“Make sure you eat at a bouchon” was the number one recommendation I got when I asked people what to do in Lyon.
I knew dining was definitely going to be a heavy part of the Lyon itinerary, as Lyon is known as the gastronomical capital of France, but what the hell was a bouchon? How is it different from the typical French cafe? And how would I know whether a place was a bouchon or just a normal restaurant??
As I explored Lyon and learned more about it, I learned that a bouchon is a restaurant that serves traditional Lyonnaise cuisine. The food is mostly very rich and fatty and heavily based on meat. Lyon’s gourmet reputation was created in the late 1800s when the Mères Lyonnaises (Lyon mothers) started their own restaurants when they could no longer be employed by wealthy families. They started off serving the working class, but soon the reputation lured in wealthier clientele. Eating at a bouchon is supposed to be a warm and cozy affair, one to make you feel like you’re dining at a Lyonnaise mother’s home.
A quick research also tells me that an official organization bestows annual certifications to restaurants as “authentic” bouchons. Only twenty or so restaurants are certified as authentic bouchons, though a lot of eateries bill themselves as one (so do your research if this matters to you).
We had met another nomadic couple in Lyon and eating at a bouchon was at the top of the list for all four of us. So on a Saturday evening, we met Gavin and Eva at Daniel et Denise.
yes, Daniel & Denise is an official “authentic” bouchon
Daniel et Denise has three locations, and we chose the one in Saint-Jean, on the edge of Old Town. Each location has a different decor and slightly different feel. But there is a standard “look” for most bouchons: red checkered tablecloths, wooden furnishings, busy walls crammed full with hundreds of photos, and a generally darker cozy atmosphere. Unlike most bouchons, Daniel et Denise lacks the checked tablecloth and the interior is bright and quirky, with baby blue trimmings and copper pots hanging off the walls. But like most bouchons, it is cozy. And by that, I mean quite literally. Tables are so tightly squished together that you’re practically rubbing backs with the diners from the next over. But that’s all part of the experience. (And this is why I failed to get a picture of the interior).
Since this may be our only bouchon experience, we all went for the set dinner in order to sample the most things. Most of us ended up choosing completely different items, and thanks to Gavin and Eva being so tolerant of my obsessive photo taking, I have twice the dishes to show and tell!
(And I apologize for the photo quality. Bad lighting + iPhone camera = poor photos that my standard free photo editor cannot fix.)
We all arrived ravenous. Having heard that the portion sizes are quite hefty at bouchons, we all made sure to properly starve ourselves before the meal. First up, appetizers!
Gavin went for the pâté croûte, a traditional Lyonnaise charcuterie item featuring terrine wrapped in puff pastry. This one here is a foie gras and sweetbread pâté.
And D went for the traditional Lyonnaise salad, consisting of an old wine vinaigrette, thick cut bacon pieces, croutons, and a poached egg…
… while Eva and I went for something a little more daring: a trio of salads consisting of beef nose, veal foot, and green lentils with shallots. They certainly don’t waste any part of an animal!
Even though it’s no surprise that I love food, I actually don’t consider myself to be that adventurous of an eater. Animals parts not usually meant for consumption scare me, and this was pushing the edge of my food comfort envelope. It took me a while to work up the nerve to pop the gelatinous pieces into my mouth, but surprisingly, they were delicious! Spoiler alert: this actually ended up being my favorite course!
Next, D got an extra course from the rest of us because of his (more pricey) menu option: pistachio sausage in brioche, with a side of red wine Beaujolais sauce. I was really jealous of this one!
For our mains, we all picked different dishes.
Eva got andouillette sausage cooked three different ways: grilled, fried, and gratinated,
and Gavin got the pig shoulder (so incredibly tender, according to him),
while D ordered the farm reared chicken with morel mushrooms in cream sauce, based on the waiter’s recommendation. D thought this was a bit on the salty side. (Edit: actually, D thought it needed some salt to bring more of the flavor out!)
I went for what is perhaps the most traditional bouchon dish of all: the pike quenelle in Nantua sauce. Quenelle is creamed pike with eggs, butter, and flour (which gives it a very fluffy mousse-like consistency) and poached to cook, and served with a heavy crayfish seafood sauce. Basically, it was one GIANT fishball. I quite liked this but the sauce was quite salty.
this was the least pretty one of all. But the making of it is actually quite delicate
All the food is pretty heavy, so not even half way into our mains, we were all getting full. But as if all this wasn’t enough, the main dishes were also accompanied by two large dishes of fried potato chips and cheesy pasta (which we called mac n cheese). We had no idea that these sides came with the set dinners!
I really wonder how they honestly expect a person to eat everything, plus two whole large dishes of potatoes and pasta. Seriously, nothing here is in dainty portions.
