Le Petit Bouillon ALCIDE — Restaurant in Lille

We went there a couple of times because it is French food and very good price.

Starting with the food they have different varieties of starters and main dishes. They don’t have an English menu so it was hard for us to understand but thanks to the photos in Google reviews and the help of waiters we were able to understand. Also in their website they have English website but we couldn’t open it.

The starters are generally good. Eggs were worth trying and it was the first time we tried escargot but we liked it and the sauce was nice. The meat is not the best you can have but for 11 euros it is the best you can have. For me I like my meat medium but rare cooked was more like medium cooked so if you love your meat a little less cooked I would advise you to take rare.

We tried creme brulee and chocolate mousse and mousse was good. For me in the creme brulee I could taste the eggs more than I should have so I didn’t like it that much.

The bread they serve with the food feels like it was left from yesterday. For a French restaurant it could be much more better.

The cheapest wine is good and for 8-9 euros you can easily drink with three people. It was tasty and cheap.

About the staff I want to say that all the waiters are really nice and helpful and kind other than the women working in the entrance. Our experience was really nice until 5 minutes after we paid she said to us that we had to leave because there were people waiting in a very rude way.

The atmosphere is good but the smell of food inside is very dominant, very much which may disturb you if you don’t like it.

Overall it was a good experience. I would advise everyone to try French food for a cheaper price. I would also like to deliver my special thanks to the waiters working in the first floor who were literally running to make everyone get their...

When I visited Lille in the 1990s I always hurried to the metro station to travel out to the Lille-3 campus to teach my classes. Although I did find the Furet bookshop I was always intrigued by a great arched entrance that was way across the Grand’Place. I never had time to explore it. The sign in the arch said AlCide, with the letter C larger than the rest, so from my distant, unknowing point of view I thought it said Al Cide, which meant possibly The Master in Arabic. I never took that diagonal route to traverse the great square to find out anything more about the master, Al Cide.

Until I took a group of students to Lille twenty years after my teaching visits. I used literary history to work out the year. Patrick Modiano had won the Nobel Prize in December 2014 and it was a display of the new laureate’s novels that drew me into the Furet bookshop. So, it must have been March 2015 when I was back in Lille. During this stay in the city, I determined to visit the Master. When I headed directly to the Alcide arch, the square became a folded triangle. I crossed the rue Nationale. It took no time at all. Google says 140 metres. Why hadn’t I walked that short route twenty years earlier? It seemed so far then, so out of the way. This spatial question is topological because it includes time and culture, rather than geography alone.

It was just after 11am when I arrived beneath the Alcide arch. I turned and looked out towards Tournai. The spring sunshine glazed the buildings in the east into a bright haze. The triangular gable of the 1930s newspaper building, though, was still very clear. You could make out the sparrow steps of the gable. They were a cultural reference to the stepped gables that protected thatched roofs from being lifted by the winds of northern Europe in the...

I wanted this to be 5 stars, having been to bouillon Pigalle and remembering great food at a great price.

We had a good meal but there are some wrinkles that need to be ironed out to become excellent.

The bouillon en entrée was lukewarm. Since we were there at opening, it seems it didn't have chance to heat up properly. The museau was two slices with a bit of olive oil and 1 picked onion; it tasted under seasoned.

My piece du boucher, au poivre vert, was lacking in sauce; there was perhaps 2-3 teaspoon. It was cooked perfectly and the fries were excellent. The boeuf bourguignon was excellent. And all the desserts were great. A fork for the mile-feuille would have been better to eat it.

Great wine, great prices, and great servers! The sealing had paint pealing which makes the restaurant feel unfinished. The host's attire didn't feel very professional and it's a bit off putting. I think we'll be back but I'm concerned that it may not live up...