La Table de Charrou

Word to the wise for vegetarians: this isn’t where you’ll find the meal of a lifetime. La Table de Charrou is more enamored with meat than zucchini. That’s because Lucie Escrozailles, who uncorks bottles of wine, is the daughter of the village butcher, and Charles Fuan, the chef, is also trained as a butcher. The duo have transformed a dying old mas-style farmhouse on the Causse de Limogne into a sleek, contemporary and bright space, where first-rate meats arrive in carcass form and are butchered on site. The results that Sunday lunchtime? A local cut of veal from Hervé Rigal, slow-cooked for a perfectly pink center, before being served as a lively steak tartare with tarragon mayonnaise, capers, anchovies, cornichons, olives and piment d’Espelette; a massive Aubrac roast beef carefully tended over a wood fire in the bread oven, all tender and juicy, paired with some memorable boulangères potatoes and a fava bean and pea purée; before a heartening combo of stewed rhubarb, strawberries and whipped cream ice cream. A special shout out for the bread from the Viguié bakery in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, which was marvelous at sponging up all of the roast beef’s drippings. // Gérard Roubeix 

FEELING THIRSTY? : Low-intervention fermented juices from the region and further away: NDD, a local blend from Fabien Jouves (€4.50 a glass), Zeste, a Muscadet produced by the Domaine de la Combe (€36 a bottle), Kézako, an Aude Carignan made by Marc Castan (€26), and Brut Zéro, a crémant d’Alsace from Valentin Zusslin (€44). 
PRICE: : Set menu €16.90 (weekday lunch) and €39.90 (Sunday), à la carte €30-34.