 |
www.AuvergneHolidayCottage.com
- Visitor Information - Eating Out
It’s ALWAYS advisable to book a table.
Ask if you’d like us to
phone for you.
L’Amandine at Saint Amandin
on the way to Riom-ès-Montagnes, our nearest restaurant,
about 10 minutes. Don't be deterred by the campsite,
Pierre’s classic food is well presented on pretty
china. Nathalie & her staff are friendly and welcoming.
Children can play outside & be seen from some tables.
Closed Monday evening from September and Sunday evening
from October. Menus from about €10 to €30,
children’s menu €6.10, wine reasonably priced.
Dinner for two, allow €50. Sample menus (when I
can get them) at the back of this folder, after the index.
Recommended
La Grange aux Fleurs at Sarran, down the Rhue valley.
A pleasant 35 minute drive to a prettily converted barn,
the owners, Nicole and Dénis, are most welcoming.
The food is traditional yet imaginative. User-friendly,
a lovely setting and atmosphere. For a meal for two with
aperitif, wine & coffee allow €50 or €60.
There’s a 2 hour walk you could do before lunch
and/or a pleasant 10 minute after lunch stroll up to
the old communal oven on the hillside above. Visitors
describe their truffade is “not to be missed” & we
agree. Typical dishes on offer at the back of this folder,
after the index. Our favorite. Recommended. |
|
Ché Marisou - off the Condat/Montboudif road at Veysset, ask for
directions, it's not easy to find. Serves only authentic
Auvergnat food in a traditional setting, no haute cuisine.
In several guides & an article in Marie Claire in
2002. Atmosphere, big hearth, lit-clos, massive dining
table with benches. Friendly, helpful host & service.
Set menu €28 (July ’07), children ½ price.
Allow €50 for dinner for two including an aperitif,
red & maybe other wine and a digsetif. Good value
for money if you consider part of the bill as an admission
fee to a museum & cultural event, which it is. See
footnote...
Les Diablaires is a hidden pearl in Compains. Interesting
food well served. An all woman team (members of Restaurantrices
d’Auvergne), they open on Sundays in spring & autumn
and daily in the school holidays. Menus from €18 to €31.
We have enjoyed many an excellent lunch there. On a Sunday,
visit the Russian Orthodox Convent (qv) near Marcenat on
your way home. Recommended. |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
AND ALSO . . .
The Auberge
des Trois Rivières in Condat (formerly
the Central Hotel): the small restaurant in the hotel serves
generous portions of hot, unfussy food, simply presented
on plain white china. Often open on Sunday evening.
Lac des Moines, ½ mile
from Condat on the Allanche/Murat road. Now offering normal
French menus at local prices. Service
could be better. Food good, improvements needed to atmosphere,
surroundings and other matters. This update is by friends
who lunched there in May 2009.
The Gîte de
Saignes at
La Godivelle changed hands in 2006. Sadly, the €17.50 Table Montagnarde is not what
it used to be. Reports are now disappointing. We used to
park at Espinchal, the walk takes an hour and is very pleasant.
La Fenoune in Condat’s
main street does pizzas, including take-away. Improved since
it changed hands again in 2005.
Very helpful to a family who arrived late and hungry on a
Saturday in July 2010. |
|
And
further afield:
Between Besse and Super Besse, L’Etable at Fontaneix, a mountain
farm, is similar to the Grange aux Fleurs but only one menu, which changes
daily. In winter you can see cows through the windows dividing their quarters
from the restaurant. Reasonably priced, very friendly, spotless. They also
sell their own St. Nectaire and the smaller Pavin cheese. Recommended.
In Besse, watch your pizza being made and baked in a real brick oven fired
by blazing logs at Mato Coulis fun; about €15 a head including pudding
and wine. In the old town up a very narrow side street, ask for directions.
