Bouillon A

While his fine dining restaurant Maison Aribert and the attached Café A delight guests at high altitudes, Christophe Aribert zipped down the mountainside and unveiled an alpine-style bouillon restaurant in the middle of Grenoble’s business district. A luminous dining room (monumental windows, solid wood details, white tiling, padded banquettes) and sunny plates, filled with expected classics and locally-sourced gems. For us, this July day: a stunner of a deviled egg with mountain herb mayo; a plump shredded chicken “hot dog” with pickled onions, radishes, cabbage and herbed mayo; perfect Vercors trout cooked on the skin with glazed zucchini, beets and carrots, plus sauce grenobloise with butter and capers; before an impressive apricot tart with crème anglaise. The rest of the menu highlights the Isère, the Savoie, Grenoble’s Italian influences and beyond (roasted Saint-Marcellin, crozet risotto, gnocchi with bleu du Vercors cheese, intriguing ramen-style ravioli…), along with some French favorites like elbow macaroni with truffled ham, (chicken) sausage with mashed potatoes, rice pudding, cream puffs, baba au rhum… Our only complaint? The prices are more fitting of a brasserie than a bouillon. // Éric Taylor

FEELING THIRSTY? Organic Rhone wines served in various sizes (quarter bottles, half bottles, full bottles or pots, from €4.80 to €19.20), along with some well-chosen bottles, like this Omega crémant from the Savoie winemaker Jean Vullien or Parallèle 45, a Côtes-du-Rhône red from Jaboulet (€32 and €30 a bottle) and beers brewed by Jean-Louis in Valence (€3.20 for a half-pint). 
PRICE: À la carte €20-29.