the best French fries we have had in the area.
For you who has a problem with French. The owner is English so you will get what you think you have ordered.


WEB: http://www.cafeduport.com
LATEST VISIT: July 2017
NUMBER OF VISITS: 1

O'SOLEIL LA BRASSERIE du SOLEIL

O'SOLEIL LA BRASSERIE du SOLEIL - 34 Quai Antonin Gros, 34340 Marseillan

Marseillan is in itself a very nice place on Bassin de Thau and to visit any of the restaurants along the port is very pleasant. If the food is nice and the price is right it is even better. La brasserie du Soleil is one of those places. We have been there quite a few times but I have not reviewed it before.
We were four people and three of us had filled and grilled mussels and myself I had their home made foie gras. We were all very happy. For main, three of us had back of cod and one of us had a skewer on beef.

My cod was absolutely perfectly cooked and served in Japanese style in a vegetable broth with lemon grass. It was beautiful. Even if this is a typical fish restaurant the meat was tender and perfectly cooked I was told. For desert I had the classic Illes flottantes, two of us had gazpacho on pineapple and one a cheese platter. I do not know if it has improved enormously or if my memory from earlier visits has faded. Now it is really good and – the full menu is 29 euros.

The service is professional and nice and we talked to the chef when we left and he gave an impression of proficiency and ambition.

After you leave you have to visit the home of the famous Noilly Prat whose plant is just across the port. They have come up with a new Extra Dry version which is even more perfect for a dry martini than the Original Dry.

WEB: https://www.facebook.com/osoleilmarseillan/
LATEST VISIT: April 2017
NUMBER OF VISITS: 4

LE GRAND CAP ♥

LE GRAND CAP - Chemin du Phare, 11370 LEUCATE
Michelin 

The restaurant in the same building used to be the one Michelin star restaurant Klim & Ko. Now it has new owners and is totally redecorated. It was good before, but it is far better now. We had a birthday lunch on a Monday with friends and it was fantastic.

The new owners are Pamela and Ewan Houssin. He has worked for Franck Putelat in Carcassonne and at the remarkable Meurice in Paris. Pamela is making all the fantastic sweets and desserts.

We tried the normal lunch of the day which starts with a “pouce bouche” followed by a really delicious starter on sea-food. The main course was very tender pork. We also had some cheese from the trolley, which was extra and after that we were served a pre-desert, followed by one of the most ambitious deserts I ever seen on a lunch menu. We were full, but still there were tons of sweets served – all hand made in the restaurant. All this, except the cheese, for 32 euros per person. Everything was absolutely delicious.

As I mentioned the restaurant is totally redecorated and the new chairs are comfortable. The table setting is really nice in all aspects and every little piece is chosen to remind you of the sea that is dominating the view entirely wherever you sit in the restaurant.

As positive as everything was I have a couple of small complaints: 14 euros for those tiny small pieces of cheese that were served is a theft and it did not get better when a piece of cheese dropped on the serving table was picked up and put on my friend’s plate. Also – the background music is terrible. It is a very irritating loop of new-age spa-music that just got us crazy after a while.

I am sure this will be the next Michelin star restaurant in the area and we will certainly go back many times.

Revisited November 2016: It was really good this time also. The today's lunch was a dream, so I expect the other menus offered to be a real experience for the taste as well as for the eyes. For those with a sweet tooth this place is also like coming to heaven. The desserts are endless also on the set lunch menu.

Revisited April 2017: Fantastic as always and the weather was splendid, which is an extra at this place.

WEB: http://www.restaurant-grand-cap.fr/

LATEST VISIT: Decembre 2018
NUMBER OF VISITS: 7

Reasons for the ♥ :
First of all the food, which is of highest gourmet class, but it does not hurt to look out over the infinite view of the Mediterranean Sea from a very tastefully designed restaurant there every detail is chosen with care. And - the sweets of course.

LE VIEUX COQ

LE VIEUX COQ - 1 rue Albert Paul Allies, 34120, Pezenas

This is a small restaurant located in one corner of the little square Gambetta. The location is very nice and the food is good and at a good price. One of the reasons that we go there is that there are many chances in Pezenas to get really bad food – especially if you go to one of the “restaurants” along Place du 14 Juilliet. Take a few extra steps and go into the old town – it will pay off.

