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Les Terrasses de Lyon, the restaurant of the luxury four star hotel Villa Florentine of Lyon, serves delicious regional cuisine rendered with a modern flair. You have your choice of eating in the old vaulted, traditional dining room, or stepping through an archway, sitting in a more modern setting with glass walls that look over the red roof tops of the old city much like La Chevre d’Or in Provence looks out over the shimmering coastline of the Cote d’Azure. In warm weather, meals are also served outside on the terrace.
This twin contrast typifies the food as well, some of which is traditional in style and some very modern.
We found that while the dishes were indeed excellent and chef Stéphane Gaborieau (Meilleur Ouvrier de France 2004) very talented, the menu was a bit limited with most of the choices we would have preferred available only on the set menus rather than à la carte. Everything we did choose was well prepared and very tasty even if the sauces were rendered down so far as to resemble a sticky paste rather than an edible sauce.
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Turbot with fava beans and roast fennel.
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The new covered terrace dining room with glass walls giving a view out over the old city, the new city and all the way to lower Alps on a clear day.
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The traditional dining room with its vaulted ceiling.
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“Presse de Legumes” in a jelly of coriander .
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There were several fixed price and fixed choice menus ranging from 53 Euros to 110 Euros for the “Grand Classique” as well as a very inventive “Pallette de Saveurs” for 60 Euros with a starter and two course from a choice of 6, all vegetarian but not necessarily low cal.
While we were perusing the menu, we wolfed our way through several superb crusty bread rolls baked in the Villa Florintine kitchens until we focused on what we were doing. So we put on the brakes for fear of ruining our capacity for the rest of the meal. We could only hope they would serve them again at breakfast. We were not to be disappointed. The breakfast buffet was one of the best since we were in Switzerland making pigs of ourselves in Ascona.
We chose the à la carte route since we had just arrived and needed something light after a transatlantic flight. The meal started with a “Trilogie de Bienvenus” or a palate stimulator of three bite size concoctions all delicious but impossible to identify. Who cares, they were delicious and wetted our appetite for the rest of the meal as the light slowly faded from the sky and the sun set behind us bathing the city in a deep warm glow.
By the time the first course arrived daylight was a memory as lights appeared in windows across the plain and reflected in the river with the low Alps in the distance silhouetted against the last of the deep blue sky. Linda sweet talked the waiter into bringing her one of the starter courses from the vegetarian menu which turned out to be a light and excellent “Presse de Legumes” in a jelly of coriander encircled with a ring of fresh fava beans, peas, bits of tomato in an olive oil sauce with a shard of Parmesan pancake resting languidly against the whole.
For myself, the “Suprême de pigeon rosé” served on a bed of tube pasta filled with a purée of truffles in a rich reduction was delicious. This was followed by a very light fish course of two tiny fillets of roasted Rouget with a fondue of shallots cooked in wine sandwiched between them and topped with a crisp of yam. The fish was accompanied with zucchini mouse held in place with a wrapping of soft, white turnip strips.
It is a bit of a tradition in France with the serving of duck to split it into two courses; one a very rare dish of the breast meat – the other a more fully cooked serving of the legs. We treated ourselves to the version prepared magnificently by chef Gaborieau. This must be ordered by groups of two people so some harmony of taste must exist. The thinly sliced breast arrived perfectly done to our taste resting on a mousseline of petits pois itself displacing a port sauce flavored with verbena (this last was so thick it was almost inedible) and a thin crisp of eggplant decorating the whole.
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The first serving of the breast of the "Caneton de Challans" (duck) resting on a mousseline of petits pois
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Dessert of vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sorbet on a disk of sponge cake with a hat of a wafer of caramelized pineapple.
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“Suprême de pigeon rosé” served on a bed of tube pasta filled with a purée of truffles.
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The second serving, the leg of the "Caneton de Challans" (duck) resting on a gratin of celery
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The second part of the duck arrived served in a deep dish with the leg resting on a gratin of celery surrounded by a sauce “Périgueux” which I can only think must be a reduction of the juices with black truffles. We were never able to pin that down especially since it too was so thick it had to be scrapped off the bottom of the plate. But other than the consistency of the two sauces, the duck was a great success.
We left our wine choice (we like to sample the local wines of the regions) in the hands of the very capable sommelier who knew what we had ordered and picked a 2001 Crozes-Hermitage by Domaine des Remizières. This wine is less acidic than it’s cousins just north in Burgundy. It matched all the dishes we ordered. We can thoroughly recommend it as well as the discretion of the sommelier.
The only disappointing aspect of the meal was that the pastry chef was not up to the caliber of master chef Stéphane Gaborieau. The large spread of the pre-dessert was acceptable though not earth shaking. But both the desserts we ordered were a ordinary to poor. After the quality of the preceding meal, the “Caprice de fruits exotiques aux épices” sounded interesting but turned out to be three gluey cups of some white substance filled with something that had at one time been fruit. My “Déclinaison de glaces et sorbets” served on a soft biscuit and topped with a paper thin disk of dried fruits was better but the butterscotch sorbet was less than it could have been and the vanilla bean ice cream was lame. I am seldom let down by home made vanilla bean ice cream but this was an exception. We sort of wished we had ordered a second helping of the pre-dessert with its rum balls topped with kiwi and its mini éclairs amongst other things.
The food is very good even though we would stop short of calling it a gastronomic destination especially with the other world famous chefs whose restaurants litter the region. But in combination with the lovely hotel or for a romantic candle light dinner over looking the city, it can't be beat.
It can be a bit difficult to find the first time. (For directions, click here).
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For a link to the Relais & Châteaux Group of hotels and restaurants own site, click on the button left.
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