L'Ecluse — Restaurant in Loches

We had a lovely meal here. The food was arranged artfully, the flavors were delectable, and the service was outstanding. Seriously, this was some of the best service I've had, with the waitstaff immediately taking away empty glasses and tableware at just the right time. We ordered the lower range set meal options with both my wife and I each getting the cauliflower gazpacho with smoked fish, which was just amazing. My wife and daughter both got the catfish and I got the duck. The duck was perfect: tender, juicy, and flavorful. The catfish was totally unique with a crispy breading and a Thai inspired sauce. My daughter, who is very picky, totally devoured her fish.

With an 8 year old at the table, we played Uno, which seemed a little out of place in such a nice establishment, but we never felt like the staff or any of the patrons looked down upon us.

Also, a major bonus was that although we ate outside and were nervous about our meal being interrupted by cigarette smoke, this was the first restaurant we visited in France that appeared to be smoke free in the outdoor dining area. We loved this!

Our only disappointment was that although they offer a child's portion meal option for children at a reduced price, it appears that our desire to order this was lost in translation as they served our daughter the same sized fish plate as my wife's and when the check came, it appeared to be the adult portion that was charged to us. Some things are unfortunately lost in translation...

My husband and I are from the United States. As part of a trip to Europe, we spent a long weekend in Amboise. We chose L'Ecluse for one of our dinners, reserving a table ahead of time via their website. We sat in the dining room on the ground floor. The décor was stylish, and the ambiance was warm and inviting, more so than comes across in photos. There was music playing in the background, at a good (lowish) volume. The menu was on a tablet with buttons for different languages. There were two menus. Each menu was composed of three or four courses - each of which had two choices - plus an optional cheese course. Drinks included bottles of wine and wines by the glass. I believe most if not all of the wines were local. We chose to order by the glass so as to experience multiple wines. We enjoyed all. The staff brought the different courses as well as several amuse bouche at a nice pace. The food was delicious, with interesting combinations of ingredients, and beautifully presented. The portions were a good size; we left satiated without feeling overly full. The service was friendly, attentive, patient (specifically with our lack of French language skills and the resulting inordinate amount of time it took us to order), and kind, as evidenced by one of the staff chasing us down after we left to give me an umbrella I had left behind. We thoroughly enjoyed our experience and highly recommend...

Really loved our experience in l’ecluse - from the relaxed outside setting, to the really good service and finally the beautifully presented and delicious food, it was in our top 3 experiences of the holiday in loire valley for sure.

We went for the first menu, chenin, which at €55 for the 3 course meat option, and €40 for the veg and meat/fish option, was good value!

I had the stuffed tomato, and hubby had the fish with hazelnuts - I loved the freshness of the tomato, but flavor wise I think hubby won this round. Again we both choose different main courses - I had the duck, slightly overcooked for my liking, then again I asked for medium, thinking this was more like medium rare outside for France, so maybe I was a little at fault! The fish was also really good, and was my preferred dish of the mains. There was a great selection of cheese which I skipped …smell alone was enough!

For desert, hubby wasn’t very excited about his peach soup - definitely my chocolate fondant won that round. We had wine as suggested for the staff, all top notch.

Overall would really recommend this restaurant as a lovely place for a couple dinner…ambience, food and service make it a highly recommended experience. The bill, which included 3 glasses of wine each, came to a respectable...