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Pontlevoy: Hotel de l'Ecole

12, route de Montrichard , Phone: 02 54 32 50 30

Reviewed by: jraeburn from IA, review #3250

When: 2009

Excellent price/quality ratio in a pleasant setting.

Directions: On the main street in the center of town.

The restaurant of the Hotel de l'Ecole (a Logis de France) has earned a Michelin "red R" - good meals at a reasonable price - which it richly deserves. It has two dining rooms, each with perhaps ten tables (and I believe an outdoor terrace, but it was drizzly the night we ate there and so didn't see it); the room we were seated was attractively furnished and comfortable in every way: tables nicely spaced, a vase of flowers on each, the dinnerware and napery handsome. We were glad we had stopped by earlier in the day to make a reservation because every table was occupied.

The carte offered three or four menus (prix fixe meals) beginning at 15 euros, each with a range of choices. A la carte ordering was also possible. We chose the 38 euro menu because one of its options was sandre (a fresh-water fish) for the plat, or main course - on a previous Loire visit we had liked it and wanted to have it again, as it's not available in the U.S. We were served a small plate of tasty bouche amusees before our entrees came, which were quenelles for me and white asparagus with crayfish for my wife, both excellent. The plats of sandre were perfectly cooked and napped in a light butter sauce, with a scattering of tiny vegetables. The cheese tray offered a dozen attractive choices. Strawberries were in season and the dessert was a delicious and unusual strawberry and ice cream torte with creme anglais.

The wine list had a number of fairly priced choices, especially of Loire wine; we splurged on a bottle of Savennieres, reasonable at 36.50 euros, because it's the Loire's finest wine and not easy to find in the U.S. Service and presentation of the meals were impeccable. When we left I inadvertently left my credit card and didn't discover I had until the next day, but one of the women who had been serving us found it under my napkin and she and I were both relieved when I returned to claim it.

Pontlevoy is near Chenonceau (and not far from Amboise, Blois, and Cheverny), and so is nicely located for visitors to those chateaux.

One final note about price. In Paris, restaurants usually add the 19.6% VAT to the bill after the carte cost of food and drink has been added up; at the Hotel de l'Ecole (as elsewhere in the provinces, in our experience) the VAT is factored into the carte prices and not separately added in. That makes dining in the provinces a greater bargain than even their generally lower carte prices than those in Paris would indicate. Our meal at the Hotel-Restaurant de l'Ecole was superior to all but one of the five we had in Paris on this same trip, and that one--in a Michelin two-star--cost three times as much, which had as much to do with its grande luxe ambiance as with the quality of the cuisine, which was only marginally better.

This review is the opinion of a Slow Travel member and not of slowtrav.com.

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