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.

LA CAMBUSE DU SAUNIER ♥

LA CAMBUSE DU SAUNIER – Salin de l’île St-Martin, route de l’Ayrolle, 11430 Gruissan

This is quite a different restaurant – well worth a visit. It is located at the salt production site in Gruissan. The view over the saltines is magnificent, especially in the beautiful weather we had.

They serve mainly fish and sea-food in a very simple setting, which are designed to look even more like sheds, which is quite charming. You sit on simple benches at very rough wooden tables. At every place there are a plate, glasses and cutlery wrapped in a kitchen towel like a bundle. You set your table yourself by using the towel as a small table cloth. You can choose to sit inside a glassed space, outside in shade or at the water on a jetty.

Their specialty is raw sea-food – mussels, clams and oysters but also shrimps and sea-snails. They also have number of warm dishes, mainly from the sea. A few of us had sea-food for starter and I had tiny small clams (tellines) cooked in butter with parsley and garlic, which were fantastic. All sea-food was also of high quality. My salt-baked whole fish was absolutely delicious. The desert of the house was also really good. The only dish that did not lived up to expectation was the salt baked duck breast. The plates were roasting hot, the meat was over-cooked and the vegetable dish was cold. They said they should take it away from the menu and they did not charge for it. This day they only served wine by carafe – no bottles. The wine was from the local wine yard – Cave de Gruissan – which is quite good.

If the food was of top quality the service was almost the opposite. The young waiter was trying to charm the ladies but it would have been better that he had done his job in a professional way. Misunderstanding of orders (majority of us were French) and long waiting. Half the party had finished the starters when the rest got theirs. We had to wait forever for the desert which was strange as the restaurant was more or less empty at that time.

In a building nearby there is a shop with very interesting local products – salt in all forms, marmalade, honey, chocolate, very good wine from the region and much more. This place is well worth a visit in the summer.

Revisited July 2014: First time we were here was on the very first opening day and there were a few flaws. This time everything was perfect. There are few places one can get fish and sea-food like here. Still my favourite is for starters is "cassoulet du telline", which is so tasty. Of course i had to have salt baked fish and our friend Anette had oysters as usual. This day the view was fantastic over "des salines" where the water was absolutely rose, tinted by the salt. This is a very attractive summer restaurant which is open all week in the summer and as long as they have customers in the day.

Revisited May 2015: As always the food was delicious and the environment fabulous, especially in nice weather. Our Swedish guests thought it was the top experience of the week. The combination of the rustic design of the restaurant and the very high quality food with a no-nonsense style is something extra.

Revisted May 2016: It is hard to get a table here nowadays - it has become very popular. I however dropped in on my own and managed to get a table a while ago. The week after i reserved a table for me and my wife. We had their specialty  - salt-baked whole fresh lobster. Do I have to say it was really good?

Webb: http://www.lesalindegruissan.fr/fr/restaurant
Latest visit: May 2017
Number of visits: >10

Reasons for the ♥:
Sea-food of all kinds, natural and cooked. This is the place. Nice busy place and a very special rustic design in the middle of a salt production facility. You will remember this place and its food.

AU LAVOIR

AU LAVOIR, Rue du Lavoir, 34440 Colombiers

I never stop being surprised about all these gourmet restaurants that one can find in the smallest villages in France. A few days ago we visited the restaurant Au Lavoir in Colombiers, a little village along Canal de Midi.

It was really a nice surprise. The restaurant was very nicely decorated in a subtle way. The food was excellent, with a few dishes that we don’t find in most restaurants. Of course foie gras was present in many dishes, both in starters and main courses. I had a fried fresh foie gras as this is not always present on menus. The ladies, Anna, Ann-Katrin and my wife were more traditional and had foie gras the traditional way. None of us were disappointed. Two of us had pigeon and two of us had lamb. I notices that they also had wild duck on the menu and many other things to try for next time. The cheese trolley was impressive, full of beautifully aged cheese. I myself had a delicious desert.

The only complain I have is the prize of the wine. Most restaurants here add 100% on the prize from the vine-yard, but her it was at least 200% add-on. I do not appreciate that in the middle of a wine district. The prize of the food was however correct and there was both two set menus and one choice were you could choose one, two, three or four courses from the “a la carte” selection. All four was 35 euros.

Revisited January 2015: We were five very demanding people celebrating my wife's birthday. We all agreed that it was the best meal we have got for a very long time.

