L'Hospitalier - Speisekarte

Auberge Du Chat Perché

➤ Le Bourg, 12230, La Couvertoirade, France

Speisekarte • Kebab • Pizza • Cafés • Asiatique

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"This restaurant is housed in a beautiful old stone house in the centre of the superb Templar village of La Courvertoirade. It has a large stone ceilinged indoor dining room and a largish outdoor area surrounded by the village’s ancient stone houses and roofs. As a setting it is hard to beat and we elected to go for one of their summer musical evenings. The service was a little erratic at first, the waiters more interested in greeting and chatting with their friends than attending to those already seated. It took us a long time to get a first drink and, a personal gripe, both the two beers on offer were wheat beers, which I dislike. The menu looked fine, fairly typical of mid range restaurants in the area although the prices were a bit higher, understandable perhaps given the musical extras and the exceptional location. I had the ‘Tapas special’starter, it turned out to be three dips and some raw carrot. The dips were obviously homemade, two were OK, quite fresh and tasty, one was extremely bland. It was accompanied by a green salad, which consisted of elderly, over-large flabby lettuce. Tapas it was not and the presentation was very poor, dollops of food chucked onto a plate! Others had the plate of charcuterie, OK but the meat not top quality and more substandard green salad. For main course most of us had the Mixed Grill Gourmand. It was unimpressive, cooked on an open wood fire, but the pork sausage was not only rather nasty to taste but some was still raw in the middle. The lamb was tasty but tough and the beef brochette cooked to a crisp. The veg was a quite nice crisp roast potato and some tasty curried carrots but again it was all just thrown on a plate. We had an extra of Aligot, a local garlic and potato dish which has become very popular and which was fine but I suspect factory made. There was a largish selection of sweets, most of which sounded as if they were bought in. One of us had the home made patisserie which was a slab of rather solid, dull chocolate cake. I had ice cream which was standard good quality factory made stuff. Overall the food was average to poor, the prices high and the presentation very poor. The promised music did not start until after we had finished eating. When it came, the classical pianist was excellent (to my inexpert ear) and served to emphasise what a nice evening it could have been but wasn’t. Indifferent food poorly cooked and badly presented. I would not go again."

Crêperie Montes Café

➤ rue Droite, 12230 La Couvertoirade, France

Speisekarte • Cafés • Kebab • Mexicain • Asiatique

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"Right in the heart of the beautiful, unspoiled walled Knight Templar village of La Couvertoirade this creperie is housed in the ground floor of a traditional Larzac farm building, low stone arched roof, low ceilings, no windows. It has a varied display of local rural artefacts, from a stuffed badger to a malt shovel. Note the several items that look like small lightweight toboggans. What are they and what are they for? (I know, I am simply trying to give you some conversion topics for your meal.) There are also some outside tables in the pathway that runs through the village. One of the great things about this place is that inside the walls there is no traffic and kids are free to rush around and given the village consists of stone walls stone roads and paths and stone houses there is very little they can damage (except themselves).The menu offers a range of crepes, savoury and sweet. My favourite is the complet, cheese ham and an egg. They have also recently started offering burgers. These are really very good, nice minced local beef in a bun made of real bread, not the recycled paper you usually get around burgers. The meat is cooked slightly pink (as you would expect in France) and with crisps and quite a lot of nicely dressed lettuce they are excellent. They offer several styles, including one with honey (uggggh),! one with Roquefort cheese sauce (very local and authentic but so salty and strongly flavoured that it swamps everything else.) They also offer a veggie burger (not tried.) The crepes are fine as crepes go, but it is an inherently limited cuisine (in my view) although very popular with some especially the younger ones. It also makes a change from the prevailing local menus. There is the usual range of drinks, hot and cold, soft and alcoholic, we usually have their very good bottled Normandy cider.As the menu is relatively simple the food comes fairly quickly.One or two downsides, there are often a lot of flies, endemic in this area in the summer, and the service while reasonably efficient is mechanical and unsmiling. Because the crepes are cooked fresh to order on a limited number of hotplates, you do not get all your order at once, it comes over time. With some smaller children this can be problematic. You couldn’t call it cheap but considering it’s right in the middle of a prime tourist site the prices are probably about fair."

Le Medieval

➤ la Placette, 12230 La Couvertoirade, France

Speisekarte • Pizza • Cafés • Mexicain • Végétarien

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"Well, the place is amazing, with the tables on the terrace, overlooking the river! In the evening, with the lights on the river and when the temperature is right... Wow. Excellent food, friendly, precise, excellent service. To try."