Full throttle in Le Puy! Flying solo between stove and and dining room, local lad Alexis Haon – former private chef to winemakers with a weakness for Japan (including Pierre Overnoy) – runs this central spot like a man on a mission. He combs the weekly market with the focus of a converted samurai. His bushido? Ultra-local products, deeply comforting dishes made entirely from scratch (yes, even the pickles!) and unlikely Auvergne-Japanese crossovers that shouldn’t work but gloriously do. With sleeves rolled up and spirit blazing, this culinary ronin darts through the cosy, corner spot – all arched windows, pale wood and a monumental copper counter handcrafted by his cabinetmaker father. On the menu that lunchtime: melting sweetbreads tangled with a medley of mushrooms (cauliflower mushroom, saffron milk caps, winter chanterelles) grown underground, foraged that very morning by his trusted picker; a gratin bordelais riffing on dauphinoise potatoes, layered with porcini from the Meygal region and cloaked in farm-fresh cream; and a homespun old-fashioned apple tart, comforting if slightly outshone. Because the real mic-drop came from the final savory course: a nagori (a Japanese term describing the nostalgia for the season that’s ending), built around the season’s last tomatoes, gently reduced and lifted with fresh autumn herbs from the garden. · Pascal Diagonale

FEELING THIRSTY? Around 1,700 labels with a strong natural-wine bent: Miss Terre 2020, a muscadet from Domaine de la Sénéchalière (€5 a glass), Grand Cru Frankstein, a pinot gris from Beck-Hartweg (€7), Montagne De Strass, a local red from Domaine des Trouillères (€21 a bottle) and Chatons de Garde 2014, an Ardèche syrah from Andréa Calek (€31)… with several available to take home.

PRICE: Dish of the day €15 and mains €19 (lunch), plates €5-20 and mains €19-28 (dinner).