Bouchons in Lyon
I went on a short trip to Lyon and visited a few “bouchons”. A bouchon is a (usually) small restaurant that mainly serves not sophisticated but traditional local dishes. Bouchons were originally for workers around Lyon, so in general they serve meat dishes with a stronger flavour compared with other types of French cooking. Here I’m going to introduce the bouchons I visited and the dishes I had.
Disclaimer: everything I wrote is from my personal feeling and memory. None of the bouchons was crowded when I visited.
Le Bouchon des Cordeliers
Address: 15, rue Claudia, 69002 Lyon (Map)
They offered a lunch menu (26.50 EUR) that included an entrée, a main dish, and a dessert or cheese plate. All dishes I ordered are Lyonnais.
Entrée: Salade Lyonnaise
A warm veggie salad with pork belly cubes, fried bread cubes, and a poached egg. The dressing was light, containing a sour taste probably stemming from vinegar. The pork belly smelled brilliant, was a bit salty but just nice with the salad.
Main: Quenelle Lyonnaise au Brochet, sauce Homardine, Riz Pilaf
Quenelle is a dish with fish (but there was no taste of fish) with fluffy texture. It is always served with sauce, while restaurants might decide to serve with different kinds of sauce. The whole iron plate was baked and served directly, so the waitress couldn’t have tried harder telling me not to touch the iron plate. Most of the taste of this dish came from the sauce (the quenelle “cake” itself only had a slight flavour). One can also have this dish with bread (served for free). The bread in this bouchon was nice (at least to me.)
This dish was accompanied by a small dish of yellow rice: Riz Pilaf. I’m not sure if it’s always served with quenelle, but I had this rice too in another bouchon, so perhaps it’s common. It looked pretty plain, but both the taste and the texture were BRILLIANT. It had a rich taste of butter, but I also sensed some other unknown spice. In terms of texture, it was just nicely cooked, al dente. I kind of know what being al dente is like for pasta, but for rice, this was the first time, totally different from what I knew about rice.
Dessert: Cervelle de canut
Cervelle de canut is made from cheese. The texture was just as its name, soft and smooth. It was seasoned with mainly olive oil, vinegar, and a lot of green onion. I wouldn’t say it was tasty, but it was indeed a brand new experience. A bit too strong for me after the main dish.
In general, I like the food here, especially that dish of Riz Pilaf.
Le café Comptoir ABEL
Address: 25 Rue Guynemer, 69002 Lyon (Map)
I ordered only an entrée and a main dish instead of a full menu here.
Entrée: Terrine maison (12.50 EUR)
Terrine is a loaf of forcemeat or aspic. It seems that it’s rather a genre of food. What I ordered was mainly made with pork, veal, and chicken liver. The ingredients might sound intimidating for those who don’t really favour animal guts like me, but actually the texture of this dish was just like some sort of normal meat, and it wasn’t that gamey. It went pretty well especially with the slight sourness of the pickles, which lightened the taste overall and made the whole dish more enjoyable. I like this interesting entrée.
The bread was just okay.
Main: Quenelle de brochet en gratin (20.00 EUR)
Yes, I ordered quenelle again to see how different it was from the previous one, but I was a bit disappointed. The quenelle itself was okay. The sauce was different, with the taste of cream and mushrooms. Riz Pilaf was served too, but the taste was rather boring (mostly onion and broth) and the texture was not uniform in the serving. Some part was overcooked (too soft) and some part was just a bit undercooked (slightly soft outside but hard inside like risotto). As shown in the photo, it came in a “huge” portion, which could have been the reason.
Chez Grand-Mère
Address: 11 Rue du Bœuf, 69005 Lyon (Map)
This is the only one among those I visited that is at the old town (a.k.a. more touristy) area. It was rather inexpensive though (with menu at 20.90 EUR all day).
Entrée: Soupe à l’oignon
I didn’t know what an authentic onion soup tasted like, but for this I found it a bit monotonous, just savouriness mainly. Grated cheese was also just ordinary.
Main: Andouillette, sauce moutarde
Andouillette is a sausage made with pork and intestines. It might look a bit scary when it’s raw from images found on the Internet, but the taste and texture were actually acceptable for me since I was okay with pig intestines. The sausage skin was a bit pointless since when I cut the sausage with your knife, the fillings just came out and I had to pick up the pieces anyway. It was quite salty I’d say, but with the sauce, the flavour was not bad. After a short while I was a bit tired of it due to the gravy and the saltiness, and then I tried a bit of the baked tomato. It was refreshing and just came as a rescue. In general I’d say it’s an interesting dish, but I might not want to have it often.
Tarte aux pralines roses
Pralines are basically sugar-coated almonds. They are pink only in Lyon. Tarte aux pralines roses is basically just a tart with sweet crushed almonds. This dessert is commonly served in bouchons and always comes with a scoop of whipped cream. Not amazing but good enough as a dessert.
That’s all! Lyonnais food is in generally nice. Looking forward to visiting other bouchons next time…