Sunday, September 04, 2011

La Table d'Aurore (Saint-Guilhem le Désert, France)

We had friends visiting from Geneva so we decided to play tourists and take them to the world famous and UNESCO protected Saint-Guilhem le Désert. But before taking them on a tour of the Saint-Guilhem le Désert...of course we had to have a nice lunch. The only good restaurant in the area is La Table d’Aurore in the Hôtel Le Guillaume d'Orange.


La Table d'Aurore has indoor & outdoor dinning; but in the summer of course everyone prefers to sit outside in the terrace under the shade of lovely ancient plane trees.

We all took the 3 course lunch menu at 28 euros.


My dish was persillade écrevisses. The écrevisses are from the river near by; so I wanted to have a local dish. The écrivisses were cooked in a white wine with garlic and persil. The meat of these little beast was so tender and juicy. The garlic and persil added the wonderful flavour. Of course eating any shell fish is a messy job; but, it was a finger licking good mess.


My friend had the Bone marrow. The bone marrow was enormous (my labradors would have loved it as well). The combination of the bone marrow on lightly toasted bread is a pair made in heaven. Very yummy.


My other friend had the Terrine of fois gras. The fois gras we firm yet soft & creamy. The flavour of the fois gras was pleasant and it went very well with the toasted bread.


La Table d'Aurore is always full when the weather is nice.


We all had the Fillet steak. The steak was of good quality and was cooked to what we asked for. The meat was tender & juicy. Nothing to complain about...well actually, I know ratatouille is an easy thing to make for a side dish because the vegetables are plentiful and abundant in the area. But, I find this side dish not appetizing.


The regional cheese platter. As usual; its difficult to find bad cheese around here, so we were glad they served some good cheeses from the area.


The lovely ambiance and views of the mountains behind.


The very cute guard dog welcoming all the guest.


Overall; as usual, a lovely atmosphere and ambiance. The views the mountains and lush greenery all around add more to the stunning view. The setting is charming, the food is good and the service is friendly. However; since the place was packed, the kitchen could not keep up with the orders. Our three course lunch ended up to be three hours. That was waaayyy tooo long. But then again, we were on holiday...sitting under trees in the south of France, so we did not gripe too much.

Address: 2 Avenue Guillaume d'Orange, 34150 Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert
Telephone: 33 4 67 57 24 53
Site: www.guilhaumedorange.com

1 comment:

verynatti said...

Always love to see all your trip photos.