After all these were cleared, next came the cheese course!
I was looking forward to this course, well, because who doesn’t like cheese? I selected fresh cheese with herbs and mature white wine. All I can say is that this was way too sour. So much so that in fact, it tasted exactly like sour cream that you would put on a baked potato. Too bad that at this point, the waiter already cleared those potato chips, because otherwise this would go so well with them.
The other cheese options were fresh cheese with a pot of cream (which was confirmed to be very sour as well) and Lyon’s traditional Saint Marcellin. If you’re a hardcore cheese lover, you may want to go for this, but I find Saint Marcellin to be way too punchy/stinky. It’s hard to describe the smell & taste of cheese, but let’s just say that even the smell is offputting to me as it resembles an elephant enclosure at the zoo.
At this point, we were all stuffed to the point of bursting. But there’s still dessert to be had, and somehow we can always magically find more space for dessert.
1. creme brulee // 2. chocolate pots with honey madelines // 3. prunes I think (I kinda forgot this one) // 4. poached pear in chocolate sauce and ice cream
I was blown away by the sizes of these desserts as well. If you haven’t already guessed, the chocolate pots + madelines was mine. The chocolate was incredibly creamy, like pure thick ganache. And you can tell they are pretty decent sized pots by the size of the spoon. I can’t imagine how anyone will ever need to eat TWO pots of it!
Was this an amazing mind-blowing meal? Definitely not. But good value? Definitely. It was too bad that I found a lot of the food to be overly salted and too rich for my liking. However, a couple of new friends, a dash of new flavors, a few glasses of wine, endless good conservation, and 4 absolutely stuffed bellies = a successful recipe for a memorable meal experience.
So if you have a visit to Lyon in the books, make sure you eat at bouchon. :)
Practical Information:
Locations: there are three –
- Créqui: 156 rue de Créqui 69003 Lyon
- Saint-Jean: 36 rue Tramassac, 69005 Lyon
- Croix Rousse: 8 rue Cuire 69004 Lyon
Reservations are highly recommended. The restaurant was absolutely packed practically as soon as they opened for dinner.
Pricing: set menu prices are 30-40€ (as of 2015). However, you could build your own meal from the menu.
Have you visited Lyon, or had any similar foods anywhere else?
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Also linking up with All About France linkup!
Wow. That food looks amazing, but I can see how full you must have felt. That’s a big meal! However as someone who travels with their stomach, I totally appreciate this. I wish I could go!
P.S. Andouillette have been following me since I stayed in their heartland, Troyes, last year. They were everywhere and I was pretty intimidated by them!
Oooh that actually does look/sound pretty intimidating! I don’t like intestine so I would be kinda squeamish to try it. I went with pretty safes choices here, except for the nose and foot, lol! But they were actually pretty good!
the food looks amazing!#travel tuesday
I don’t think I would have called anything particularly amazing, but t’s definitely a must-do dining experience in Lyon!
Yay, so glad to read about your bouchon experience in Lyon! We were in Lyon for a weekend and I don’t think I would have been able to be there much longer and continue to eat their food – it certainly is heavy and rich! But I did love the bouchon for its down-to-earth approach. It felt refreshing to get such a hearty meal, including the wine, for so little compared to Paris prices.
That pistachio sausage in brioche looks so good, and I wish I could try it like right now :-)
Yay so glad you see you back, Sara! Seriously.. everything was so heavy and I just could not believe the portion sizes! But you’re right, it’s definitely great value for what you get. I don’t think you ever wrote about Lyon, but if you do, I would LOVE to read your bouchon experience!
Aww, thank you!! You are right – I have yet to write about Lyon, but it’s on my to-do blog post list! Hope to get to it soon since it was last January that I visited…oops! And thanks for the encouragement – I really am trying to get back in the swing of writing, and reading blogs I love like yours :-) Oddly enough, I think working P/T (and about to switch over to F/T) makes me more likely in ways to keep it up because I work better under pressure and time constraints!
BONJOUR, FOOD PORN. Can I book my ticket to Lyon right meow please? It’s gotten to the point where I really shouldn’t read your blog when I’m hungry. (Which granted, is almost all the time, but I can’t stop won’t stop!!!!!!) Also, I’m pretty mad at myself for not being on top of things, because this month’s theme is one that I TOTALLY WOULD HAVE/SHOULD HAVE JUMPED ON! Get it together, Courtney. Can I be fashionably late? ;)
You had plenty of food in your post, Courtney! But yes, I definitely wouldn’t complain if you write about more food!! :D
Lyon food is EPIC!! Funny, I have a photo of this exact Daniel & Denise restaurant from my trip to Lyon – but only because it was my dad’s and aunt’s first names! Incredible food sélections and photos, well done.