Revisted January 2017: Like always a fantastic experience with excellence food and good friends

Revisited March 2018: Disappointment! We had my birthday lunch here today as it is a favorite. It has changed a lot in a year. Foie gras for starter was overcooked until it has shrunk into a little lump. The plate for the second course was so stained and greasy so we lost the appetite for it. The before fantastic desert was totally changed into something much simpler. The pieces of cheese from the trolley was cut without removing the dry part of the cheese that occur when it is left in air for a while.
Minor problems was that they did not offer us to taste the wine before poring and that their understanding for our complaints were minor. About the stained plate they said that some fingerprints were normal on a plate. We said that fingerprints do not normally stick.
They charged us a little less than normal prize despite we did not ask for it, which was good.

Web: http://www.au-lavoir.com/
Latest visit: March 2018
Number of visits: 9

BAR EL GLOBO ♥

BAR EL GLOBO -  c/ Diputación No 8, Bilbao

One of the great things in The Basque Countries is there version of tappas – pintxos. They are delicious small bits with ham, foie gras, fish, etc. on a piece of bread. In Bilbao we have found a place that serve the most fantastic ones. It is just a simple but very popular bar and is located in the center. The name is Bar El Globo.

Those who read Swedish are welcome to read about our entire trip to The Basque Countries on http://france-midi.blogspot.fr/2011/08/brollopsdagsresa-till-baskien.html

WEB: http://www.barelglobo.com/index.htm
LATEST VISIT: 2011
NUMBER OF VISITS: 5 

Reasons for the ♥:
The central location, the very pleasant atmosphere and the fantastic pintxos makes this place a must when visiting Bilbao.

OSMOSIS ♥

OSMOSIS - Carrer Aribau, 100  08036 Barcelona, Spain

If I would recommend one restaurant in Barcelona it would be Restaurant Osmosis. We have been there three times. The first time we went there for dinner and returned for lunch the day after. They only serve tasting menus and this cost 25 euros at lunch and 42 euros at dinner time.

We came there quite early for being in Spain and got a table in the front room. Already reading the menu told us that this was something extra. My wife has a special diet and even if all the dishes are set it was no problem to go through every dish and customize it to her liking. They had a wine package there every glass of wine was selected from the whole world to fit perfectly to every single dish so we left to the restaurant to surprise us.

The first surprise was when the owner himself – Ignasi Montes – sat down at our table to discuss wine to drink with the foie gras that was the first starter. He decided that we should test the pride of Spain – sherry. You can imagine our surprise when he placed four glasses on a black piece of textile and beside that four different types of sherry on another black cloth. He told us the story of sherry and how the different qualities were produced and after that we had a sherry testing. It was really something else to test different kinds of sherry to the first to courses.

During the dinner a number of beautiful wines were served accompanied with descriptions of the wines and were they had grown. As he understood we were very interested in wine he spent quite a time with us during the meal to discuss the virtue with different wines and grapes.

With the dessert he asked if we would like to taste a very special sherry. A German wine grower moved to Jerez to grow wine. As he knew the Riesling best he planted this in Jerez. The Riesling however does not like the climate of Jerez so he decided to produce a Sherry from the grapes. This Sherry is thick, dark brown and very intense in taste.

Before dessert my wife went out for smoking. He came out and said that he had a private cigar-club upstairs there we could go after dinner and have our coffee. When he came with the coffee ha had hidden a big cognac-glass behind his back with a distillation of the special sherry on Riesling. This was only produced in 3000 bottles per year. To my disappointment I found that I had forgotten my cigars in the hotel and asked him if he sold any. He did not, but asked what size I preferred and sent out one of the waiters who came back with a lovely Montecristo. I can tell you it was something else to drink this sherry distillate together with coffee and a good Cuban cigar. The German person who started all this was Peter Simonis, but he soon changed is name to Pedro Ximenes.

Before we left for France the day after we had lunch at Osmosis. The quality of the food had the same fantastic standard even at busy lunchtime and the service as well. We had foie gras, quail, lobster, mushrooms and fish – all perfectly prepared. Even this time the dishes were customized to my wife’s diet.

We have been there once after this. It was together with our American friend and neighbours that we picked up in Barcelona where they arrived on a Norwegian cruise-ship. This time we got a separate room and our own personal waiter. As they only served the most fantastic wines from the whole world with our meal there were a few euros added to the basic prize this time, but it was much more than a meal. It was a total experience that can only be challenged by our local three-star restaurant L'Auberge Le Vieux Puits.

If you read Swedish you can learn more about our trips to Spain on my other blog. Se http://france-midi.blogspot.fr/2011/11/tva-pensionarer-i-barcelona.html and http://france-midi.blogspot.fr/2008/04/en-fantastisk-utflykt-till-spanien.html and perhaps even  http://france-midi.blogspot.fr/2012/05/forsta-dagen-pa-var-spanienresa.html

Revisited October 2013: We were invited to a wine- and food tasting and we decided that a trip to Barcelona would be nice. It is just a little more than two hours drive. It was an evening to remember. The food was as always fantastic and the wine of a quality that you seldom can afford. It was 16 invited couples sitting together and the atmosphere was really nice despite the language problems for us. They provided us with a translator from Catalan so we could follow the information about the wine.

