Cour des Vignes - Lille

I ate here with a companion a year ago and reported very positively on food and wine.The wines - a dry Champagne and a bottle of 1999 Ch Croix St Estephe - were still exquisite, but the food left much to be desired. The terrine of confit de canard legs and fois gras was on the dry side and the Carré d'Agneau was greasy and charred .. It could not hold its own against the spectacualr wine, and I would have been better off having the Rumpsteack, I hope .. Or perhaps the chef had an off-day?It was still possible to buy the fine wines off-licence and I got a Ladoucette Baron de L for the facile price of € 45:-

On previous visits I had spotted this restaurant and had been intrigued by the very interesting and most reasonably priced wine-list, but had never found the opportunity to dine; now the time had come. The visit could not have turned out better and was a marvellously pleasant surprise.Coupe de Champagne at only € 7:- gave a festive start to our - latish - dinner, in a then rather empty restaurant, which fortunately filled to a reasonable half-full as the meal progressed.At each item on the menu it is indicated what kind of wine it ought to be accompanied with, for instance a Trio of fish rillettes takes a white wine "vif et leger", whereas a "Fois-gras mi-cuit au pmmes" should have a white "moelleux" wine. The advice for a Carré d'agneau is a red wine, rich in tannin, and so on.We took different options within the three-course menu, with accompanying wines, and for each dish Madame offered us a choice between two wines within the relevant category of wine, and in each the chosen one perfectly fitted the dish. It was a very pleasant experience and extremely good value at the menu-plus-wines price of € 38:- A measure of a fine 15 year old Armagnac at the incredibly reasonable price of €9:- formed the perfect and very fitting conclusion to a fine meal. At € 108:- all in, for two persons, with champagne and digestif of outstanding quality, the meal was exceptionally good value, the more so wines from the list were also sold off licence whence I could obtain a coveted Baron de L Pouilly Fumé at the bargain price of € 43:-. I am sure to go back at my next visit to Lille.

My friends and family always make a special request for this Sunday brunch when they come to visit: unlimited freshly squeezed orange juice, coffee, tea, a huge selection of pains au chocolat, croissants, salads, cheese board, excellent pancakes, the traditional eggs and always something interesting that changes all the time (seafood was a recent addition) which means I never tire of it. And at 18 euros, it is very good value. Best to book, and arrive by 11 or 12 am, otherwise it gets very busy (and it's true the buffet can become a bit depleted). I first came to know this restaurant for its excellent dinner menu, with an interesting possibility of having 2 starters and dessert/ main and dessert/ main and cheese for only 20 euros. Very good and reasonably priced wine list. The menu changes fairly often and is a good mixture of "traditional" French/ Nord Pas de Calais dishes and more unusual offerings. Definitely recommend it.

We had a very nice meal at this restaurant near our hotel. We had an early morning train, so we ate a little earlier than usual, around 7:30. There was no one else in the place, but it gradually gained more customers.We had wine and started with a warm salad of gizzards and an eggplant appetizer, followed by bar (sea bass) with tagliatelle. Everything was quite good, especially the starters.The service was friendly and efficient and we enjoyed our time here.

We had the brunch. The quality was extremely poor. Service was quite attentive but even though the restaurant was very very quiet, we're not quite sure why the table next to us was never cleared and cleaned. The lady (boss?) looked extremely miserable and didn't seem to be interested in managing the place.The "hot" food (processed sausages and meats) was cold.The scrambled eggs tasted funny.The jacket potatoes that came with the eggs were lukewarm.The only good thing was the freshly squeezed orange juice. But at 18 EUR a head, what a rip-off...