Haha how funny and what a coincidence!! You need to return with your family someday and eat there ;).
I may or may not have (almost) literally drooled on my keyboard.
I really want to spend more time in France so I can explore all of the food cultures! I learned to make Provencal dishes a few years ago, but it was not enough! Need more!
Me too… I would love to spend a good several months in France in different regions to learn about the food in each!
WOW – what an incredible meal! Glad you found room to try a bit of all of it – and of course there is always a separate stomach for dessert ;)
Isn’t it weird that that happens? ;) I still can’t believe that we managed to put away all this food (except for the potatoes and pasta… that would have been just going overboard)!
Hehe. All in the name of food research, of course :D
I have never heard about this type of restaurant before but I think I would like to try it. To be honest, not all of the dishes in here attract me. However, my husband likes organs and things like that. So, I know i can always give those to him. I will definitely go for the sausages and dessert.
A lot of these things are things I’d never normally go for either! But it’s all part of the experience when eating at a bouchon. They love to use the organs and “throwaway” parts. We did the set menu, but if you just order a la carte, there are plenty of non-organ stuff!
nothing beats French food! YUM! this made my mouth water!
I wouldn’t say it’s the best meal I ever had, but definitely an interesting experience!
That’s SO MUCH FOOD! I would be full from just one bite of each dish. They do look very rich. But yeah, my stomach always has room for dessert too. :) #TravelTuesday
It’s so funny how that works ;). The food is very rich and fatty… I don’t know how we managed to eat almost everything!
So interesting to learn about the history!! Woah, you are right when you said it is meaty, it really is! I like the look of the desserts though :) They are huge, and look deliciously tempting!!
Omg everything was SO huge!! Unfortunately, I don’t think there are too many vegetarian options (they sure like their meats!), but there is fish!
Now that is a meal … even though that food looks super heavy.. I’d definitely try it on a trip to Lyon! Even if something isn’t exactly my favorite, if it’s special to a place I’m visiting I have to give it a shot! This truly looks like a unique dining experience and those desserts look divine!!! :D
Exactly, bouchons are special to Lyon, so you’d have to try it when visiting :). We ate at another bouchon too that is less heavy and more delicate, which I’ll write about soon too!
Next time on the run between Paris and Provence, it seems, I’d do well to get off the train in Lyon! How terrific you were able to dine with another couple so as to show us all these dishes. Wouldn’t mind trying your salad trio and oh, those sausage plates!
Yes yes, do get off in Lyon if you can! I like the city a lot, and of course all the food was amazing. I’d be interested to know if Lyonnaise food is very different/unique from other French foods.
Good on you for being brave – I can’t imagine eating any kind of nose!! It sounds a little meat heavy and rich for me but I would still want to visit a bouchon for the experience but perhaps just sausage in brioche and a creme brulee for me ☺
I was surprised that the nose and foot weren’t bad at all! I think if you were to eat any kind of organs/weird parts, Lyon is a good place to do it in. If you find yourself in Lyon, you would have to visit a bouchon just for the experience at least!
I am glad that I am not alone in finding bouchon food a bit rich, but Daniel and Denise is at the lighter end, as it happens… I am always amazed at the ability of even the slenderest local to pack it away. I think they must fast for weeks beforehand. If you want to eat some excellent food with Lyonnais flair but without the bouchon weight, try Le Jean Moulin if you ever come back. The food there is sublime, and excellent value. Or for another excellent bouchon, but with more tripe and stripey tablecloths, look up Le Jura.
I’m so surprised that you said Daniel and Denise is at the lighter end, haha! I seriously don’t know how they expect people to eat all of that! But I guess we did :P. We did go to another bouchon that was a lot more delicate (that I’ll write about too!). Your Jean Moulin rec sounds great! I’ll definitely look that up if we make it back to Lyon. :)
Wow – well it does look quite meaty – which my man would love! But that ‘mac n’ cheese’ has me intrigued! I would definitely love that haha and those desserts..yum!! The French do know how to do dessert!x
I agree! Their desserts are the best! You could seriously be full just eating the mac and cheese and a couple of desserts :).
I know bouchon food is good but it’s not really my preferred food, as so many others have commented, it’s just too heavy. Your photos are lovely though. I can always magically find space for a crème brulée! Thanks for linking up to #AllAboutFrance I hope you’ll come back again in a couple of days time for the next one! (Yes I’m rather behind with my commenting!!!)
The food is just too heavy for sure. I honestly don’t know how they really think one person can have that large of a stomach. But yep, there’s somehow always another stomach or dessert ;). And oh gosh, I may have to dig up an old France post for the next one… as I don’t think I’ll have enough time to write a new one. Thanks for the reminder!!