Revisited March 2016: We had our specially designed 70+70 birthday-dinner in Barcelona for friends from Norway and Sweden. It was fantastic. We were sitting in a private room and had our own sommelier. It was something to remember for everyone.

Swedish report from the trip on http://france-midi.blogspot.fr/2013/10/snabbvisit-till-barcelona.html

WEB: http://www.restauranteosmosis.com/
LATEST VISIT: 2016
NUMBER OF VISITS: 5

Reasons for the ♥:
Our favorite restaurant in Barcelona. The tasting menus are always something very special and the service is really friendly. You can afford it too.

LE PETIT COMPTOIRE ♥

LE PETIT COMPTOIRE - 4 Boulevard Maréchal Joffre 11 100 Narbonne

This is really one of our favorites. We have never been disappointed and we have been there a number of times. We do not hesitate to say that it is the best gourmet restaurant in Narbonne. The looks of the place from the street is not very exciting. The first time we went there was just because it was a convenient place to go.  We ordered the lunch of the day and we were really surprised by the quality of food in what seems to be a simple bar.

Behind the bar is however a very nice dining room, not big but very nice. In connection to the bar there is a wine shop there you also can eat the lunch of the day. The lunch menu is always very nice, but the real experience is to eat dinner here. They have several dinner menus and they are all very good value. The food is absolutely excellent and the service is professional and friendly. You can always get very good wines with the food. The wine shop is excellent and have a good selection of local wines of good quality.

There are however two complaints. First, the restaurant is not open in the summer and their summer restaurant on the road to Gruissan does not live up to expectations. The other complains is odder. The normal carafe water is absolutely undrinkable. It is taken directly from the tap and so full of chlorine that it even smells chlorine. I can understand that they prefer to sell bottled water, but it is an odd way of selling to serve something that totally destroys your taste buds.

Revisited September 2013: As always absolutely perfect, despite we had their lunch of the day. Even when you order their least costly menus you get better food than most restaurants have on their gourmet menus. Friendly and personal service!

Revisited November 2013: We never get disappointed here, and today was no exception. The small pre-starter was very nice – a rillettes with mushrooms and dill. The starter was a very nice risotto with small cubes of ham, full of taste. The only complaint was that it was a bit too much. It would have been better served in the same little dish as the opening little pre-starter. Now it looked more like a portion of morning porridge. We could not finish it – not because we did not want to, but we had to leave some room for the rest of the meal.

The main dish was absolutely top quality. How about quail stuffed with foie-gras on a bed of red cabbage. I was especially impressed by how the chef had managed to cut out the rib-cage without ruining the bird. It looked absolutely intact with wings and legs.

The desert was fresh raspberries with a pistachio cream – really good and not too sweet.

Revisited January 2014:  It made us happy as usual!

Revisited november 2018: The food is still very good and the management always welcoming. The venue is attractive. The two last times however they have had some problems with individuals of of serving personell that did not have a professional attitude to customers. As they however come and go we still think this restaurant is one of the best in Narbonne.

Birthday lunch January 2019: Luckily enough we could have a very good lunch here as restaurant La Table Saint Crescent had missed our reservation.

WEB: http://www.petitcomptoir.com/
LATEST VISIT: January 2019
NUMBER OF VISITS: >20

Reasons for the ♥:
Our oldest acquaintance with gourmet food in Narbonne. We have never been disappointed. It is one of those places you can take friends and know they will have a good time. 

AU COQ HARDI

AU COQ HARDI - 75, Rue Droite, 11100 Narbonne

You might be looking for something very genuine, both in terms of atmosphere, food and service. Restaurant Au Coq Hardi is just the place to go. It is located on the ancient Via Domitia in the center of Narbonne. The restaurant is warm and welcoming and quite small. The food is traditional, big pieces of entrecote, confit de canard, grilled fish and all the traditional starters and desserts you have heard of. They serve wine from local producers of high quality to reasonable prizes and the service make you feel that you are coming home to somebody. You can compose your own meal by choosing two or free courses from the a la carte menu to fixed price. 

Revisited January 2014: We have not been here for a while - there have been so many restaurants to explore. We immediately felt very welcome and it felt like yesterday. As always, the food was wonderful and the service very welcoming.

Revisited April 2014: Very good as usual.

Revisited 2017: They have got new owner and new chef. The special charm with this traditional French restaurant is gone.

