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Eating out in France


Coppi
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We have a maison secondaire in France and spend a lot of time there and in other parts of France. This means that we do eat in restaurants quite a lot over the course of a year and we now find that the food in France is not what it used to be. I would go so far as to say that now one can eat better in the UK than in France.

I'm not talking about multi-starred Michelin establishments, of which I believe that there are more in London than Paris. I mean the sort of place where one would stop for luch when travelling or to eat when away from home.

I have had some seriously crap meals this year with terrible service. I'm not talking cheap either.

So there you have it, for good food at semsible prices come to England.

What do others think ?
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I agree about many restaurants in France. Typically we find that the restaurants locally in Normandy are very traditional and somewhat unimaginative in their cuisine.We may be fortunate in the UK that we have many good pubs locally serving excellent, varied and good value food but to be honest we prefer to eat out in the UK than in France (not that we can afford to do either very often!)

It gets a little embarrassing when our French neighbours ask us, somewhat smugly, if we find the food in France much better than in the Uk. We tend to politely answer yes, but make a mild comment about how much British food has improved in recent years!

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I've found lately that it's less costly and often better to eat out at lunchtime in France. Prices in even fairly ordinary restaurants have crept up and if a meal IS mediocre it's mediocre and expensive. We've got a couple or three really good restaurants near us, and we go fairly regularly - preferring to go where we know we'll get good food than risk going somewhere new on spec and being disappointed. Eating out in France certainly isn't as cheap as it once was.

Eating out where we live in the UK isn't exactly cheap, either, so it's not something we do on a very regular basis. Same thing applies, really: keep going back to where we know the food is good rather than experimenting with somewhere new and feeling disappointed AND out-of-pocket. It's a balance, really, but at least in the UK we have a more varied choice, IMO. And if the urge to go out for a quick meal is strong, it's great to be able to pop down the road for a curry and eat a filling meal for around a fiver. I still haven't found anything comparable in France.

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[quote user="You can call me Betty"]I've found lately that it's less costly and often better to eat out at lunchtime in France.

[/quote]

This is something we have done for the past few years - tend to have the

menu or plat du jour and maybe a beer or carafe - usually less

expensive and we tend not to eat so much as if out for the evening..

After one bad experience at le poterne in Caen a while back, (check the reviews) I now also

tend to refer to  sites such as Trip Advisor or http://www.linternaute.com/restaurant/ if eating in an unknown town or village.

Brian (again)

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[quote user="You can call me Betty"]I've found lately that it's less costly and often better to eat out at lunchtime in France. [/quote]Yes. I'm spoiled for choice if I want a good quality 4-course ouvriers' lunch for somewhere between 10 and 12 euros but if I want to spend somewhere between 25 and 35 euros for a prix fixé style menu in the evening, I'm rarely very excited or inspired - by what I'm served. It's rarely worth double the lunchtime price.

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When you find an old family run lunchtime restaurant (like I have locally) you do still get fresh food cooked lovingly and at €12 good value for three courses; (though the best meal was at a trop cher place with an English chef);
Sad to say the Jeanie come lately's taking over failed establishments or cutting back on staff have sought to hoodwink themselves that starters or deserts from Lidl's with a watery main courtesy of the freezer to microwave will also hoodwink their customers, one of these was so staggeringly awful it left me too stunned to pick up my change, hope they don't think I'll be back anytime soon (ever)![+o(]
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This is a common problem which has been spoken of before, and the French are so concerned about the habit of passing off frozen industrially produced dishes as being maison has lead to legislation to make it compulsory to declare if the food has indeed been prepared from fresh ingredients on the premises.

It remains to be seen if it is respected.

Do not assume that because you are eating in France that it will be good.

I know of at least 20 restaurants in this town that fall into the 'plastic food' category, for 7/8 where I go and am pretty sure that most of what I get has been honestly made.

There are one or two  where even the sauces bread etc  are home made

At the other end everything is just assembled as just john describes

In the middle come the places at around 12/14 € where usually at least the pudding will have been bought in.

Economics dictate that they cant employ a chef and a pastry chef.

What is important in these places is the choice is well made: bread from a good boulanger, and  an eatable dessert.

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[quote user="brianagain"][quote user="You can call me Betty"]I've found lately that it's less costly and often better to eat out at lunchtime in France.

[/quote]

This is something we have done for the past few years - tend to have the

menu or plat du jour and maybe a beer or carafe - usually less

expensive and we tend not to eat so much as if out for the evening..

After one bad experience at le poterne in Caen a while back, (check the reviews) I now also

tend to refer to  sites such as Trip Advisor or http://www.linternaute.com/restaurant/ if eating in an unknown town or village.

Brian (again)

[/quote]

I use l'internaute also but with caution.

These are opinions offered by anybody, and can and are open to manipulation.

Beware of a number of eulogies especially if around the same date.  These are often friends and family rather than genuine customers.

Beware also the odd really damning comment amidst  generally favorable ones. It can be from a competitor.

The entries are moderated but only to make sure they pass basic criteria, not in any way for accuracy.

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I have just come back from a short break to Rome.   I always wondered if it was just me that generally the restaurant food is so crap in France.  I cant say I have eaten out much but the times I do is bordering on dreadful.

Well... Rome confirmed it... Every single restaurant from 10€ to more expensive was fresh and great.

My fortune is that my niche is fresh food.  Had I tried to start a restaurant in Italy I fear I would be like all the others.

Our French clients appreciate the fresh food but they also do not seem bothered that many restaurants serve frozen.

I dont know how France ended up like this... They may be riding on their previous reputation but not on what they serve today.

