Restaurant reviews
These restaurant reviews, based on our and our friends and guests' visits, are unapologetically subjective. It may come as a shock, but the best restaurants here get very booked up in the summer. Please, please let us know if you'd like a booking made, as far in advance as you can, especially if it's for a special celebration.
Our star system (1-5) is based on food, ambience etc.. It too is horribly subjective. Approximate price includes wine unless you really want to lash out. The restaurants are listed in order of geographical closeness to us.
Note: Almost all French restaurants offer one or more "menu" at a set price. These are astonishingly good value. The "a la carte" menu normally offers the same dishes priced separately. Ordering from this menu means you will get a bigger portion.
Roujan
Le Grand Café * *- av de Cassan 0467 24 61 34. Sit outside under jolly umbrellas right in the heart of the village - just 300m from Le Couvent. The lovely Arielle serves a menu of the day for 13€ including wine at lunchtimes. Basic, well-cooked and good value. Then omelettes, steaks, salads in the evenings - although not on Sundays or Mondays. Live bands play too on Wednesday nights - when it is essential to book.
Lou Baralet * * - av de Pézenas 0467 25 16 59. Pretty entrance to this new restaurant. Straightforward mediterranean cooking - neither wildly exciting nor awful. You'll get a bottle of wine from us if you manage to get Madame to smile.
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Vailhan
Le Presbytere * * * * - 0467 24 76 49. The good news of the century is that a talented Parisian couple have moved into Le Presbytere in Vailhan
- an eight minute scenic drive from Le Couvent. The food has a light and delicious touch, and thankfully they are open on Sunday and Monday nights - when nothing else is. The view from the presbytery over the lake is stunning and there is a lovely terrace where one can have supper on a balmy night. At the moment we have no trouble booking a table, but it won't be so easy when word gets around.
Neffies
Les Goutailles * * * * - 6 rue St Alban 0467 24 07 86 - in the next door village, 3 minutes by car, a converted grain-store run by the lovely Karen who speaks perfect English and Didier who cooks. The salade de campagne has driven people to poetry and it's a basic, small, kind, intimate place which guests always want to go back to. Our local, we go often and can't recommend it enough - we've never managed to pay more than €25 a head. It gets very busy in the summer when you can also eat outside in the courtyard across the alley. Restaurant Les Goutailles website
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Pezenas
L'Entre Pots * * * * * - 8 avenue Louis Montagne 0467 90 00 00 - excellent, stylish new restaurant with small terrace and long, modern interior. The menu is superb, elegant and delicious. The staff speak English and are cute, enchanting and sweetly proud of their food. The real treat is that one can choose half-portions of certain dishes, so finding your way from starter (which are fabulous) to pudding (the chocolate souffle will make you weep) needn't bust your buttons. A great favourite of the smart French residents. About €50 per person, so perfect for a celebration or a treat in which case it's essential to book in advance.
Les Maronniers * * * - 6 avenue de Verdun 0467 90 13 80 - tapas restaurant with big creeper-covered terrace in front and small, cosy tables inside. Unusually for France a big choice of starters (many vegetarian) to pick and mix from, and big plates (if you want them) to follow. Intimate, sweet, a local favourite and good value - about €30 per head.
Après le Déluge * * * - 5 rue Maréchal Plantavit 0467 98 10 77 - just beyond the main line of cafés and spottable by the lines of washing (hence the name) strung outside. Various set menus from €17-30 per head which are great value. The fish soup and the chocolate fondue are stunning. The decor and music is whimsically idiosyncratic but you always have a good night out there.
