Auberge De L'abbaye — Restaurant in Belley

After a 5 year hiatus, I decided to treat my wife for a surprise dinner at the Auberge de L'Abbaye.

On arrival we were warmly welcomed by an attentive staff and started with the recommendation of Mr Lavaux who brought us a delightful aperitif.

Following we we for the AAA 7 course menu which was exsquisit, I mean a real work of art. Paired with some lovely wines, our evening was simply magical. Personally, I love to be entertained by excellently presented and thought out dishes, which don't just provide sensory excellence, but also inspire me to attempt to recreate the magic.

If you like art on a plate in a lovely setting, with attentive staff, well please visit The Auberge de L'Abbaye and treat yourself.

The only picture I took, happens to be the cheese plate which was truly generous as well as exsquisit.

We stumbled on this restaurant by accident and were really amazed at the precision and quality of the dishes, loved the idea of just ordering a meal and being surprised. Great wine, service, food, will be back definitely. Best meal this year and probably...

On the whole my wife and I had a disappointing dinner at AUBERGE DE L'ABBAYE.

Highlights: The location in the courtyard of the Abbey is magical.The service was exceptional. The chef checked in on us several times and the young waiter was fantastic. He made a great effort to translate explanations of the dishes to us in english.The wine pairing with my six course menu was perfect.Dessert was outstanding.

Opportunities: The atmosphere was below par for a Michelin starred restaurant. There was no music playing so the constant mechanical blending in the kitchen really stood out. Despite it not being a particularly hot evening, it was uncomfortably stuffy inside. The menu was generally forgettable, with the exception of a sorbet / fish egg bowl that was shockingly unbalanced. The biggest disappointment/surprise was the beef fillet. My wife's was cooked medium rare and melted in your mouth, she was very happy. Mine was very rare, paired with an extremely dull knife I couldn't cleanly cut through it. I chewed on about half of it before pushing it away in...

We were happy to get a Monday night reservation for this restaurant. The chef who served the four tables in the room was busy, indeed. Although my wife is a native francophone, he was rushed and abrupt. His approach re my wine questions seemed to be “my way or the highway”. We had the AAA dinner, sans cheese. Best dishes — in your opinion — were a soup of morels, and the beef. Fish was too salty. Marshmallows appeared twice in our menu. Dessert was hardly memorable, and mignardises were niggardly for a restaurant with any pretensions. Our wine — a cru Beaujolais — was fine, but I had to insist that we wished it, instead of the chef’s recommendation.

It was surprising an insulting to be charged 6 euros for a screw top carafe of what appeared to be chlorinaceous tap water ( we had asked for eu de robinet). There are good things here, but the place does not meet one’s expectations for a Michelin one-star( or, just a decent restaurant) Would NOT recommend to people who know a little bit about food and also value...