Charbon — Restaurant in Chinon

After narrowly escaping Place de le Bistro after reading their treacherous reviews, my wife, and two kids (7 and 11) stumbled on this place and the owner booked us a table despite being busy. The menu was reassuringly short. It didn’t give much away. But this was … incredibly good food and service. First class.

The atmosphere was relaxed, smart and assured. No austere nonsense or overly decorated paff.

The food however was utterly brilliant. We had the bone marrow and filet mignon to start, followed by the beef cheek and pork belly, with all the desserts. The mains came with potatoes and green beans. The short and simple menu created space for chef to execute his art with expertise. The meats had been slow cooked overnight. Exemplary. The chef (one chef!) knows his craft. This is genuinely a hard to find level of cuisine.

When we asked for wine they asked which colour and chose one for us, without hesitation. No wine menu, they just know their stuff — elegant, sophisticated and robust, nailed it.

I’ll remember this meal till...

Keeping it simple is complicated in the restaurant business. Here, though, they find the balance, taking great produce and giving it a culinary nudge. The curry flavours in the braised lamb are so subtle, I'd only know they were there with a tasting before and after. The same goes for the pesto on the fish, which is uncommonly and perfectly just, just cooked en papillote). The thing is, none of this really matters when it all goes together like Marie Antoinette and .. ok, bad example. Here, it works well. The potatoes and oven braised green veg are so simple and so good. The amaretto (i think) is a surprise ingredient in the chocolate mousse, which is of the light, creamy, sweet type (not the more common dark and intense). Again, it is beautiful in its own way. The sausages look amazing. I have to ready my body for pork for this return, though. Perhaps 3 days of silent meditation. Perhaps. Great service and...

This was the worst restaurant during our 3-weeks trip. Do not eat in this terrible restaurant. The Feu de Bois dishes could only be ordered for portions of 900-1000 gram (they told us when we had our wine - much too late). As we were with two of us, we therefore only could choose between two other dishes. The entree consisted of three very ordinary pork slices and the main dish was some pulled pork with way to long boiled vegetables. The two portions for us were served on one plate. Actually we were warned in the beginning by the...