Shiner

My wife and I are planning to be in Lyon early January. two days. Looking for ideas on restaurants and hotels

Viajero2

Shiner, what's your range on hotels? are you looking for budget? 5 stars? near city centre?

As far as restaurants, local friends took us to La Machonnerie. Typical Lyonesse cuisine; the wine list, food, and service was impecable. Check http://www.lamachonnerie.com/

Paucie

My husband and I will be there at the same time. I did loads of research on hotels and finally booked the Villa Florentine. www.villaflorentine.com

In the same price range, Cour de Loges was also in the running.

I'm still working on restaurants, so I'll be anxious to see what replies you get! Thanks for posting!

caroline_edinburgh

We ate at Paul Bocuse about 5 years ago. It was a wonderfully camp experience but the food was nothing special - I think he just retains his stars because he's a national institution.

We stayed in the Hotel Phenix which was very good value at the time - we had a very large nicely furnished room overlooking the river, and even managed to park right outside.

Shiner

Many thanks. Looking for 3 or 4 star, Vieux Lyon.

Graziella5b

I did not try this personally but read about it some place, you can have a great meal at a hotel management school in Lyon, called
Institut Vatel,8 Rue Duhamel
Phone 33 (0) 478 38 21 92
Good luck... ( I shall try it too next time)

hanl

Hello,

Lyon is packed with great restaurants but it's not as easy to find a good meal as it used to be. So instead of starting with recommendations, I'll give a couple of warnings!

For a start, I'd avoid the touristy restaurants around the Vieux Lyon area and along rue St Jean. One or two of them used to be good in the past (in particular, L'Auberge Rabelais and les Ventres Jaunes) but they seem to have gone downhill lately. Also in Vieux Lyon is Le Comptoir Du Boeuf, which is the little sister restaurant to the posh Tour Rose and gets decent reviews in guide books, but I was very disappointed with the food and value for money.

I'd also strongly advise staying away from the "Paul Bocuse" chain of brasseries named le Nord, le Sud, l'Est and l'Ouest. For some reason they are regularly recommended in guidebooks and even on this board, but I find them overpriced and mediocre, and in my experience the service has often been downright awful.

So, that's the places to avoid. So where *should* you eat?

Lyon is packed with wonderful restaurants for all budgets. Do you have an idea how much you want to spend, or the sort of thing you are looking for (casual/haute cuisine/regional food/atmosphere...)?

I have a few favourite places that I often recommend on this board. For instance, La Maison Villemanzy on the slopes of the Croix Rousse hill is a great spot for a first lunch or dinner, as it has the most wonderful views across the city and the river, and the food is very good value (3 course set menu for around 26 euros) with a local flavour. You have to book well in advance for a table with a view, however.

I also love Le Caro de Lyon(http://www.lecarodelyon.com/ - in French), which is where we go when we want a really special meal. Great, innovative cooking and a pleasant setting. It's worth ordering à la carte as the set menu is not so special.

Brasserie Georges is fun if you want a completely different atmosphere - it's a huge, buzzing brasserie serving lots of French favourites (steak, seafood, choucroute, etc.) and wonderfully sweet and gooey "omelette norvegienne" (a kind of baked alaska with meringue, ice cream and cake) which they'll make to order for 2/4/6 people, etc. You have to order it at the beginning of the meal, however. They often have a jazz band playing.

Lyon also has two popular pedestrianised "restaurant streets" which attract tourists and locals alike: rue Mercière, which runs up from
place des Jacobins in the 2nd arrondissement (near place Bellecour, towards the Saône). There's something for everyone along this street, from the cheap and cheerful Bleu de Toi to the downright awful Mexican restaurant at the other end of the street. We often go to Le Bouchon aux Vins, which is one of the Bistrots des Cuisiniers (a loose grouping of restaurants "sponsored" by Jean Paul Lacombe of Léon de Lyon; la Maison Villemanzy, above, is another member of the group). They have nice tables both indoors and out, and serve a regularly changing set menu of mostly regional food. They also have an excellent selection of wines by the glass.

Next door is the Bistrot de Lyon, which is quite similar in style and atmosphere to the Bouchon aux Vins, and is also a good bet.

The website for the Bistrots des Cuisiniers is here: http://www.leondelyon.com/uk/navigation.htm - click on Bistrots des Cuisiniers in the bottom left corner for pictures and contact information.

The other restaurant street is rue des Maronniers, between place Bellecour and the Rhône river. Here you'll find three restaurants belonging to the "Chabert" group (http://www.chabertrestaurant.fr/) - Chabert et fils, a traditional style "bouchon" serving local Lyonnais cuisine, le Bouchon des Carnivores, which specialises in meat, and la Cabane du Pecheur, a fish restaurant. I've eaten in two of the three and had enjoyable meals. None are particularly expensive.

