L'epicurien - Caussade

We arrived late and I think the waitress thought twice about seating us but she did and glad she did. There is a very well priced menu for 22 Euros but the whole table has to have it. The goats cheese salad starter was enormous and enough for a main meal, the tuna tartare was very different and tasty. The main course was beef on skewers coming out of a small cannon ball on a stand, which had been seared and then was flambed at the table with whisky. It was served with frites and 6 delicious sauces with pureed carrot under the meat which collected the whisky and meat juices, yum! We had floatant for dessert because we hadn't had it before, as they cleared up teh tables in the outside seating area around us! The red wine pichet was OK. But all in all a great little find. The menu also had fondues, raclettes and galettes so a really good range.

I don't tend to write reviews about bad places- I make excuses to myself and assume my expectations were too high, however L'epicurien has persuaded me to change the habit of a lifetime. We visit France a couple of times a year and eat out regularly. I'm a vegetarian so it can be a little complicated but I speak reasonable French so with good will on both sides it generally works out. We regularly choose a creperie as an easy option - lots of veggie ingrediants to make something tasty out of and very easy for the chef to put my request together from the basics. However at L'epicurien a request to put onions, cheese and mushrooms into one galette was met with an absolute refusal and complete unwillingness to discuss further. Some fraught dialogue back and forth between a sulky waitress and a presumaby sulkier but invisible chef resulted in a final frosty compromise with the ham being omitted from the cheese and ham pancake. Other highlights, the very warm white wine, the bread basket, desert menu etc slapped down without even making eye contact and the very cute 7 year old waiting on tables and serving evey plate he carried with both thumbs firmly embeded in the food. He was sweet but at 9pm he probably should be somewhere else. So I've given it 2 'stars' - the food was edible (if inflexible) but the service was absolutely dreadful and such a contrast to everywhere else we ate in the area.