Montpellier Restaurants

La Grange
Rue Jean Jaques Rouseau, Montpellier
The chef, waiter, barman raconteur is exploding with culinary energy. You feel more like a guest in his home than a restaurant client but instead of family portraits on the walls there are lovingly framed photos of prized mushrooms. The patron is a mushroom fanatic and a variety of mushrooms figure on just about every part of his menu. On your way to the bathroom you pass through the kitchen where your omnipresent host will be happy to show you what he is simmering on the stove. He loves nothing more than seeing you enjoy your/his food and telling you its story and how it got to your plate. If he has not fished, raised, picked, shot, harvested, cured or cultivated it himself he can tell you what member of his immediate family or entourage has. Don’t miss his home made liqueurs. The six table, two room restaurant is a treasure trove of brick a brack with no apparent distinction made between country kitsch, antiques and folk and fine art. Shut weekends + hunting and harvest seasons or at the hint of any kind of holiday. The place is big on personality, charm and good ingredients if any reproach can be made it is that is a little short on the wine list. One can only hope that some more vintners penetrate the host’s personal entourage. Of that limited red wine list I suggest going for the ‘’pichet’‘ (house wine) or ‘’Malpere’‘. Evenings are less crowded and more personalized than lunches when the judges, lawyers and med school professors in the know make it their canteen.
I have left this restaurant with various blood- alcohol levels but I have never left the place in low spirits. I have no idea what it costs, I am usually having such a good conversation I don’t notice.
　
Le Grillardin
3 place Chapelle Neuve
Very high standards for upscale middle prices. As I understand it this restaurant is the product of a highly placed rising star chef that decided he could remain on a human scale and do what he loved doing most by dropping out of the dizzy competition for a place among the big names. So he moved to Montpellier from some more traditionally gastronomical part of France (Montpellier doesn’t even really compete when it comes to l’art de la table of some other regions of France) and he set up a small place with his wife. It is very professional yet somehow they manage to be genuinely friendly and down to earth. The chef and his little crew often come out and thank the diners at the end of service. Feel free to try something you have never had before on their menu, disappointments are practically unheard of. Le morteau avec camembert is excellent. They have a great wine list and they often offer to decant it for you if it is a particularly good wine. The ‘’fondant au chocolate’‘ desert is a must for chocolate afficionados. If I take people to one place to experience real French food in Montpellier I take them here. Menus start at about 28 Euros a person. -you will be very full.
　
　
　Le Ban Des Gourmands
(not to be confused with Les Bains) tramway stop -place carnot
5 Place Carnot (angles between Boulevard de Strasbourg, rue H. René, rue Louis Figuier)
An unlikely rdv gourmand in a working class neighbourhood with lots of traffic and on the wrong side of the tracks. The menu is simple, you choose ‘’coté mere" or "coté terre". I am a carnivore so perhaps biassed however I think the latter menu is better value. Whichever you chose you will get a variety of very well prepared dishes on your plate. Coté terre is likely to have some duck, lamb and steak. Everything is done at a high level of quality. The chef takes great pride in perfecting traditional recipes and sourcing quality food that is controlled at every step of the process before it gets to your plate. He is happy to tell anyone about the breed of cattle he selects from a particular area which his butcher ensures are well fed, exercised and slaughtered. The influences come from all over France there is a particular Corsican touch which is evident mostly in the decor.
Menus are about 28 Euros.




Au Bonheur Des Tartes/du sud-ouest
4 rue des trésories de la bourse
This Toulousian bistro does a very filling lunch of the freshest savoury pies and salad but don’t be afraid of the boudin noir aux figues (blood pudding with figs) as an alternative to their staple pie fare. Expect great olives, salad with delicious herbs and quality charcuterie (cold cuts) This is family run and feels a little like a South Western French grandmother’s kitchen. Their wine list is good and varies from the usual stuff in Montpellier because they favour wines from the Toulouse region. Usually you get a one dish meal here (it’s more than copious enough) and they all contain three different savoury quiche type pies and salad with herbes, a slice of orange and some olives. The different selections are just to help you decide what you want with it, for example: goat’s cheese, sausage, foi gras, etc. The combos range from about 11 to 16 Euros depending on your level of decadence. You should try to book ahead or get there early, however you may also want to take advantage of the fact that this restaurant actually serves later in the afternoon whereas most French restaurants operate on strict opening and closing times.*
　


Cheapies.
There are numerous places where you can get a pleasant 3 course meal with a cup of coffee or a 1/4 bottle of wine for the equivalent of a Canadian 20$. Mostly this is at lunch but there are a few that offer the same service in the evenings. ‘’cheap and cheerfuls’‘ as mon ami Simon says.


Restaurant Cerdan
8 rue Collot (off place Jean-Jaurez)
-open evenings, closed sundays (everything is cheap for what they offer and they often throw in complimentary drinks and nibbles but the deserts are pretty mediocre)


Le Dauphin
23 Rue Chaptal
-open lunches, Monday to Friday only
a little bit off the beaten path but walkable
La bouchon de Saint Roch
and many more like it in the area around l’eglise de Saint Roch/ place Saint Roch
another really good one, (exceptional value) near saint roch is ‘L’agricole’ or ‘café Leon’.
There are a couple more hole-in-the-wall lunch spots of good value on rue Faubourg de Courreau. - which is a more African and Arab neighbourhood.

Good restaurants, bakeries and butchers are generally closed Sunday and Monday. If you see a lot of old people eating inside, it’s generally a good sign.