Lyon is called the gastronomic capital of Europe. More world class restaurants are in Lyon than any other place on the continent. One of the best places to eat in Lyon is a place called Le Passage. And we ate there one evening when we were over in France earlier this year.
Le Passage is owned by Vincent Carteron and the head chef is Frederic Cordier. Cordier is known for coming up with interesting dishes such as marbled foie gras with figs, lobster stew with cumin and a fricassee nut seafood casserole with thyme. Unfortunately, we weren't able to try any of those items.
The main dining area of Le Passage is rather classy and ornate with heavy tables and padded red leather chairs. Chandeliers hang from the ceiling and wonderful pieces of art adorn the walls. Unfortunately, we didn't sit in the main dining room.
Being that we were a large group of 30 people, we were seated in the private banquet facility on the second level of Le Passage, called Le Club. And when you're dealing with that many people, your choices of food are limited. Once again, it was a beef dish - a veal shank with a red wine sauce; and a seafood dish - salmon with a dill cream sauce. Once again, I try to avoid fish like the plague while in France, so I went with the veal shank.
Before the main course was served, we were served a salad with a slice of foie gras on top. The salad was OK, but the foie gras was fabulous. I know some people have a problem with foie gras, especially by the way ducks are forced fed to enlarge their livers. I don't have a problem with it. Especially when I eat good foie gras.
The veal shank wasn't great, it wasn't bad. It was similar to "assembly-line" food that I've had in the states. To help things out, we had a number of great wines from the Rhone wine region, of which Lyon is in the heart of. I'm not as well-versed in French wines as I'd like to be, so I've been taking pictures of different the bottles of wine I've been drinking while in France. It helps me remember what it was that I was drinking, plus I can see if a place like Sam's Wines has the wine.
I talked to a couple of colleagues who told me they'd eaten at Le Passage a couple times before. They said the experience of banquet-style eating was nowhere close to the previous times they'd had dinner off of the regular menu. The Michelin Guide gives Le Passage two stars which means "excellent cooking, worth a detour". I would like to give it a shot sometime when I'm not involved in such a big group. Hopefully, one of these days I'll have the chance.
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