Le Poisson Verre * * - 3-5 rue de la Foire 0467 90 29 26 - a tardis of a restaurant off a tiny street in the cobbled part of Pezenas. Sit in the tiny terrace outside as the big restaurant behind can feel a bit gloomy. Fresh bright food served by friendly waiters - charming, cheap and open on a Monday night - something of a rarity in France. About €20
La Terrasse * * * - 2 Place Gambetto 0467 98 25 11 - in the main cobbled square. Informal and ruled by a very sociable waiter - do not mention it's your birthday if you're shy because he'll set up an impromptu choir in an instant. Jolly, friendly and perfect if you have a big appetite or like watching people who really love their food. Good place to practise your French as you queue for the only loo. Get there early for lunch. About €23
Les Palmiers * * * * - rue Mercière 0467 09 42 56 - courtyard complete with huge palms, zinc tables, very pretty plates of food and perfectly-behaved, small French dogs sitting under the tables. The restaurant retains the feel of its earlier bohemian incarnation but the chairs don't fall apart now. In the summer huge sails arch over the space to protect you from sun or rain. A favourite haunt of many friends who love the couscous and the "few but there" vegetarian dishes (being vegetarian in France can be a lonely business.) Kinda cool and a bit funky. About €25
Le Pre' St Jean • • • • 18 av du Marchal leClerc - unprepossesing exterior is amply compensated for by imaginative, creative, modern French cuisine with Asian influences. Great and informative service in this friendly but serious restaurant. About €30
La Pannaquett • • • • rue Anataole France 0467 11 08 68 - a husband and wife team carefully turning out delicious, homemade food which is beautifully presented. This restaurant is off the main drag so gets no passing trade. Don't be put off if you're nearly alone - it's just a well-kept secret. €30
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Magalas
O Bontemps * * * * * - Olivier Bontemps (now there's a name for a chef) is after his Michelin star we reckon and, my oh my, is he a rising star. If you're brave, do what we do and choose the "Ballade" menu and let him choose for you. The wines as well if you like. Three courses become seven or eight as exquisite "amuse-bouche" (mouth-tempters) arrive - 3 mussels in the lightest imaginable curried sauce, a tiny glass layered with beetroot mousse and basil. His butcher is, patently, the best on the planet and his perfectly-cooked meat is served with talk-stopping showmanship. No problem really as conversation in this small restaurant is limited to, "Oooh, aah, Oh God that's good" and "How does he do that?' The decor is chillily awful but the food takes you to another planet. As I write this in winter, the first Saturday dinner booking available is in 6 weeks time. If you want to book this restaurant you MUST tell us way in advance. Still ridiculously cheap €50 - €60 per head, but will go through the roof when this star gets his star.
Beziers
Octopus • • • • - 21 rue Boildieu 0467 49 90 00 - Octopus is the old stamping ground of the talented Olivier Bontemps and the two restaurants share much in common. Certainly Octopus is much prettier and the food is imaginative, creative and beautifully presented. A chic, well-dressed clientele it seems to lack a little of the heart of O Bontemps. A lovely covered terrace and a stonkingly good small lunchtime menu. About €25 - 55
Les Antiquaires * * * * - 4 rue Bagatelle 0467 49 33 10 traditional food with a modrn twist where shaded light picks out signed photographs of cine greats on the walls and pretty antiques. €35
Tomate Bley * * * - 23 rue des Anciens Combattants Lovely wine bar / restaurant specialising in excellent local wines. Basic but good French dishes and taps in a nice, friendly atmosphere. €20
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Clermont l'Herault
Le Tournesol * * *- 2 rue Roger Salengro 0467 96 99 22 - fantastic place for lunch after a trip to the market. Unprepossesing from the outside, it's all cool terraces and welcoming linen-covered tables after you've climbed the stairs. Special food, fantastic fish, incredibly good value, friendly, smart but not at all daunting. Everyone who's been loves it, also great for a special celebration. About €25
Bouzigues
Le Jardin de la Mer * * * * 0467 78 33 23 - built right on the lagoon looking out over an extroardinary landscape of oyster-bed rafts, book a table, ideally on the terrace, especially for Sunday lunch, any other lunch or dinner. Great seafood served in tiers and fish barbecued over vine souches. The fish is as fresh as you like and the oysters are packed in the factory behind the restaurant. Very French, lip-smacking clientele. Just lovely. About €35 - 40.