Of course, if you want to blow more cash then there are plenty of more upmarket places too: as well as Paul Bocuse's eponymous restaurant just outside the city in Collonges (I've never eaten there but have heard mixed reports), you have Jean Paul Lacombe's Léon de Lyon in the city centre, along with la Tour Rose and Villa Florentine in the old town.

Of course there are plenty more places to choose from - these are just a few of my tried and tested favourites. Next time I'm in Lyon (in a couple of weeks) I'm planning on trying out some new places, so if I find any gems I'll report back!

kappa

> La Maison Villemanzy on the slopes of the Croix Rousse hill

hanl, thank you for above suggestion. I was looking for a lunch place in Lyon in a few weeks. Perhaps I will try to reserve this one. I have passed by it a few times on the way to the top of Croix-Rousse and even entered once to get their card but have fogotten.

altajoe

Hanl,

Once again, you are invaluable. I'm hijacking this thread for my own benefit. lol

If you have never been to Lyon and had one afternoon and night in Lyon before heading out, which hotel would you choose?

DAX

hanl, it's ironic that we ate in most of the restaurants that you recommend to avoid. I must have followed the guidebook recommendations. I remember they were all just fine except for a couple of Bocuse's chain were worse than the other two, can't remember which ones. Now I'm marking your recommendations for next time.

mcnyc

Awesome info Hanl! I'm going to Lyon in June, and am still in the planning stages. This is most helpful.

hanl

DAX, that's funny that you ate in the restaurants I advised staying away from! Glad you had good meals though

I suppose my recommendations are all relative (whose aren't? ): you really can eat fabulously well in Lyon for relatively little money, so I get annoyed when places serve below-average food or inflate their prices - and get away with it.

Next time I'm in Lyon I'll have to test out a few more places in the old town, as I'd love to find a *consistently* good, affordable restaurant that I could confidently recommend on this board!

DAX

Hanl: That's the good thing about this site. I can learn from others who know one specific area better and none of us can't possibly know all the different places intimately. I've been to Lyon twice but didn't really research beyond the guidebooks as we were only there for 2-3 nights each time.

I certainly appreciate your tips and will try your list next time. I was happy with the restaurants I went to because I didn't know there was anything better. I figured that those were the best that Lyon had to offer.

I notice you didn't mention any hotel even though you seem to go there often enough. I've only been to La Reine Astrid, Sofitel & Hilton, none of them are perfect or ideal to return to. ANy tip?

robjame

I think that one of the true values in hotels is Hotel La Residence in Lyon. Located on rue Victor Hugo it is on the pedestrian way and allows you to walk anywhwere. E73 per night for a large clean serviceable room and free internet in the lobby, allows you to save your Euros for more important things (food).Lyon is one of the few places I would recommend just walking around and visiting one of the many restaurants that you fancy as you pass by. There was a small one, pig something that was great - Pied de Couchon or Trois Couchons or something like that.

robjame

Michael Paris has a fantastic post on Lyon.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...earchText=lyon

hanl

Dax, I don't mention hotels as I used to live in Lyon (now based in Brussels) and when I do visit these days, I tend to stay with friends or family. That said, I have stayed at Hotel La Résidence and can recommend it as a good value choice in the city centre; we also got a good rate (85 euros) at the atmospheric Hotel Carlton (now a Mercure hotel) via the Accor hotels website (www.accorhotels.com).
I've also heard good things on this site about the Hotel des Artistes.

DAX

Thanks to you both for the hotel info.

grandmere

November issue of Gourmet has an article on bouchons of Lyon, which they state are ". . . the gustatory equivalent of flea market finds, plain but precious things. . ." They warn that in bouchons, it's mostly about food, not much welcome or service. However, the article is so complimentary about the food and rough and tumble ambiance, that I'd try them in a minute.

Recommended are:
Cafe Comptoir Abel, 25 rue Guynemer

Chez Hugon, 12 rue Pizay

Chez Paul, 11 rue Major-Martin

Daniel et Denise, 156 rue de Crequi

Le Garete, 7 rue du Garete

Le Jura, 25 rue Tupin

Au Petit Bouchon Chez Georges, 8 rue du Garet

grandmere

If anyone wants the phone numbers of the bouchons, just yell.

My favorite meal in Normandy in '05 was at a restaurant in Caen called le Bouchon de Vaugueux, and it certainly fit the descriptions in this article.

Michel_Paris

I went there last October.

I agree that there are some average places to east in Vieux Lyon, I tried Panier a Salade there and was disappointed. However, on Rue St Jean there is a very nice patisserie called Le Marquise. There is also a restaurant called La Machonnerie near the Cathedral that was a great find, local food (pike dumplings, pig knuckles,gnafron(drink)etc..), small place,very friendly service and not a touristed place.

I also ate at Brasserie Georges which is an old style brasserie, large, high ceilings, good food.

I also ate at L'Est. I enjoyed it, it was not high cuisine but was fine for what I was looking for.

Place des Terraux has some nice outdoor cafes with great scenery (can't say what it will be like in Jan.)

I stayed at a budget hotel.