The Dordogne Restaurants
We’ve compiled the best of the best in The Dordogne - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in The Dordogne - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
No detective work is needed to find this popular spot—just follow the trail of local gourmands who make a beeline to this classic Périgord restaurant for its delicious cuisine and romantic ambience. Set in Périgeux's old town, you'll dine under vaulted stone walls almost as old as the Saint-Front cathedral a few steps away. Be sure to order the house-made foie gras served with passion fruit confiture or roasted duck breast with caramelized apples and cassis-"perfumed" spring vegetables. Everything here is homemade and seasonal so the menu changes frequently. Be sure to reserve ahead.
A scenic 10-minute drive from the Grotte du Grand-Roc, this proudly authentic restaurant deep in the Périgord countryside is the perfect finale to a day of exploring. Guests are whisked to a long table to feast on seasonal dishes, many hunted or foraged from the chef's property. Prepare yourself for nettle soup; heaping platters of house-cured ham; wild boar terrine with homemade cornichons; confit de canard with forest cèpes; beef cheeks stewed in local red wine; and a hearty walnut cake topped with elderberry, rose, or pine confiture—all for €41, including all the wine you can drink, coffee, and a digestif. It's truly an experience not to be missed, for a price that can't be beat.
Picturesquely set in the old town, near the cathedral, this chic Michelin-starred restaurant is a big draw for foodies from near and far. Though unanimously lauded as one of the area's best restaurants, L'Essentiel won't give you an ounce of attitude, just excellent, market-fresh cuisine emphasizing the local delicacies—truffles, asparagus, duck, foie gras, chestnuts, and more—served with a smile. Though prices are reasonable for this superior quality, at €43 the fixed-price lunch menu is a steal.
In the heart of old Bergerac, this restaurant is full of character with beamed ceilings, openwork stone, brick walls, design lighting, and plush chairs. The lunch and dinner menus, which change with the seasons, are good values, considering you can start with such delights as warm oysters with saffron or a skewer of langoustine with honey and rosemary, and then move on, perhaps, to ravioli in a citron sauce. The cobbled outdoor terrace is the place to be when the weather is nice.
This contemporary, centrally located restaurant draws gastronomes from near and far with its top-notch seasonal menu. Jean-François Dive's creative market-driven cuisine features artfully presented dishes with a knack for highlighting the natural goodness of vegetables—scallops simmered in celery and endive with chestnut puree and cèpe oil, or poached foie gras with a truffle-infused consommé of Jerusalem artichoke and fennel. The elegant, contemporary dining room is tranquil and relaxing, and the large outdoor terrace offers pleasant views of the square. If you're lucky enough to be here during truffle season, the all-truffle menu is well worth the splurge.
Exposed beams, stone walls, and rustic tomette tiles assure a picturesque dining experience at this 1846 stone grange set among pretty gardens 3 km (2 miles) outside Cahors. But the real spirit of the place lies in the menu of deeply traditional French favorites: pig's cheeks, truffle omelet, beef onglet (hanger steak), local lamb, and Rocamador cheeses, all accompanied by Cahors wine. Despite the soaring ceilings, it's a cozy place, made all the cozier by friendly service and happy diners from near and far.
Cahors's finest dining establishment is befittingly set within the medieval Château de Mercuès, where you'll enjoy stellar views of the Lot Valley as you tuck into your gourmet meal. Here traditional technique meets contemporary cuisine in the able hands of Michelin-starred chef Julien Poisot, who pays homage to the bounty of the Lot Valley in dishes highlighting local flavors like black truffles and cêpes, house-made foie gras, Quercy saffron and lamb, and, of course, the best Cahors Malbec wines. When the weather is nice, the terrace in the main courtyard is a lovely place to dine and take in the views.
A timeless atmosphere and delicious, great-value cuisine are the hallmarks of this family-owned restaurant and inn set in a charming 17th-century house that's been serving traditional Périgord specialties for more than 50 years. Tuck into terrine of foie gras with homemade chutney, roast leg of Quercy lamb, or Pyrénées trout served gravlax-style with dill, pink peppercorns, and preserved ginger, before finishing with a perfect cheese plate favoring the local goat cheeses. At €21 for a three-course lunch or €32 for a four-course dinner, it's a value too good to pass up.
You can't miss this restaurant's bright red facade that faces the town's covered market (the origin of many of the ingredients of your meal here). A place that takes "locally sourced" seriously, you'll find not only the names but the French zip codes for each item on the menu: white asparagus from Mr. Duret with Périgord walnuts; foie gras from Cahors-based Maison Rougié; and butter from Maison Baechler, all the way to your after-dinner espresso. But the real test of quality is on the plate, a test this warm contemporary dining room passes with flying colors.
This welcoming Michelin-starred dining room is the region's best bet for an excellent gourmet meal. Add exceptional prices on the prix-fixe menus (€62 for four courses to €105 for a seven-course meal) and beautiful panoramic views from both inside and out and it's well worth making a detour. Dishes—cod with a pleasingly tart sauce of capers, cornichons, and tarragon; tender Salers beef baked in a sesame crust; line-caught sea bass with candied kumquat mousse, buttery multicolor carrots, and citrus-lacquer beets—are scrumptious and beautifully presented. Desserts sound so good it's hard to choose, but you can't go wrong with a towering Grand Marnier soufflé.
Family run for three generations, this handsome Art Deco restaurant, set in the 1920's-era Hôtel Terminus, is an excellent example of French gastronomic cuisine with deep local roots. Dishes—house-made duck foie gras in a gelée of red peppercorns with pineapple chutney; roasted duck breast in caviar butter with grilled leeks and mussels; roasted squab with smoked walnut, asparagus, and artichoke mousseline—are paired with local wines and provide a primer in classic Périgord cooking. Prices are surprisingly gentle for this quality, and service is pleasingly old school. Fixed-price menus are available at lunch and dinner.
If the tantalizing list of daily specials on the blackboard isn't temptation enough, tables full of happy diners should clue you in that this is Bergerac's top bistro. Though modern in decor and presentation, the menu is steeped in classic French gastronomy, favoring fresh local meats and produce, but with a flair for the exotic: roasted cod with squash puree and Madras curry risotto, or crispy slow-roasted pork shoulder caramelized in tamarind sauce and served with cola-nut-spiced mashed potatoes. The presentation is impressive, if a little fussy, and a reasonably priced wine list makes a great introduction to the local wines.
In this food-centric town, native son Nicolas Lamstaes's deep understanding of the local products and his dozen years of training in some of France's great kitchens add up to a standout cuisine of character and refinement. Dishes like scallops served in a rich reduction of butternut squash, lobster, and smoked tea, followed by a sublime roasted hen with buttery parsnip, crisp boudin noir (blood sausage), and a sprinkle of chives are fresh, flavorful, and characteristic of the menu. Though alarmingly spare, the dining room's small size and crisp elegance save it from being cold. At €22 for three courses at lunch and €37 for a three-course dinner, you can hardly afford not to dine here.
Outside the city center, but well worth the detour, Un Parfum de Gourmandise is where natives go for inventive seasonal cuisine. This tiny eatery, which won its first Michelin star in 2019, makes excellent use of the local bounty and has a flair for introducing surprising ingredients: think guinea fowl with tonka-bean-flecked endive or roasted veal with hazelnut oil and sweet potatoes perfumed with bitter orange. Dishes are beautifully presented, and the wine list is excellent. Best of all, at €56, €69, and €80, the four-, five-, and six-course dinner menus are reasonable for this quality of food, so you’ll spend the same or less than what you would in many lesser restaurants; lunch menus start at €28.
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