After a bucolic interlude at his table d’hôte communal dining restaurant in Gaillac, Yannick Delpech is back with the same ambitious vision we first caught sight of at L’Amphitryon, now raising the curtain on his restaurant Acte II in a new space, perfectly suited to an immersive culinary experience. The day we went for lunch, that included apricots and foie gras baked into a pillowy, freshly smoked brioche; a bold aïgo boulido, combining thin strips of raw calamari, guanciale, bacon cream, squid ink, a lemon-savory condiment and an egg yolk cooked in garlic broth; rustic lamb sausage and octopus stew; veal with its own drippings, paired with a crispy veal trotter and a sweetbread tartlet, plus saffron-infused potato espuma; before an audacious dessert combining lemon verbena-roasted melon with lemon syrup, melon juice, pickled and candied melon rind, and lemon verbena ice cream. A masterful performance! // Daisy Poppy

FEELING THIRSTY? Very natural wines from small producers: Molotov, an orange wine from the Languedoc winery Terrain Vague (€13 a glass), Esta Fête, a white from the Domaine Carterole in Collioure (€49 a bottle), and La Quille, a red produced in collaboration with the chef and the Domaine Gabelas in Saint-Chinian (€37).
PRICE: : Tasting menus €48 (lunch), €75 and €125 (lunch and dinner), food and wine pairings €25 (non-alcoholic drinks) and €48 (wines).