L'Herboriste

Having cultivated a taste for gastrology at a few beautiful restaurants (like Le 1862 in Les Eyzies), Renaud Chirouze now reaps the fruits of his labor at this elegant spot (waxed concrete, a marble fireplace, Eleonora chairs). His thing? A mastery of his art and a frankly inspiring localist code of ethics: the vegetables are grown at Le Potager Bio in Fongrave, the herbs come from the Ferme de Labadie near Casteljaloux, and the poultry is raised at Les Arbrieux in Coulx. During our last lunch there, we savored three dishes prepared two ways: a creamy egg paired with mushrooms (cooked in cream and served raw), buckwheat tuiles, a herby sheep’s milk tomme cheese sponge cake, along with scrambled eggs made using the same ingredients; cod, served perfectly poached and sprinkled with nettle powder, with a Madagascar vanilla sauce, cauliflower and nasturtium, along with a croquette with cauliflower couscous; and chocolate, prepared as a creamy pudding embellished with caramel, a poached pear and crispy praline topping, and with a crème anglaise emulsion over a pear compote. // Loulou Pic

FEELING THIRSTY? : Conventional and natural bottles compete for the limelight: Les Deux Albion, a Côtes-du-Rhône red from the Château de Saint-Cosme (€7 a glass), Coucou Blanc, a Côtes-du-Marmandais from Elian Da Ros (€62 a bottle), or La Gloire de Mon Père, a Bergerac blend from the Château Tour des Gendres (€50).
PRICE: : Lunch menus €35-45 (3-4 courses), dinner menus €55-65 (5-6 courses).