It seemed like an awful long time since I did one of these, so John thought we needed to go out and find a nice menu ouvrier so that I would have something to write about. Today it was one of the places nearest to us, in the next village, but on the main road from Bauge to Angers - Aux P'tits Oignons in Echimire.
As by lunchtime, it was over 28 degrees in the shade, no one was interested in eating out on the terrace - besides despite it being in a village, lorries hurtle by all the time in a most alarming manner.
We have resisted trying here for quite a while on a rather philosophical point - you can see the blackboard by the road, and they write the lunch menu on it each day, but so small you can only read it by stopping the car and getting out, which defeats the point. However, today we succumbed and we are glad we did.
This is one of the cheaper menus ouvrier (9.50 Euros including wine or cider, coffee extra), taking advantage of the VAT reduction. You can get a meal if you turn up until about 1:30pm, and there are a lot of smallish tables so you don't have to share. When you turn up and have found a table, you are given a bowl of bread and can go to the buffet of starters. There was perhaps not enough raw salads (only radishes - tomatoes and slices of cucumber might have been nice), but otherwise a very fine selection and the rillauds and pate were very tasty.
For main there was a choice of four main dishes, and most of them came with a choice of salad, chips, haricot beans, broccoli or salsify. The mains were steak, andouillette (if you know what it is, you will know if you like it or not, but most English loathe it), fish in sauce and pasta gratin with bolognaise sauce. We had the fish and the pasta and both were good, plain, tasty home cooking and generous portions. The steaks looked good.
The cheese course was a plate left at the table with a selection of seven well kept cheeses, while pudding could be selected from the chill cupboard and there were about eight different things. We went for creme brulee, which was much richer and creamier than usual and well dosed with vanilla.
Overall, we thought it was excellent value, the rose wine was perfectly pleasant, and while not haute cuisine, it was designed to do what was needed - feed a worker so that he has the energy for an afternoon's hard graft, and be an enjoyable experience so that he will go back again. Don't make the mistake of expecting fine and fiddly food at one of these lunchtime stops. In general they can also spot a tourist from a worker, so John and I generally get moved through courses quickly (we look like workers, even if we speak funny), whereas obvious holiday makers seem to go at a more leisurely pace.
Aux P'tits Oignons is also a hotel with a small number of rooms (no idea of the quality or price of these) and does do evening food and caters for parties there or at your own venue. We have been there (a couple of years ago now) for a cous cous evening where the pudding was a Baked Alaska - we thought that a bit expensive, but things might have changed now.
I've just googled andouillette - from the Wikipedia description, I don't think I'll be ordering it!! Can you please send me some hot sunny weather - it's raining again today!!
Posted by: Anne Donald | 19 July 2010 at 06:51 PM
I have tried andouillette and over here it is said that liking it makes the difference between being a Brit in France and being French! I will try with the sunshine but while we are forecast hot weather during the day today, from about midnight the forecast is for storms and rain, so the sun is on its way somewhere - perhaps to you?
Posted by: Jane | 20 July 2010 at 09:07 AM