Lyon - Restaurant Recommendations

Le Garet - a classic Lyonnaise bouchon and favorite haunt of the resistance hero Jean Moulin. Reservations are a must. Ask your server for wine recommendations and you will not find yourself disappointed.

Agree with Fauxbrac that Le Garet is an excellent choice of bouchon. Our favorite was Poêlon d'or, on the other side of the Place Bellecoeur. Reservations here also necessary.

Les Lyonnaise is touristy -- just across the footbridge from the central peninsula to the old town -- but the food was excellent and the staff lovely. We had a very enjoyable meal there after an unpleasant experience the first night with one of the places on Mercier. You need reservations for most places. We didn't have them the first night and ended up at Le Mercier on Mercier with rude waiters and and unpleasant experience. (and yes we know how to behave in French restaurants). We reserved Les Lyonnaise for the next night and we noticed that the two couples who arrived ahead of us were both turned away without reservations.

My general recommendation for restaurants in France that provide excellent food and good value is to find Michelin Bib Gourmand locations. The guide is yet to fail me. Looks like there are 13 such restaurants in Lyon.

Agree with Janet re: Les Lyonnaise. Very good food, especially their quenelle (not to be missed) and another dish [which I can't remember the name/pronunciation of] that's a brioche with homemade sausage inside. They pair together wonderfully as a prix fixe menu option.

I had just the opposite experience at Le Mercier. Excellent food and the waiters were as expected--efficient and professional.

I had the foie gras and the Grenelle ( a local dish.) Yummy.

A favorite of mine is Balthaz'Art, in Croix Rousse. 40 euro for dinner (starter, main, dessert). Lunch is 25 euros.

And check out Croix Rousse (after or before), a great neighborhood.

The food at Le Mercier was okay -- but we had a waiter that could have been compiled of American stereotypes of French waiters. We have traveled in France for decades; we know how restaurants work; we are polite. This guy was just an AH. In all our decades of French dining we have only had 2 or 3 experiences of rude jerk waiters -- this was one of them.

Someone on this forum recommended this place several years ago, and I'm eternally grateful. We've been here twice and would absolutely go again.
https://lebouchondesfilles.fr/

Yes, like Celeste mentioned, Bouchon des Filles is excellent. Women-owned and operated, serves a “lighter” version of classic bouchon fare.

Someone else mentioned quenelles. They are light potato dumplings traditionally made with pike, covered in a crawfish sauce called “sauce Nantua”. I’ve never seen one made with sausage but sounds interesting! For those that eat fish, I would absolutely suggest trying the original.

https://chezgrandmere.fr/ this is really nice, I recommend it (it's in Vieux Lyon)

Quenelles are not potato dumplings. I have made them. They are made with choux paste and pike or other firm white fish. No potatoes at all in the classic recipe. I made them similar to the ones at La Tour d'Argent where I first ate them; they are on a mushroom duxelle base and have melted cheese on them. The classic in Lyon tends to be one giant quenelle rather than many spoon size ones and they have a sauce that is seafood based. Very tasty.

In this old post you can see how they are served at La Tour d'Argent and then my amateur attempts to replicate them. I used frozen fish which was a very bad idea but they still came out fairly well.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2016/03/01/anniversary-lunch-at-la-tour-dargent/