PHONE: 04 68 65 27 38
LATEST VISIT: 2017
NUMBER OF VISITS: >10
 

CENTRE DE CONCHYLICULTURE ♥

CENTRE de CONCHYLICULTURE - D627, 11370 Leucate

For lovers of oysters and other seafood this is heaven! There are many places along Golfe de Lyon where you can eat seafood and oysters and many places are both exclusive and expensive, but there is no place like the small sheds along the canal in Port Leucate.  The oysters are not only the most delicious; the setting is also totally fantastic and really no-nonsense. Along the little canal the producers have built very simple sheds were they serve sea-food and nothing but seafood. You can buy wine and bread, but that is all. Some of the small restaurants just have oysters and mussels, but other have, depending on season, all kind of other exclusive sea-food that you have never seen before.
You sit on plastic chairs, you are served on Styrofoam plates and eat on paper plates and everything is just fantastic. We have come to like the restaurant Aquarius that mostly have a good selection, but I am sure that many of the other restaurants in the row are as good. It is fresh, friendly, hectic and not expensive. On sunny week-end the places are packed with people.


WEB: http://www.sudaltim.fr/leucate_aude_centre-ostreicole_panorama-semi-aerien-1.html
LATEST VISIT: October 2014
NUMBER OF VISITS: >10

Reasons for the ♥:
If you like oysters and sea-food - this is the place. Very rustic, very fresh and very busy on sunny days. Not the least posh, but still the place to go.

L'AUBERGE DE LA CROISADE ♥

L'AUBERGE de la CROISADE - 34 310 Cruzy

The restaurant is beautifully located on the Canal de Midi. Their speciality is fish but they also serve excellent meat dishes. They offer a number of set menus to surprisingly reasonable prices. The service is very friendly and there is no problem if you have special demands. They are more than ready to alter the set menues to your liking. They have a large selection of local wines to affordable prices.
The most expensive menu - Lo Regal - is of seven courses and cost around 50 Euros. It is a lot of exellent food so you have to be very hungry and have a lot of time, Their three course lunch menu is under 20 Euros including a glass of wine and coffee.

At our first visit we were a birthday party of six people. The meal started with a taster which was a fluffy foam or rather purée made of fish and herbs. It should be spread on pieces of bread. This was just to warm up our taste buds a bit. Then of course obligatory homemade Foie Gras, which was perfect with unusual accessories as artichoke, sprouts in balsamic vinegar and some other odd thing. Too large portions though.

The third dish was a very nice fish in a tomato sauce and tapenade. After the fish we had a tiny little dish to make room in our stomach. It was lemon sorbet with a little Eau de Vie Langedocien. Then came the main course! Half the party had glazed veal liver and the other half had the lamb racks. Both were served with a polenta that was stirred together with cream and grated parmesan cheese to make it lighter than polenta normally is. Both dishes were very good but did not have to be so rich.

After this we had the small cheese plate, which contained a series of cheeses with an ash-rolled chèvre, a Tomme, something I forgot, a Camembert, and finally a Roquefort stirred with cream and muscat wine in a brown bread with figs. It should be eaten in that order. After this I was quite full so I thought Café Gourmande should be something little. That was a mistake, but it was fantastic. We washed all this down with white wine from the grapes Rolle and Viogner and a red Saint-Chinian wine from Château Prieuré des Morgues.

Revisited 2012 to try the lunch menu: It was excellent as we expected.
Revisited July 2013: Excellent food and friendly service as always!
Revisited June 2014: Very nice food and perfect and friendly service as usual. My wife's cod had a few parts that were not properly cooked which we told the head-waiter. He compensated us with two glasses of very nice sparkling wine even if we did not asked for any compensation. At this restaurant they are always willing to meet my wife's problem with sugar and sweet fruits. This time they prepared a lovely dessert on fresh kiwi for her. We like this place better and better.
Revisited twice in April 2015: Excellent the first time and good the next time.
Revisited July 2018: This is always a place that delivers and lives up to expectations.

WEB: http://www.auberge-de-la-croisade.com/index.php?page=accueil
LATEST VISIT: July 2018
NUMBER OF VISITS: 8

Reasons for the ♥:
Fantastic set menus and always high gourmet quality to a reasonable price. The service is very friendly and makes you happy even on a bad day.

LA TABLE DE FONTFROIDE ♥

LA TABLE DE FONTFROIDE - Abbaye de Fontfroide, 11100 Narbonne

La Table de Fontfroide is located in the ancient Abbaye de Fonfroide. They say the have served food to travelers since the end of the 11th century. It might  be a surprise to get inside the restaurant as the entrance looks quite anonymous and the sign Restaurant -Snack, does not promise any culinary experiences.

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.

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.