Book in advance - downstairs is definitely nicer. For traditional French cooking,
L’Ousteau is said to be the best bet – reports please. Le Beffroi
and the restaurant at Lac Pavin are no longer recommended. For superb food
and exemplary service, try the art-déco Radio in Chamalières
or the €35 menu at JC Leclerc in Clermont
La Cascade is a hostelry on the Besse road just north of Egliseneuve. Country
cooking, not haute cuisine. Simple dining room with bar. Can be crowded in
summer, especially on Wednesdays (market day in Egliseneuve). Customers may
include farmers who park their cows in the car park. See footnote...
In Le Chiex, on the Besse-Clermont road, near the Grottes de Jonas, the Relais
des Grottes is in Michelin, & serves good food at very affordable prices.
The all-woman team is most welcoming.
In Riom-ès-Montagnes, the St Georges has fed us well, good presentation,
service not always what it should be for a Michelin-listed restaurant. Costs
slightly more than the Amandine.
Allanche was a culinary desert, but I am now told that Le Relais des Remparts
is more than satisfactory. Reports please. The Buron des Estives, (open May
to Sept) at Montagne St Roch Sud, by the main road this side of Allanche, serves
traditional Auvergnat food. Reports needed.
Marcenat’s Hotel de la Poste has changed hands and is no longer recommended.
Eat well yet inexpensively in Le Puy at Le Chamarlenc, 19, rue Raphaël.
Run by Philippe (the creative light who set up the Gîte de Saignes).
Menus were €10 to €14. Highly recommended by Susan Kane and Andrew
Coulson in 2003 - “Simple but truly delicious”. Open Tuesday to
Saturday for lunch & tea. Downhill from the cathedral, bear left at the
fountain into rue Raphaël.
In and around Issoire, our preference is La Bergerie at Sarpoil, 10 minutes
from Issoire, leave past the hospital, cross the motorway, follow St Germain
le Herm. Recommended – phone 04 7371 0254. Also near Issoire are the
Auberge des Louises at Tourzel, the Auberge de Margot at Usson, La Mairie Restaurant
at Sauxillanges & further south, Boudes les Vignes at Boudes, where you
can round off the day with a visit to Annie Sauvat’s vineyard for some
excellent wine. Or eat under the plane trees at Le Cour Carré in Perrier
(just north of Issoire).
In the centre of Murol, Au Montagnard has menus from €10 to €30.
Welcoming with good food.
The Ferme-Auberge du Bruel at St Illide serves mostly homegrown food and we
ate well there in 2009 as it had been been recommended to us twice. They make
their own foie gras and have a well stocked farm shop.
In and around Clermont-Ferrand:
Our preferred restaurant in Clermont-Ferrand is JC
Leclerc in the old Quartier
Juridique, (Michelin starred). Lunch menus are €35, €55 and €75.
A culinary event I have not experienced outside France. They combine sophistication
and chic with commendable, unobtrusive service and a genuine desire for you
to enjoy your food. Closed on Sundays, so can no longer be combined with the
antiques and flea markets in central Clermont. Advisable to book. Recommended.
At Royat/Chamalières the Radio serves noteworthy food, beautifully -
both Michelin & Gault Millau agree. The building is original art déco
and interesting in its own right. Recommended.
L’Amphitron Capucine, 50, rue Fontgiève, Clermont is very agreeable.
Aperitifs, their four course Esquisse menu, wine and coffee for two was €105
in 2009, but you could do it for less. Friendly, efficient, we will definitely
go again.
At the other end of the scale in Clermont-Ferrand, Crêperie Grill Le
1513, 3, rue des Chausettiers, near the cathedral. Great for small kids as
they have a play area with toys, + tasty crêpes and ice-cream.
NB: La Cascade, Ché Marisou, the Buron
des Estives and Gîte de
Saignes serve traditional Auvergnat food only. MatoCoulis does pizza & steak
only. The other restaurants listed above serve traditional French cuisine often
with a local touch.
CLICK THE TUMBNAILS TO CHANGE THE LARGE
IMAGE
|
