Le Nouvel - Murviel-lès-Béziers

On both occasions have enjoyed the meals and the bonhomie of the staff. They enquired about our home country, New Zealand and our national sport, rugby. The meal were value for money and more than acceptable quality. Also visited for morning coffee. On this their coffee was pretty standard, not what the rest of the world calls cappuccino but similar to most round southern France.

As I write this I'm both sad and angry. Let me say that we have eaten at this restaurant twice: the first time the food was pretty good and we were treated well. That was 'out of season' (we have been living in the area for a year). We returned there two nights ago and being August it is 'high season'. Since we are not regular locals it was assumed we are tourists and treated as such. I had brochette de beouf, which was actually rather nice. My OH had no complaints about the starter (breaded mussels) but was not impressed with the main course (ravioli with crayfish and asparagus tips) - the ingredients did not go well together. However, the real complaint we have is with our son's meal. The children's menu was chicken, salmon or 'steak haché', we chose chicken for him. When it arrived it was as dry and tough as old leather. It was quite obviously a leftover chicken breast they'd thrown in the frying pan to reheat. It was singed black, but not even warmed through. This makes me angry because not only had they assumed we were tourists, they'd also assumed that a two year old wouldn't notice or care that his chicken was reheated leftovers. We didn't bother to complain about it as its too much effort to try to complain in French (we are competent but not fluent), instead we just fed him the vegetables and shared our food with him. Needless to say we won't be returning!

We visited this café/bar/restaurant twice in May; once for coffee and once for lunch. The décor may be a bit “rough and ready” but the fixed-price lunch was very good and represented the best value-for-money we discovered in the area: it made us a bit nostalgic for the great-value lunches you used to find all over France. The chips were particularly good! The service was efficient and very friendly. Recommended.