loire valley restaurants

Hi Sue,
You may want to refer to your previous post where I recommended Chez Bruno in Amboise. This restaurant is right across from the Amboise castle. The food is delicious and their desserts are scrumptious! You’ll need to make reservations for dinner since this is a very popular place.

Have a wonderful trip!

When we started driving around France, we relied heavily on the Michelin Red Guide to select restaurants and were never disappointed, but early on in the 200+ days we've spent driving around France, we stopped consulting any restaurant recommendation because there are no bad redcurrants in France and you will waste a lot of time researching and trying to find a "recommended" restaurant. You will be more than happy doing what we do. We start down the street reading menus posted by the door of nearly every restaurant. When we see a menu we like, we look inside. If we like the decor, we eat there. This works well enough that we no longer bother with recommendations.

Another reason to ignore recommendations is that most recommenders don't know the difference between a decant, a good, or a great restaurant. Here's an example: We live in the largest town on the direct route between Salt Lake City & Denver, a backwater of some 9,000 people. If you were to believe the customer rating of our local restaurants on Yelp or on TripAdvisor, you would find that this dump has better food than Paris. ( why we live here: 17 National Parks within a one day drive; 11 world class ski resorts within a 90 minute drive; and the view from our house-- a mountain across the valley 7,000 ft higher than our house).

If you must eat on the advice of others, use the Red Guide. At least they used highly trained raters who use common standard for measuring quality.

When you get tired of French food, find a Grill Courtepaill (a chain)-- chicken grilled over a wood fire.

I second Priscilla’s recommendation of Chez Bruno! My fiancée and I had some of the best meals of our trip to France in Amboise, and dinner at Chez Bruno was no exception. They partner with a wonderful local winery to serve excellent expressions of the local varietals in the restaurant as well.

The other great meal we had in Amboise was at La Fourchette, 9 Rue Malebranche. It’s a lovely little hole-in-the-wall place with excellent food and service.

Agree with the recommendations for Chez Bruno. We had a lovely dinner there. Another little hole in the wall place in Amboise that pleasantly surprised us was Le Patio on rue Nationale.

thanks. I had Chez Bruno on my list - now I'll move it to the top. sue

We stayed at Chateau de Pray, very close to Amboise and ate at their wonderful restaurant. It was a bit of a splurge, but well worth it. The food was excellent and the staff helpful and welcoming. They have a prix fixe meal which was a good value or items can be ordered separately. The sommelier was excellent and we enjoyed some excellent wines by the glass.

I know it is not a restaurant but if you want an excellent cocktail try Le Shaker in Amboise.
Right across the Loiure river from the Chateux. The martini's are excellent

Les Arpents in Amboise, recommended by host; make reservations especially for dinner. Located on side street near the Chateau. They have daily menus and the food was wonderful. Cross between Michelin type dining and more casual local fare. I dined there three times and had the duck breast twice it was so good.

I have only eaten at Ardoise once. It was OK, but a not at all representative of the area. It was just typical restaurant food, trying to be (as I remember it) a a better class of American dining.... this in a country that sees MacDos as an American dining experience. I've never eaten at Oceanic (never heard of it) but it looks pretty atypical of the area too. Chapeau Rouge and A la Pause Rabelaisienne would be my recommendations if you want local food, ambience and experience.

Chez Bruno in Amboise is good, as is Le Parvis, but Amboise is a tourist town, with many of the restaurants set up to cater for people who won't be coming back. This means that the food can be very ordinary, because they don't have to worry about quality, just "getting them tourists through the door and taking the money off them".

You have to consider that most French working people around here dine at restaurants every day for lunch. In this area that means 3 or 4 courses with a glass of wine, and dining at a restaurant in the evening is restricted to special occasions. This means that evening dining is more expensive, and the menu is likely to be "exotic" to local tastes.

I highly recommend Chez Bruno and Chateau de Pray, Food at both was excellent- you won't be disappointed.

Thanks. I'm staying at Chateau de Pray and will eat there some, but I'll add Chez Bruno to my list. I appreciate your help - it's always nice to hear real people's thoughts. sue