Lyon France Restaurant Reqs

Check out Anthony Bourdain's trip there. Made me very interested to go there.

Get the coq au vin. Thank me later

Palégrié on Rue du Palais Grillé ... it is a stones throw from the Cordeliers subway stop. Make a reservation whether you want to go for lunch or dinner.
The restaurant has two employees, a husband and wife. The husband is the chef and the wife handles the front of house. The menu changes daily based on what the chef thinks looks the best at the Quai Saint-Antoine market (located about two blocks away along the Saône river). He will come to your table and ask you what sort of foods you like and dislike, if you have any allergies, and go back to the kitchen and decide what he wants to cook for you. When I was there I had multiple locals tell me that while Palégrié is not traditional Lyonnais food, it was there favorite place to eat in the entire city. I went for lunch one day and was blown away. I unfortunately could not make it in for dinner because my time in Lyon had run out.

The Quai market is also a great place to grab lunch. Get a baguette, a hunk of cheese, and some fruits and veggies and sit on the bank of the river with a bottle of wine.

For traditional Lyonnais food, you should go to a bouchon. Dont mess with any of the places in the old part of town that claim to be bouchons. Most of them are tourist traps.
Cafe des Federations is a fantastic bouchon. It was one of the best meals I have ever had. Make a reservation one night and arrive with an empty stomach. Get multiple pots ("poes") of their house red and white wines. I think each pot is like 6 euro and has about 3 glasses of wine. You pay a set price for the meal and just choose your entree. Everything else is set. To start they bring out lyonnais salad, lentils and charcuterie, then whatever entree you decided on (try the Quenelle here), then whatever dessert they are serving that night and you end with a cheeseplate. You really shouldn't visit Lyon without eating here.

Bocuse's Le Sud is also an amazing restaurant. It is more of a nice atmosphere and white table cloth place than Federations. Just whatever fish they have on the menu. The technique at all of his restaurants is superb.

Daniel et Denise is a great place to grab lunch. They do a very reasonably priced two or three course menu and every entree comes with some of the best potatoes and mac and cheese you could imagine.


Hope this helps. Lyon is one of my favorite places in the world. I am extremely jealous that you are going. If you hit up any of these spots take some pictures and share them in here.

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Dont mess with any of the places in the old part of town that claim to be bouchons. Most of them are tourist traps.

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Yea i learned that pretty quickly. There was one place in Vieux Lyon that took care of me when I was there though.

The surprising thing about France is how big it is, I mean looking on a map its the size of Texas, and it took a rlly long time for me to get from Paris to the southwest. Biggest country in Europe besides Russia.

I guess what I can add to the discussion is to say that visiting France other than Paris and that sad industrial northeast will guaranteed be a kick arse time.

Never been to Lyon but I bet ur gonna eat some kickass food, get fuggin drunk, and generally get along with the people so long as ur not a little stupid.

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That reminds me, learn very basic French. They all speak English, but the Lyonnais are a proud bunch. If they think you are being disrespectful, they will do what they can to make you miserable, first by pretending that they can't speak English.

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qft, i think thats the only legitimate thing people can claim the french are "rude" over. And imo, its pretty reasonable. Plus it doesnt hurt for louisiana people to improve/maintain our french comprehension. Its part of our identity as well

*also for lyon food as well as all french/southern french food, cant go wrong exploring dishes with duck, or "canard". They really eat them some duck over there. In southwest france i ate a few cassoulet with duck, shiii was fiyah. basically like a navy bean stew with an ungodly amount of fat. sometimes had sausage, reminded me a little bit of some gumbos ive had