> SlowTrav > France > Restaurants > Reviews > Languedoc-Roussillon

Courniou les Grottes: L'Assiette Gourmande

Av d'occitanie , Phone: 04.67.97.52.11

Reviewed by: Jonathan from UK, review #2975

When: 2008

Pleasant restaurant just round the corner from the main N112 St Pons – Mazamet road: imaginative cooking.

Asparagus velouté, photo by JM

This restaurant is very conveniently situated for those staying at La Métairie Basse (the farmhouse B&B and gîte: see hotel reviews for Languedoc): it’s just on the corner between the lane that leads up to the hamlet of Prouilhe from the main N112. It’s a nice little local restaurant, with some imaginative touches on its menus (which start at €18.80: I chose the €23.80 one). There’s a small outside terrace (which faces onto the sometimes busy main road), and an attractive indoor room, seating around 30.

After ordering, a mise-en-bouche appeared: a little oval glass of gazpacho. Very nice (but perhaps not the perfect choice before my chosen first course, which was also a cold soup). This latter soup was ‘Velouté froid d’asperge verte, croustillant de ricotta a l’amande doux et eclats de fruits secs’ (yes, it’s one of those menus where it takes almost as long to read the description of the dish as it does to eat it...). Very prettily presented, with a crisp filo pastry whirl sitting on top of the ricotta & chopped almonds; the soup itself had a nicely delicate asparagus flavour.

My main course choice was ‘Filet de canette laqué au curry vert et agrumes, matouille de pommes de terre’. The duckling breast was nicely pinky-red inside, with citrus-sweet skin (the ‘curry vert’ was too subtle to taste!). Matouille is a Savoyard cheesy mashed potato: a little pile of this was topped with strips of courgette and carrot. All was accompanied with good bread, and a half bottle of Faugères (a full-flavoured local Hérault AC red).

From the list of desserts I chose the crème brulée aux pralines. I’m not sure about the pralines: it didn’t taste significantly nutty, but has an intriguingly pink hue; the burnt sugar topping was nicely judged. A coffee rounded things off: total €33.90. Nice, friendly service from la patronne.

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

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