RESTAURANT LA TOUR, MONTADY: UPDATE

We'd been to Restaurant La Tour in Montady twice before and we'd liked it. The view across the etang from in front of La Tour at the top of the village is truly stunning, reason enough to lunch there. But the food was better than it had to be, not always the case in restaurants that are satisfied to profit from the view rather than the food. So when we heard that the restaurant had been renovated and both the decor and the menu had been upgraded, we decided to try La Tour once more.

Ooops.

It's true that you could see the results of money spent on interior decoration. This was a new La Tour. Clean and modern. But although we'd made a reservation and arrived in a timely fashion, and although the room had yet to fill up, one of the two starters on the menu du jour was already unavailable. Our choices for our main were either kidney or fish. (Is it just me or is that a strange pairing for a menu du jour?) None of the six of us are into kidney. Five were willing to eat exactly the same meal - the one available starter and the fish - but I decided to ask for a menu. This completely flummoxed our server, who then decided that we all had to order from the menu. After much back and forth, with the server trying to explain to us in halting English why we couldn't order daily special items from the menu, the manager finally arrived. We conversed in French easily and he took our orders quickly and without a problem, five from the menu du jour and one outlier.

By this time, people that had arrived after us were already having dessert. We ended up being about the last folks to leave. Not really a problem. We're all retired and have the time. But added to the initial confusion, we couldn't help thinking that we'd wasted a good bit of the afternoon.

That's a shame. I'm willing to put up with a lot as long as the food is good. And the food was reasonably good. Reasonably. But the fact that five of us ate the same meal complicated judgment. Different people, different tastes. The starter, a bit of salad with a packet of hot goat cheese tied with a sprig of lavender, was both pleasing to the eye and the taste buds...to some. To some, too salty. And so it went. What had been intended to be a sampling of a new, upgraded menu became a study in how five people with differing preferences graded the same dish.

We all agreed that the little bread rolls were good.

With plenty of wine en pichet and coffee for a few of us at the finish, the average of just over 21 euros per person was well within bounds. But we won't go back any time soon. We preferred La Tour when it was less pretentious. In my opinion, the upgrade was a downgrade. Or maybe it was just a bad day. Decide for yourself.

You can find my original review of La Tour HERE. For more of my restaurant reviews, click HERE.

RESTAURANT DE LA TOUR - RESTAURANT REVIEW

When your restaurant is the go-to choice in a small town in a popular tourist and expat region near the Canal du Midi in the south of France, when the view from the patio of the restaurant is just this side of breathtaking, you can get away with doing less and charging more. It's a sad commentary but it happens. One place where that definitely does not happen is at the Restaurant de la Tour in Montady.

 We stopped by the Restaurant de la Tour after a long ride and a bit of shopping out in the country. We've lived within 15 minutes or so from the place for 18 months but for some reason we just haven't stopped by. Mistake...

You climb to the very top of the village. Make certain that your hand brake works. The view is of the Etang de Montady - vineyards and farmland stretching for miles. We sat on the patio in the shade on a warm, early October afternoon and enjoyed the view all the while that we dined.

We never saw a menu. The daily specials were sufficient. The two girls started with a hearty salad - mixed greens, cheese, and chunks of nut-encrusted chicken. A very satisfying start. I had gnocchi in a heavy cream sauce with bits of smoked salmon incorporated. A great idea. One that Cathey will replicate. The girls followed with a fish filet (grouper?) in a light cream sauce. I had roast pork, a chunk sort of like a short rib that had been roasted with an Oriental/soy glaze. Sides were potatoes roasted with red and green peppers and bits of eggplant. All well prepared and well presented. For dessert, a berry medley in a small dish, topped with chantilly. Olives at the start, good bread with, and a demi of rose. We paid with a 50 euro note for the three meals and left the few coins that came back on the table.

Very satisfactory in all respects. We'll return.

Read more of my reviews HERE, including an update on this one.