If you park a little further down the road in the sweet port of Bouzigues itself, you'll find lots of smaller restaurants along the main drag. A bit cheaper with less of a view but still charming and amazingly good value. Stroll around the port afterwards and visit the museum devoted entirely to the oyster.
Marseillan
Le Chateau du Port * * * * - 0467 77 31 67 - beside the Noilly Prat factory on the yacht-loaded port, this is a fab place for a special dinner or Sunday lunch. Great ultra-fresh seafood, busy, elegant, full of good talk and happy faces. A biggish menu built on experience, good wines. Stimulating and a place you can dress up a bit if you want. On the less sunny side of the canal. Around €40.
On the other side of the canal is a line of 4 or 5 restaurants. Not quite the same standard but good nonetheless and less expensive - fish soup, moules, prawns are as good as you'd expect by the sea. All have tables outside under awnings and the atmosphere is perfect South of France lazy lunch on a hot summer's day. All around €25. If you're there during grape-picking, you can watch thin tractors pulling fat trailers piled high with grapes to the local co-operative.
Agde
Le Lodge * * * - Plage Richelieu, Cap d'Agde 0467 26 18 34 - on a piece of private beach divided off from the public bit with hireable sun-beds and gorgeous views. Cool, clubby, laidback restaurant/bar for cocktails, food as good as you'll find in any London restaurant and music. Funky, exclusive but not swanky, expensive but not hugely - absolutely adored by all who've been.
In Grau d'Agde there is a line of perhaps 8 restaurants all with umbrella-ed terraces along the canal leading to the Mediterranean. We've tried many of these and they are unbeatable for moules-frites, huge prawns with garlic, paella, fish soup etc. washed down with cold rosé. Don't leave it too late on a Sunday lunchtime or you'll have a stomach-rumbling wait. On spring days, if you're really lucky, you can sit eating oysters while getting a sun-tan and seeing the Pyrenees on the far horizon still covered in snow. Heaven. A 3-minute stroll to the sea, a snooze on the beach or a swim and some shell-hunting followed by an ice-cream on the way back to the car is pretty well impossible to beat.
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Meze
Chez Fahdi * * * - 0467 43 81 16 Big and bustling and chatty with bright red awnings, the food is basically Mediterranean seaside - moule frites, cake-stands of shellfish etc.. Nothing enormously special but everyone who goes there always has a jolly nice time. Lots of "menus." Sociable. About €25
Meze has an old-fashioned 50's feel about it. There are loads of restaurants around the port and a lovely small municipal beach around the corner. It's the kind of beach where you still see children with nets on sticks spuddling around in rock-pools.
Saint-Guiraud
Le Mimosa * * * * * Grand Rue 0467 96 67 96 - one of the very few restaurants regularly called 'perfect' Le Mimosa is run by an English-New Zealand couple David and Bridget Pugh. Subtle, sophisticated and elegant there is a menu of the day based on ingredients from local suppliers that Bridget's diners will go misty-eyed about years later. Superb desserts, cheeses and wine. There is an Osteria in the village one can book into if you don't want to stint on David's superb wine list. €54 - 90 This is a MUST BOOK restaurant.
Montpellier
SixBix - 6 rue Embouque d'Or 0467 66 35 13 - funky style, djs playing ambient (but not loud) music, v. friendly service. Truly excellent modern French food in gigantic portions perfect for a special night out. We pushed the boat out and the bill was €80 - we would have paid 3 times as much in London.
Place Jean Jaures - a better alternative for drinks/meals than the larger Place de la Comedie. Had a good fixed price menu at Tire de Bouchon - particularly notable for their willingness to allow an enormous, snoozing Great Dane to fill almost half the floorspace during a busy lunchtime.
To be honest we don't know too many Montpellier restaurants. However the terrific Creme du Languedoc website does, so we suggest a look there.
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