The restaurant is situated just a stones-throw from St Félix de Lauragais, next to the Lac de L’Enclas and La Rigole de la Plaine – which is a small waterway that feeds the canal du Midi and a favourite for walkers, cyclists and anglers.
From the terrace we enter the restaurant via the bar.
The place is decorated quite soberly but also fairly minimalist and traditional at the same time – they mix the traditional old stone and white plastered walls with a tiled suspended ceiling with more of a library, classroom or an office feeling about it.
The lighting was very subdued, in fact a bit too dim to be able to eat and see what is on the plates, music is also a bit overpowering – we were greeted by the warbling tones of K.D. Lang, which was later replaced by Prince…
The waiter then brought round a chalk board, on which was written the menu.
Personally, all of the starters appealed to me, whilst the main courses and the desserts lacked variety and inspiration.
I started with home made Foie Gras which was beautifully presented with lightly grilled pain d’épices, petits oignons confits, salad and a sorbet of figs, which was absolutely delicious.
My choice of main course was much easier to choose than the starter as the choice was, at least for my taste, fairly restricted so I plumped for Jarret d’agneau et en croûte – here I didn’t really know what to expect – the others around the table ordered the fish and the Bourguignon de canard.
The Jarret d’agneau arrived – it was what is probably termed a lamb hock and the croûte was a mixture of – well I’m not sure – I guess it was herbs but it was fairly tasteless – my two sons ordered the same and they didn’t like it much either as the exterior of the lamb was very dry.
All of our main courses were presented identically apart from the Bourguignon which had the addition of a pur̩e of celeriac РOne turnip, one large and almost incongruous roasted potato and a carrot.
On the waiter’s recommendations we ordered a carafe of Cabernet Sauvignon – which was very nice.
I ordered a tarte aux pommes for dessert, which came served with, I strongly suspect, whipped cream in a can.
The tarte, was not at all what I expected as the taste of almonds in the base was overpowering and one of the few things that I cannot and will not eat – so I exchange it with one of our party who had ordered a red-fruit crumble, the red fruits were clearly frozen, especially as they were out of season and there was virtually no crumble topping – which didn’t help with the over-acidic, tart taste of the fruit.
My sons stayed safe and ordered ice-cream.
The meal for everyone was not unpleasant but it was not exceptional either, apart from the starter which was very good – the bill was 125€ for 6 people, which is not over-expensive either – service was prompt, friendly and courteous.
This is a place that we will return to, in the hope that the chef will find some more inspiration and creativity, especially as there is a huge terrace which will be great for those hot summer evenings to come.
Service was friendly, although with just the one waiter, there may be long waits if it starts getting busy.