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[quote user="osie"]I have just come back from a short break to Rome.   I always wondered if it was just me that generally the restaurant food is so crap in France.  I cant say I have eaten out much but the times I do is bordering on dreadful.
Well... Rome confirmed it... Every single restaurant from 10€ to more expensive was fresh and great.

My fortune is that my niche is fresh food.  Had I tried to start a restaurant in Italy I fear I would be like all the others.
Our French clients appreciate the fresh food but they also do not seem bothered that many restaurants serve frozen.

I dont know how France ended up like this... They may be riding on their previous reputation but not on what they serve today.

[/quote]

I had to read your post THREE times to be sure I hadn't misread.

I have been to Rome quite a few times and it is very rarely that I have not felt ripped off and, except for extreme hunger, eaten any food with any enjoyment.

No, not quite right, there WAS one restaurant where we had a good meal.  As for the airport, do NOT eat or drink anything if you can avoid it....just blatant rip off.

The Opera House is wonderful but, again, if you do pay for a box, make sure that you get to sit together and not be split up into different boxes so that you only get to see your OH at the interval.

The city, of course, is beautiful but the FOOD...........the less said, the better.

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I got a lovely case of food poisoning in Rome, and that resto gave us each a calender with a drawing of a different sexual position for every day of the year! So one way or another quite unforgetable.

We did eat well at Tivoli, superb food there.

I loved Rome though, so would go back, but necessarily for the food.

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This has been done to death before, but its worth repeating that surely the measure is value for money.

Thus it matters not whether the price is €12, €30, or €60+ per head, what counts is whether what you get fits the price (or not!). No further explanation needed.

p.s. Rome no doubt has many good places, but my experience was iffy too.   

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[quote user="Gardian"] This has been done to death before, but its worth repeating that surely the measure is value for money.

Thus it matters not whether the price is €12, €30, or €60+ per head, what counts is whether what you get fits the price (or not!). No further explanation needed. [/quote]

Quite so, though my experience is about a change in standards of established local venues following less than busy periods last year; not wishing to limit places to dine, I do the rounds, so when an old venue reopens I feel duty bound to try it, that was my worst experience (I felt truly sorry for the hapless couple's venture); the second less than perfect meal was a revisit to a restaurant where I had had several good meals, their reduction in business had meant reduction of staff to the sole proprietor and a switch to 'pre-prepared meals'. I suspect the trend may continue.

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As for Rome... I can only go by the 6 restaurants I visited... maybe it was because it was off peak or maybe my tastes are different... but for me it was a piece of heaven after the food here. One place had t-bone steak 24€ for 600g-1000kg.  They did not do anything smaller!

That said, I had a baguette and 3 French cheeses at home yesterday and that was sublime... Got a steak entrecote that was 10€90 / kg that was some of the best I have found and the fruit and veg at the moment is fantasic.  I also made my rare visit (as I was coming back from the airport) to the chain grandfrais, and this is by far the best supermarket for veg I have even found anywhere. 

So, the irony of it is ... the produce in France is great, marche has local producers, the deli shops have great food.  Its just that there does not seem to be a push to get the marche food into the restaurants.  Presumable because the restaurant clientèle do not demand it.

On the other hand I have come to dislike the supermarkets in UK with their non seasonal method and non UK produce.

Maybe the UK is lucky to have the likes of Jamie O and the media to educate us into eating fresh food and to make the effort to look for it.

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Well, I had meals this last week in three different restaurants, two in  Northern France and one in Brussels. The French ones were totally different, one being trendyish village centre, which was excellent and the second, a traditional estaminet type place. Stripping out the cost of extras like wine, their prices were very fair. Equally so in Brussels where the quality was rather better, quantity more generous and the prices fine. And the place was full as were many of the other establishments round the square, customers attracted by the Xmas market, doubtless.

I even managed to have some proper Dutch mussels which were big and chewy and just burst in your mouth, rather than the titchy, 'find me is you can', small French ones!

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My understanding is that the French are turning their backs on traditional restaurants and increasingly prefer fast food establishments, with France being Macdonalds fasting growing market. Add to the equation the crack down in France on drink driving and the lower than UK alcohol limit and many French restaurants are struggling to survive, as the profit is not in the food but the sale of alchohol.

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My experience as far as local restaurants go is based on eating out in "Tourist " ones which most of ours are . They cant keep the same the chef for long it appears . The food mostly is rubbish served in the knowledge they are not likely to see the customer return So it is charge as much as they can and offer as small a portion as they can get away with .

When a good family restaurant is found you know the menu is not likely to change much.... if ever. But at least you know what you are going to get so stick with them

The UK can beat them hands down for quality quantity and price...

One of the last meals I had in France I finished with a coffee and a brandy that was served in a half inch thick bottomed shot glass. Like a trick beer glass that makes a half look like a pint... I thought I had a good measure .......wrong !
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[quote user="Frederick"]My experience as far as local restaurants go is based on eating out in "Tourist " ones which most of ours are . They cant keep the same the chef for long it appears . The food mostly is rubbish served in the knowledge they are not likely to see the customer return [/quote]

Not always, but often sadly only too true.

We had our worst meal for years in September in one of the 'Plus Beaux Villages' in the Herault. Yes, a lovely village, but bad for eating.

'Omelette aux Cepes' was the chalked up special dish. It was a bit pricey to say the least (€13.50), but it was Hobson's Choice with not much else that we fancied.  We asked for a pichet of Rose, which arrived unchilled: I asked for a chilled one and the waiter said that he'd bring some ice cubes. I told him to take it away.  The omelettes arrived and had clearly been pre-cooked and waiting to be warmed through: the garnish was a sprig or two of salad. The omelettes were like shoe leather and tasted of  ........ shoe leather.

Note to self: don't go to fancy villages. 

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