Restaurants in Lyon

[Jonathan Loesberg]

A friend of ours will be visiting Lyon (to which neither Gail nor I have been). She and her boyfriend have only recently exited the starving student classes and have not yet entered the idle rich so I don't know if they are up for 3 star places. But I understand that finding good restaurants in Lyon is not that hard. All recommendations would be welcome. Recherchè wine list is not that important to them nor do I expect that they would take much advantage of it, though, like most people, they do like a nice bottle of wine.

 

[Oswaldo Costa]

I don't know any either, but even though your friends are not natural wine-oriented, the Raisin phone app shows sixteen restaurant and ten wine bar suggestions. These natural wine places tend to target a younger, less moneyed, less recherché audience. Almost guaranteed not to be stuffy, and usually yummy enough.

 

[Josh Fontaine]

Café du Rhone for lunch / Café Sillon / En mets fait ce qu’il te plaît / Les Adrets or Le Garet for classic lyonnaise / La bijouterie / Le Bouchon des filles / Le Bistrot du Potager / Bones and Bottles / O Vins d’Anges / Mokxa for coffee / Antic Wine to buy wine

 

[Tristan Welles]

The best 'Bouchon' is Le Sathonay. Mom and Pop operation. Easy stroll from la Presqu'Ile. Arch typical food. Tablier de sapeur is recommended, if they aren't squirmish about the nasty bits. Good Beaujolais and St. Joe by the pichet. Say hello to Sunni!

Second best (that I tried) was Les Lyonnais, in Vieux Lyon. At the intersection of Tramasac and Bombarde. The menu has greater depth than that at Le Sathonay. Better St. Joe by the pichet, too. But overall slightly less distinctive.

Comptoir Abel on the Presqu'Ile (I don't remember the street, near the Saone) is not a 'Bouchon', so you'll get a menu with things other than quenelles, tablier, salade gnaffron, sweetbreads with morilles, etc. I don't have a specific memory of the wine list.

All three recommended.

I don't recommend Food Hall Paul Bocuse, even for lunch or a visit.

 

[MLipton]

Although it’s been close to two decades since we ate there, I can heartily endorse the suggestion of Les Adrets, at which we had one of the most memorable meals of our month-Long stay in France, which included a few Michelin-starred restaurants.

Mark Lipton

 

[slaton]

Lyonnaise cuisine can be a challenge for a pescatarian such as myself. However I had an incredible pike quenelle at Café Comptoir Abel a couple of years ago. The wine list was not memorable but the meal obliterated every other quenelle incarnation I've tasted over several visits to Lyon. (Thanks Meg!)

Unfortunately, Antic Wine has been closed every time I've tried to visit.

 

[twlim]

If your friends like whisky, send them to Chez Camille (a caviste) for the selection of Couvreur whiskies.

I'll add to the chorus re: Les Adrets.

En mets fait ce qu’il te plaît was a truly memorable experience, and a snip at the price, but I was disappointed at the discrepancy between the empty bottles on display, which included any number of things I'd have been delighted to order, and the wine list, which did not. Having only been once, I cannot say if this was a blip or if you need to be known to the house...