September 2026.
Recommended by our hotel staff first night in town after a typical Air Canada flight delay. It’s a bustling busy bistro in the old city, accommodating us at the bar walking up at around 6 PM. The ambience is definitely inviting, low variable lighting, lots of staff on the move, several small rooms. We watched from our seats the desert chef and the mise-en-place dinner deck under the command of a big guy with a red ball cap and a ring in his nose, shouting orders en francais.
We started with cocktails, fair to good (I almost never get a gin martini in a restaurant that doesn’t feel watered down) and ordered a fairly-priced 12-year-old Saint-Julien that was palatable. Dinners were among us three beef tartare, burger and fries, and boudain noir. Generally everything was nicely arranged but not the kind of flavour-forward bites you might hope for in a place like this. My black pudding was coarse in consistency, tasted like the dish all right but was set up a bit strangely with cold sliced scallops on top and on onions and mashed potato, the onions cooked but chewy.
The service was a bit slow although the bartender who ended up being our waiter was conversational about the wine, but busy and hard to track down otherwise.
Interesting that such a genuine-feeling French place in this very French town delivered the ambience but for us fell a bit short on food and service. Prices were as they seem to be almost everywhere now on the high side as well. Generally we believe and hope there are a bit more refined choices around.
Food 7.2, service 6.9, ambience 9.0, peace and quiet 6.8, value 7.0.
