Auberge De L'Abbaye D'Hambye — Restaurant in Coutances

What am amazing Jewel of a restaurant. My husband and I speak just enough French to get by however the staff here made booking the table and our dinning experience very easy and comfortable. They made us and our 4 children (ages 11,9,8 &4) feel incredibly welcome. The service was impeccable with extremely polite and accommodating staff.||The food: an array of very tasty nibbles and bread was brought to the table once we ordered our drinks. There was a set menu for the children, ours all had the chicken in a lovely but mild creamy mushroom sauce served with mashed potato (trust me it was a lot more glamourous than it sounds), for dessert the kids were kept quite with chocolate crepes. My husband and I both went for the "gardens of Auberge" 3 course set menu for €29 and we were not dissappointed. Starter we had fillet of mackerel in white wine with celery and artichoke purée with cream of mustard sauce (this is a cold dish). Main was duck breast Madame Coulange, red wine sauce and pink peppercorns and vegetables in season (this was by far the best duck dish I have ever experienced). Dessert: my husband went for Crème brûlée with acacia honey , and almond tuile, which for a non dessert eater was a huge hit. I opted for Norman baba (a sponge type cake) Calvados, candied Apple & raw cream, I've no words for this amazing creation.||The food was on par with what we have experienced in the Orient Express, the service first class and the restaurant immaculate and all at a very reasonable price. We were pleasantly surprised when the bill arrived. An added bonus was a couple of local dinners complimented us on how well behaved our children were. ||We would definitely recommend this restaurant and should we return to the area in future would make this our first...

I'll copy what I just wrote about the restaurant below (spoiler alert: it's comparable, in everything but price, to a Michelin starred restaurant). The hotel is very welcoming, and the young family who have made it such a hidden gem deserve great credit. The rooms, along with the entire hotel, were renovated in the last few months. Modern, bright lines, top notch bathroom fixtures, very quiet (it's next to a historic abbey, nestled in the country). It's the last feature that is a little bit of a drawback: it's very difficult to get internet connectivity, even though they do have wifi in the downstairs salon. Hope they'll work on that, as it could be a hindrance if you need to get/send any urgent messages. But that's the only negative point. Once they fix that, it will be 5 Star Excellent as far as I'm concerned. Bravo!||||Restaurant review: No exaggeration: we'd recently had a meal at one of Brussels' Michelin starred restaurants. It was good, yes. But the meal we enjoyed last night at l'Auberge was every bit as good, and much, much better value. Four courses (starter, main, cheese, and dessert) for 29 euros. It happens that we had a bottle of local Norman cider instead of wine; in fact it went well with our seafood-only meal. We almost had the restaurant to ourselves, so we could admire all the great taste involved with the owners' investment in a wholly redecorated dining room (in fact the entire hotel has been renovated). Really, a find, and as I say, a keeper (we'll be back, to quote a certain...

I'll copy what I just wrote about the restaurant below (spoiler alert: it's comparable, in everything but price, to a Michelin starred restaurant). The hotel is very welcoming, and the young family who have made it such a hidden gem deserve great credit. The rooms, along with the entire hotel, were renovated in the last few months. Modern, bright lines, top notch bathroom fixtures, very quiet (it's next to a historic abbey, nestled in the country). It's the last feature that is a little bit of a drawback: it's very difficult to get internet connectivity, even though they do have wifi in the downstairs salon. Hope they'll work on that, as it could be a hindrance if you need to get/send any urgent messages. But that's the only negative point. Once they fix that, it will be 5 Star Excellent as far as I'm concerned. Bravo!||||Restaurant review: No exaggeration: we'd recently had a meal at one of Brussels' Michelin starred restaurants. It was good, yes. But the meal we enjoyed last night at l'Auberge was every bit as good, and much, much better value. Four courses (starter, main, cheese, and dessert) for 29 euros. It happens that we had a bottle of local Norman cider instead of wine; in fact it went well with our seafood-only meal. We almost had the restaurant to ourselves, so we could admire all the great taste involved with the owners' investment in a wholly redecorated dining room (in fact the entire hotel has been renovated). Really, a find, and as I say, a keeper (we'll be back, to quote a certain...