Le Grand Réfectoire — Restaurant in Lyon

We had a congress dinner in this restaurant and for the price we payed (75 euros per person) we were expecting fine French cuisine. We were badly mistaken. Both the service and the food did not at all reflect the price range of this restaurant. We had a three course menu. The starter was a Caesar salad, served with bread in a strange package, which was not cut. This was unfortunately the best part of the dinner. The main course was a completely bland dish consisting of a veal steak (impossible to cut with a missing steak knife), polenta mash and gravy. No spices, herbs or vegetables were apparently used in the making of this course. We hoped the dessert would save the night.. Once again we were disappointed. It was a very small and very plain piece of tart tatin with pineapple. This disaster was completed by the vegetarian version of the menu. The starter was a plain beetroot salad and it was followed by an awkward monothematic main dish consisting of chickpea purree, chickpea ragou and unidentifiable fried cubes (see attached picture). Everything was once again without any flavor or vegetables. The vegetarian dessert was also a disappointment. It was just pear compote with a rose made of almost raw apples on top. The nonsense of serving Evian water should probably justify the price and it nicely reflected the poshness of the restaurant, however we would have preferred to eat something substantial instead.

The quality of provided service was not good either. We had a super dirty wine glass, very clumsy waiter and overall the waiters couldn't speak any English. The cherry on top o this evening was the serving of coffee, when we were told that they ran out of teaspoons. The only good things were the decent wine and UNESCO...

From the entrance, to the interiors, the service & the food presentation, everything was top! They allow dogs inside like most French restaurant. We brought his own food and water bowl and ask them for water and they were accommodating.

I only remove one star because the food for the children could be better. But I do understand that I am in France where the children eat everything. The curry soup was too "spicy" for my son which doesn't mean heat... it just means too many exotic spices for his palate. Thankfully he ate the pasta & was in heaven with the ice cream.

I need to specially mention how good the bread was. We had to ask for butter and no surprise it was so delicious! French butter is the best in the world.

My husband and I took the specially Menu for the Festival of Lights weekend which came with starters, main, dessert for only 32 Euros. Not bad for a Michelin listed restaurant with a 2 star chef.

STARTERS My husband and I don't particularly like pate & similarly textured food, but we were surprised to enjoy the Chicken Terrine & Tuna tartine.

MAIN I was so happy with my salmon with crispy skin on top with black rice, pak choi & Mandja sauce. My husband enjoyed his Pork Pluma with sweet potato puree & cane syrup sauce.

DESSERT We got the Citrus millefeuille with spiced orange caramel and candied grapefruit which was good. But the star was the Chocolate finger with passion fruit & chocolate whipped cream.

Enjoyed my food with a glass of Le Grand Refectoires white wine. Being Asian I like the Asian touches to the modern French cuisine. I would return to this restaurant...

It has been a long time that I wanted to try this restaurant. The place is very nice. The location is very characteristic as the old refectory of the Hotel de Dieu was nicely renovated. It is very nice place. The place is very popular (as it should) and it is better to make a reservation (like we did) especially if you want to eat after 20.15-20.30. On my opinion, this is one of the major limitations of the place as it gets very busy and you are forced to call the waiters to order your food. It is not that the waiters ignore you, they are just very busy running from one table to another. In addition, you can feel that the place is very popular from the quality of the paper of the menu, which I found it worn and creased from overuse. Regarding the food, it was good and in line with the quality that you can find in Lyon (which is very high), the quality/price ratio was ok for Lyon (entree/plat/dessert = 39 euro). Despite the waiting time for the order, the food is very quick to arrive as the kitchen seems very well organized. The dessert...