Restaurant l'Ilôt — Restaurant in Loches

Such a delightful experience! Menu changes daily with two offerings of each, nearly every group took one of everything and shared and I would highly recommend you do the same! We walked in and all tables were reserved So we took counter service and got to sit right by all the action. It’s an open kitchen of two burners! The chef and his assistant weee so fun to watch cooking, the chef would show off how he cooked and the ingredients, so I say google the chefs table counter service if you can! The waitress speaks English otherwise all other staff speaking only French and the service was wonderful, friendly and warm. The chef and his assistant chef put out delectably dishes that this far has been the closest to home cooking, it feels like visiting friends! First Amuse Bouche was a beet mouse on toast, we ordered the croissant du poisson ( seafood filo egg roll if you will with a side of fresh gem lettuce salad and tomatoes) , mijote de sol(chicken stew on a potatoes bed, you will want to soak up every last drop with bread), dos de merlu ( steamed mussels and perfectly pan sautéed white fish, ona bed of mixed vegetables with two types of caviar), four cheese platter, and the marmalade dessert (a mousse served with cocktail of freah papaya, grapes, and banana topped with chantilly crème) … the chocolate terrine looked like a dream if only we had room! A must go ( a bit hidden but I highly recommend parking a Richelieu parking square and walking to city square and returning...

Avoid at all cost : disappointing is an understatement. The limited menu (2 starters, 2 mains) would let me hope that each dish would be unique and mastered perfectly. But it wasn't. Sadly, after giving it much thoughts, there wasn't a positive note to mention to this meal. Few things to note for improvement though : 4 different dishes only : - it's not concievable that you ostensibly use the same ingredients in the dishes (+ let the supermarket fish eggs go, theyre used in starters and mains, but they do not add anything to the plate). it's disrespectful that your two mains sauces are one and the same, especially when you're serving daurade on one hand and pork on the other hand. What do you think you say to your customer when you're selling them a 25 euros pork à la carte and a 29 euros dorade à la carte, and they find out that the only difference between their dish is a sad piece of protein thats not even mastered? How would you think your customers would react when they realize that their dorad sauce is full of pork meat ? Anyway, that's not a big deal, except the feeling of being ripped of by intaking useless calories without feeling pleasure for it.

Edit 2 hours later : let's add a double diarrhea to the bill as our bellies...

We had dinner here last night. This was based on a recommendation of a local. We got here early (the first guests to be seated) and we were greeted warmly and made to feel very welcome. What a start to what turned out to be a fantastic overall experience. My wife and I did our usual and ordered different choices and then shared. It was made simple by only 2 selections at each course. I have attached a picture of the menu so you can see what we ate at each course. The food was outstanding and each was beautifully and artistically plated (please refer to the pictures). Eating at a nice restaurant should involve all of the senses and they scored on all counts. I can’t say enough about the friendliness of the staff (husband and wife) and how much fun they make it. She was very helpful on the wine selection since we are not that familiar with French wines. But the real surprise was when we overheard the couple at the next table mention the town we used to live in. Turns out we knew each other from California years ago. 30+ plus years and 6000 miles, but...