WEB:
Latest visit: September 2016
Number of visits: 2

LA GUINGUETTE

LA GUINGUETTE – Rue de la Fontaine Fraîche, 11200 Argens Minervois

This restaurant on the banks of Canal du Midi is very rustic and charming. It is the first time we visited it, but we have got good recommendations from many friends to go there. We were not disappointed. The food is traditional and well-made and the atmosphere is very pleasant. You sit outside under large parasols. It is nice to see the canal boats passing by while listening to old French chansons in the background. For the first time we had grilled Camembert cheese on toast with tomatoes and garlic. It sounds weird, but is really delicious. Try it for starter or as a small dish – it is quite filling.
They have a good selection of local wines at a good price and in the summer they have concerts in the evening.

WEB: http://www.laguinguette-restaurant.com/
Latest visit: June 2017
Number of visits: 2

LA RÔTISSERIE – Restaurant Médiéval

LA RÔTISSERIE – Château de Villerouge-Terménès, 11330, Villerouge-Terménès

This is a special place. The venue is the old castle and they try to take you back to the 13^th century. They have four set menus and everything is well made and very generous. Aperitif and wine is included and generously served. You eat with a sharp knife, a wooden spoon and your fingers and use a bread-cake as plate. The personnel are dressed in 13^th century outfit and are very pleasant. Yes - it is special made for us tourists, but the price is right, the food is good and it is an adventure to visit the restaurant. Menus start from 35 euros and we were very happy with that.

WEB: http://restaurant-medieval.com/
Latest visit: September 2016
Number of visits: 1

LA MAISON DE PETIT PIERRE

LA MAISONDE PETIT PIERRE - 22, Avenue Pierre Verdier 34500 Béziers

Pierre Augé won the prestigious French Top Chef 2014 and has now won over the winners the following two years. We visited his restaurant in the summer when one can sit in the lovely garden. The food is very creative and delicious. It is an experience to go there, but still not too expensive. The atmosphere is very homey and pleasant and Little Pierre himself moves around among the guests, says a few words, shakes a few hands and is happy to pose on a picture together with the guests.

It is really an experience to visit this restaurant – but you have to reserve a table in advance.


WEB: http://www.lamaisondepetitpierre.fr/index.html
Latest visit: May 2015
Number of visits: 1

AUBERGE DE ST-MARTIN

AUBERGE DE ST-MARTIN - 11 Avenue du Général de Gaulle, 34210 Beaufort

We have visited this restaurant twice. The first time we were sitting in the garden and had some grilled dishes. We were very satisfied. The second time was on mothers day 2016 and we were not quite that happy. Maybe the quality was not so high because of the occasion and the pressure it puts on staff.
The service is very nice and the venue outside is very nice in the summer.

WEB: http://www.auberge-st-martin.fr/
Latest visit: May 2016
Number of visits: 2

L’Ô à la BOUCHE

L'Ô à la BOUCHE - 4 Allée de Cyprés, 11 120 Le Somail

Once it was a pizzeria, which we have visited, but with the new owner it is upgraded to quite a pleasant restaurant. The style of the place is really much more interesting than before and the first thing I notices entering the restaurant was the fantastic selection of very classy malt whiskeys.

Another first impression is the owner who is styled like a homeless teenager that have been sleeping under a bridge for a couple of weeks. All right for young people perhaps, but when you are over 50 and run a restaurant it is something else in my opinion, but I am sure some people think it is just right. Anyhow – the food is good at its best but the quality is a little uneven and overpriced compared to what you can get in the area. Possibly because of the location on the banks of Canal du Midi with all foreign tourists that have to stay close to their boat.

Our entrecôte was really good and tender and my wife’s turbot was good as well, but mine that was slightly smaller was over-cooked. So was the lobster one of our friends eat. The service was very nice and we got four glasses of sparkling for free because we had an anniversary. We will certainly return to this place as Le Somail is a great place and the owner is a pleasant guy despite his “modern” looks.

WEB: http://www.loalabouche.fr/
Latest visit: January 2016
Number of visits: 1

LA GUINGUETTE CHEZ FADY

LA GUINGUETTE CHEZ FADY - 25 Avenue de la Cadole, 34540 Balaruc-les-Bains

We visited one of the hidden restaurants in Balaruc les Bains today. With hidden I mean that yuo do not find it by accident. It is situated along the long walk by Etang de Thau with a fantastic view, but is not seen from any road nearby. They are – at it should be – specialized on sea-food and they know how to cook that. I can tell you that.

We were there with two friend. One of the ladies is in convalescence after an accident and she is in a wheel-chair. The restaurant is near where she is treated. As Balaruc is in the Sete area the specials of the place are “Setoise”, which means sea-food made with garlic, saffron and other local specialities. Me and our friend had the special fish-soup with croutons with garlic, grated cheese and “rouille”, which is aïoli with saffron. The name means rust because of the colour. It is not always you get this soup made from scratch, but this was. Fantastic! My wife had another speciality from Sete – “moule farcie” – and it was also really good. Our other friend had skewers with squid and a big plate with assorted shellfish. They actually had very good meat too.

