Les Lyonnais — Restaurant in Lyon

We ended up pretty disappointed by the bouchon. It's a long story. One day we walked down from the hill after visited La Basiligue Notre Dame de Fourviere to look for a place for lunch. We came across Bouchon Les Lyonnais before entering the touristic Vieux Lyon along Rue du Boeuf. The bouchon looked decent and has got a good rating from Google (about 4.4), so we asked for a table but was told they were fully booked. Later we decided to give it a try and reserved a table for dinner on the last night of our trip in Lyon. We arrived at 7pm that day but felt a bit off as the bouchon was not busy and we were the second table. May be the french do not start dinner that early, we thought. The bouchon started to fill up slowly but until the end of our meal, the bouchon still had unoccupied tables. Anyway, on the dishes, we went for the Menu des Soyeux (37.9 euros) and ordered Meurette Eggs in Red Wine Sauce as starter, Forest Crust (diced calf liver with morels asuce) and Beef Filet with St Marcellin Sauce as main course. The food was average. I have tasted better ones elsewhere at better prices. What's worst was the desert. We had Gourmet coffee with assortments of desserts and Creme Caramel Maison. I always believe the French are the best in the world when it comes to desert and we were in Lyon, The Gastronomic Capital of the World, we could not believe our eyes when the deserts were served. The top of the Creme Caramet Maison had dried up and it tasted like having left overnight. The same for that came with Gourmet coffee. The fresh fruits came with the Gourmet coffee had turned brown! We just could finished them. As for the service, it was friendly and efficient but if you are going for food quality and reasonable price, I think they are over-rated and overpriced and thus would not recommend Bouchon...

I got the €33.50 set, and the food was pretty bad to be honest. It could be a bad day for the chef, or maybe their chicken dish just isn’t good.

Starter: “Le caviar des Soyeux” (salad of green lentil salad with cervelas). This was great, honestly. Tasted very refreshing, the tomatoes and onion went really well with the lentils and terrine.

Main: Creamy poultry supreme. This dish was one of the worst I’ve tasted in recent memory, I couldn’t finish it. The chicken was dry (overcooked), the cream sauce didn’t taste like much, the potatoes had a sour tinge (which could be intentional, but still didn’t taste good), and the eggplants tasted like nothing. I rarely can’t finish the food I ordered, but this was one of the occasions where the dish just tasted so bad altogether that I couldn’t finish it. I’m hoping this was a one-off mistake by the kitchen!

Dessert: Home Made Creme Caramel. This is essentially an upside down crème brûlée, except the caramel sauce isn’t torched so it’s liquid and not crispy. Overall it tasted good — like what you’d expect from crème brûlée. But because they don’t torch the caramel, the whole dish was texturally less interesting and I got sick of the sweetness after a while. Honestly, I think the main dish gave me such a bad taste in the mouth that it affected my appetite for the dessert.

Service was great, and the vibes and decor were great as well. Other folks seem to have better luck with the food here, so I think I was just unlucky that my dish was badly...

Perfect Pike

First time here.. and what a lovely surprise from my French Family. This well know eatery looks pretty ordinary from the outside.. bur step inside and its a whole new world. Very, very nicely decorated, loved the simple colour scheme. Two rooms of efficient staff and service, downstairs with its arched roof simply oozed charm.. The service was not only very proficient, but extremely jovial as well. Whilst 3 of the 5 Family members tried different dishes, I was told I MUST try the famous Lyonnaise dish of 'Quenelles de Brochet'.. Now this is the first time I have tried Pike and I'm a firm believer in always 'trying something at least once' - if only to find out what it REALLY tastes like. So, I started with Salad de Chevre Chaud.. I'm getting a liking for Goats cheese. and finished with a super smooth Creme Caramel. But, the main course .. WOW... I do need to get the recipe for that sauce the Pike came in.. I cannot describe it enough to give it justice. This establishment is obviously run by Hosts who know their food and their profession. . All this and at a reasonable cost - around 140€ for 5 including wine.

(Apologies for extreme lateness of review. I thought I had...