Le Lion D'Or — Restaurant in Loches

We booked through the Michelin website but the booking was lost so we were seated in a below average bistro area. For a Michelin restaurant it would have been better to have been turned away given how much ambience adds to the whole dining experience.

Entrees were enjoyable but both main meals and dessert were cleared half eaten due to the lack of taste and quality of produce and yet the waiter did not enquire. The dessert was a weird combination of strawberries in liquor with perhaps a mango gelato and and avocado purée. It was inedible even if you like experimenting as we do. Service was slow and we had to ask for table to be cleared multiple times. In fact the only service we had was order and meal delivery.

Altogether a dissatisfactory experience and when we commented to the maitre de on conclusion she was not interested in the slightest. Signifcantly below our expectations and not worthy of a Michelin rating in our experience. This restaurant was well below the two other dinners we had in Amboise on all levels and substantially...

Racist/sexist experience at the end. You have to go to the reception to pay. Ok I went, but the lady just ignored me even if I stood right in front of her. I thought I’d just wait until she finished her business. Then another couple came, she immediately came back to life and let them pay with utmost hospitality. They didn’t give a tip.

Alright I’ll just be patient and polite. It was my turn, she again ignored my presence and turned to my boyfriend (who came later, stood further away, white), expecting that he was to pay!!! Bf said no the lady is paying. Now she FINALLY noticed me, hello? I said make it xxx euro please (I was too nice to give a quite decent tip which she most definitely didn’t deserve), then she just confirmed the amount, gave me the pos machine, without saying at least a thank you. Why was I treated differently than the English couple? Because I’m Asian?

The food was just alright, but don’t ask for tap water, it’s a rich chlorine flavor, anywhere else we visited in...

Worth a dedicated trip to Amboise Our AirBnB host recommended this place even it was not on the list of restaurant choices we researched. The surprise started with a leek soup and we wiped clean all dishes! We ordered a three course Menu Saveurs (“Flavors Menu” or perhaps special menu) for 42 euros, paired with a 2022 chenin Pierre (sauvignon blanc?) from a local vineyard Touraine Amboise (33 euro). The starter was a smoked trout tartar, main course is stuffed chicken (Medallion of poultry), and 4 cheese plate. Vegetables were very fresh, cooking was perfect, and excellent presentations. The wine topped it out - I gather we would spent 4 times in the US for the same quality. Our server was just great. The setting is on the formal side with spacious layout compared with other restaurants we visited in Loire Valley, and the location is not in the touristy drab (Pl. Michel Debré), and thus is a welcome change to typical busy venues with...