The service is very pleasant and welcoming and the view is fantastic. The sun was shining – it was roasting hot in November and the sea-gulls were busy looking for food circling over the enormous oyster-beds outside the window.

WEB: www.laguinguette-restaurant.fr/

Latest visit: November 2015
Number of visits: 1

LA PENA

LA PENA - 80 boulevard du front de mer, 11210 Port La Nouvelle

We have been to this restaurant a few times before, but now I think it is time to include it in the list. We were there a Sunday in November – the sun was shining – it was 25 degrees and the place was almost full both inside and on the terrace.

My wife had mussels and she said it was the best she had in a long time. They had different varieties of this traditional dish. I had “steak hache”, which is a burger without bread made from fresh meat in the restaurant. They had both a beef and a horse variety. It was excellent. The restaurant has a large varieties of tapas, which looked really good. A good sign was that the local police parked the patrol-car outside and entered the restaurant for lunch. Policemen all over the world often have the choice of lunch places as a core skill.

WEB:
Latest visit: November 2015
Number of visits: 3

LE RES’THAU

LE RES’THAU – 28 quai Augustin Descournut, 34 140 Mèze

In the harbor of Mèze there are quite a few restaurants. We have been to several on the east side of the harbor and they have been quite good for lunch. This time we parked in the main parking lot and came to the west side of the harbor basin. The first restaurant is Le Res’thau and we decided to try it.

The food was excellent to a reasonable prize and the kids got a nice omelet with ham to the older and mussels to the youngest. I had a very good fish and my wife a nice salad. The service was very “matter-of-fact” which could be taken for boredom at first, but it was a sign of a nice dry humoristic way of addressing the customers.

So – take the extra steps from the more common east side and go all the way to the last restaurant on the west side. It is as far as 200 meters, but it is worth it.

WEB: http://www.resthau.fr/
Latest visit: August 2015
Number of visits: 1

LE CENTAURÉE

LE CENTAURÉE - 9 cours Mirabeau, 11 100 Narbonne

On both sides of Canal de la Robine in the center of Narbonne there are lots of restaurants. Most of them are all right and some are a little more than that. Many are reviewed here but some are too new to have been visited. Bar & Brasserie Le Centaurée is a new experience for us. We were attracted by the many choices of interesting dishes they offered on the today’s menu to a very reasonable price.

I think we made a bad choice when we ordered the “bavette” with chips because some of the other dishes we saw on other tables looked fantastic – especially the salads. Our “bavette” was very generous but it was not very tender and it had been left too long before it was served so it was not really warm inside. The chips were of that English type - “soggy chips” - and I prefer my chips to be crispy on the outside – they were home-made though. The service was very good and my wife who cannot eat sugar had no problem to get a cheese platter instead of desert for the same price. I had a nice “cafe gourmande”, which they should have charged extra for.

When we payed the bill we saw that they had reduce the prize – probably because of my comments on the meat. We will certainly go there again to try the other courses.

Revisited August 2016:  I did not read my own review so this time I again had the bavette and I ordered it rare. Now it was tender, large but a little too red even for me. Nothing wrong though. My wife's skewer on chicken was lovely and one of the boys burgers as well. They had improved on the chips this time so they were more French than English - nice. The service is nice and quick.

Revisited June 2017: Always good food at a reasonable price.

WEB:
Latest visit: July 2017
Number of visits: 5

La Maison de Petit Pierre

LA MAISON DE PETIT PIERRE - 22, avenue Pierre Verdier 34500 Béziers

Pierre Augé won the French Top Chef last year. He also won the challenge against the former champion and the challenge against this year’s Top Chef. We have tried to get a table there for quite a while and this time we were lucky. Pierre runs his restaurant together with his wife and they do a really good job. The food is creative and delicious. We let Pierre choose what we should eat and were not disappointed. Our Swedish friends that we took there were surprised that we could get such fantastic food for so little.

The restaurant is casual and the guests quite young. The service is friendly and efficient. After the meal Pierre come to every table and ask if we are satisfied. Quite a few wants to have a picture with the chef and some even ask for an autograph. A Top Chef in France can be compared to a star in football or other sport in the rest of the world.

If you want to visit the restaurant you have better reserve a table at least 6 weeks in advance.

