"After something of a gastronomic trip to South West France we thought we'd try and end the trip on a high with one last nice dinner. After dining at a number of Michelin restaurants, of course we weren't expecting the same fireworks, but equally...we expected a very solid offering worthy of a star, sadly our expectations couldn't have been any more misplaced. We made a last minute booking here as a number of other starred establishments nearby were fully booked; we should have taken the hint! What we were hoping for was some good quality, old fashioned cooking, what we got were a series of unremarkable dishes. The dining room itself deserves a mention as it has been modernised over the years, but rather than starting afresh each time, items have been added to it or taken away so it is something of a patchwork quilt of styles and eras. This might unintentionally suggest it is charming in some way, for the avoidance of doubt, it isn't. The best thing by far about this restaurant is its wine list which is full of great wines from hard to find producers and vintages. It is absolutely superb, but sadly the same can't be said about the food. Without the wonderful wine list I would have given this a rating. A quick detour if I may... we started this trip at a Michelin restaurant with rooms which for me fully embodied what a Michelin restaurant should be (see separate review), and naively we hoped for this to share the same values so were genuinely surprised that the food was so unremarkable. Also, the price point here (a similarly rural location) was around higher so I do not think it is unreasonable to have expected the quality to at least have been comparable. The amuse bouches were overly fussy and tasted bland and some actually had a rather unpleasant texture. Quite frankly, the meal would have been better without them. Despite ordering a EUR course menu, they still charged me a EUR supplement for a mushroom first course. I have no problem with supplements at all, but EUR is so small that it just feels petty, and in this sort of restaurant I'd have expected a supplement to start at more than this. Also, rather bizarrely, given that we are in the middle of white truffle season, the menu was entirely devoid of them. Anyway, back to the food... first courses were pretty bland, and my wife's salmon had a somewhat unpleasant flabby texture. There were a couple of better dishes, scallops with mousseron mushrooms and chestnuts, and a red mullet dish both worked quite well. The cheese trolley deserves a special mention as the cheeses were great and the server had perfect knowledge in making their recommendations. This was probably the high point of the meal. Then came dessert which was their signature mushroom dessert. I am never a fan of savoury items in a sweet dish, however, the evening before we had enjoyed just that at a Michelin restaurant and it had totally surprised us by its sheer brilliance, so thought we'd give it a go again. This was a mistake. The dish was visually strong with some excellent and very fine blown sugar work (something you rarely see these days), but none of the elements of it had a particularly strong flavour, and whilst nothing was actually unpleasant, it didn't taste great and we wished we'd had something else. The service from most of the staff was very good, although one or two clearly lacked experience in places. All in all, other than the amazing wine list, there is little to recommend this restaurant. Its price point for the food does not represent good value, and more importantly, the cooking is very pedestrian, and certainly not what one would expect at this level. Also, the hotel that this restaurant is part of, is an awful relic of what bad hospitality (both hard and soft product) is, so that simply poured petrol on the flames of disappointment. We will certainly not be returning."