WEB: http://www.lamaisondepetitpierre.fr/
Latest visit: May 2015
Number of visits: 1

AUBERGE LA SELETTE

AUBERGE LA SELETTE – Route Départementale 5 Cabezac, 11120 Bize Minervois

You would think we have few restaurants to visit that are worth writing about, given the number I already have reviewed. It seems however that the number of good places to eat is endless in our neighborhood. La Salette is a restaurant in Minervois, not far from Cabezac where you can visit the local vinery and the well-known olive oil producer and shop – L’Oulibo.

The food is nice at a reasonable prize. We had a very nice lamb steak for main and their Café gourmand was something special. For those who are not familiar with the concept it is a small sample of all the deserts on the menu accompanied by a cup of coffee. The venue is nice with plenty of space inside. The outside terrace is however very noisy and smelly due to the road with very heavy traffic that goes just beside it.

The owners are a Belgian couple, but they speak English, which makes it popular among English expats. Maybe that’s why they have fish and chips on the menu and Belgian chips.

The restaurant has a wine-cellar next door there you can buy local wine.

WEB: http://www.laselette.fr/
Latest visit: March 2015
Number of visits: 1

LE TERMINUS

LE TERMINUS – Route de l’ancienne Gare, 34 310 Cruzy

The restaurant is housed in an old railway station. We visited it together with two American friend and had their Menu de la Gare, which is the most elaborated at 39 euros. We started with scallops on a mousse of artichokes and lime. The scallops were delicious, but for those who does not eat almost raw food it might be a bad choice. The lamb shoulder with roasted vegetables we had for main course was fantastic. Cooked for 12 hours at low temperature. The following cheese platter was all right and the deserts we had was really good. The service was nice and the style casuals.

The venue is quite simple in the restaurant bur there is a nice outside garden in the summer, a bar and also a venue for larger parties.

Web: http://www.restaurantleterminus.com/
Latest visit: February 2015
Number of visits: 1

LE RIBOUL DINGUE

LE RIBOUL DINGUE, 1, Bvd. Pirmin Pons, 317 00 Blagnac

A few time when we have had planes to catch at odd times in Toulouse we have visited this restaurant in central Blagnac. It is a bistrot style place which is quite crowded in the evenings but they have a very good kitchen. We have always been very happy with the food and especially the meat is of very good quality. This is a very good alternative to the places around the airport and only a few minutes away by car.


Mail: restaurant@leribouldingue.com
Latest visit: December 2014
Number of visits: 4

LES TAPAS DE LA CLAPE

LES TAPAS DE LA CLAPE – Les Halles de Narbonne

This is a new experience in Les Halle in Narbonne. It is a quite simple place as it should be in Les Halles, but nicely decorated. The place has quite an extinctive menu with smaller dishes and the ones we tried were delicious. One tapas was a skewer with scallops and pieces of duck-brest, which was very good. The place has an enormous selection of local wine that can be bought by the glass and also bought for take-away. The whole wine selection is on the web.

The owner is really totally dedicated to wine and food and when he found out that we had been in the wine business he spent a good part of our meal chatting with us.

Revisited in February 2015: Very nice again. I had a burger on KOBE-beef!!! Like butter!

Web: http://lestapasdelaclape.com/fr/
Latest visit: February 2015
Number of visits: 2

RESTAURANT GOURMAND D’ASIE (Closed)

RESTAURANT GOURMAND D’ASIE – Centre Commercial Route de Perpignan, Ave. De Quatorze, Narbonne

This place you must have heard of to find. It is situated in an area where you do not look for good food. The place in itself does not announce itself as a place to go either. Anyhow – we were taken there by some friends who normally know where to go, but nevertheless our expectations were not very high. When we saw the entrance it did not help.  

Well inside the place is simple but very well organized and very tidy. A lot of people seemed to enjoy their meal and we now understand them. It is a buffet restaurant where you eat as much as you like. The food is basically Vietnamese with some dishes from China, Japan and other places in Asia. The food is very fresh, typical and delicious. They make just enough of everything to be eaten in a short time so everything is freshly made. There is a large variety of cold and hot dishes and lots of sweets. You can really sample everything from Japanese Sushi to Chinese Dim Sung to other specialties.

We were 4 people and with wine, beer and coffee the bill ended on 75 euros. As always in Vietnamese restaurants they offer you, for free, their special Vietnamese sake, which taste a little like really bad Dutch genever. It is served in small cups,

different for women and men. In the bottom of the cup you see a nude man or woman in a quite pornographic posture. You can only see it when there is sake in the cup. Be aware if you do not like to be shocked.

Tel: 0468 40 30 77
Latest visit: February 2015
Number of visits: 4