Le Silex - Tautavel

Very nice food, very nice service, very tasty wines .... and for dessert I had fondant au chocolat with rosemary ice-cream! Wow!!!! Loved every bite

Firstly, at €19.90 for a 3-course lunch (without wine) in France this is excellent value. Wines have a standard €6 markup in what they say is the price from the producer, which is very reasonable. In Spain (where wine is included) I would have been...less happy with the value. The ambience is a bit scruffy nothing stylish nor alternatively quaint boxes everywhere; untidy. We stood around for an age waiting to be seated while a single couple was being served. So we sat ourselves down and were promptly redirected to another table. Menu arrived promptly and then another long wait before the food and wine orders were taken. Another long wait (still only 1 other couple) for the wine to arrive. From then on everything went smoothly. For the price the dishes were inventive non-standard (as opposed to many in rural Catalunya), and all were well cooked and presented. If you focus only on food quality and nothing on service and ambience, Silex is top notch.

Very high quality ingredients, impressive wine selection with great expertise on weeps from the region. these people do it well. the drive from tuchan is spectacular, but that drive after darkness was quite hairy. self-esteem: next time to lunch.

Firstly, at €19.90 for a 3-course lunch (without wine) in France this is excellent value. Wines have a standard €6 markup in what they say is the price from the producer, which is very reasonable. In Spain (where wine is included) I would have been less happy with the value.The ambience is a bit scruffy - nothing stylish nor alternatively quaint - boxes everywhere; untidy. We stood around for an age waiting to be seated while a single couple was being served. So we sat ourselves down and were promptly redirected to another table. Menu arrived promptly and then another long wait before the food and wine orders were taken. Another long wait (still only 1 other couple) for the wine to arrive. From then on everything went smoothly. For the price the dishes were inventive / non-standard (as opposed to many in rural Catalunya), and all were well cooked and presented.If you focus only on food quality and nothing on service and ambience, Silex is top notch.

For late October Tautavel offered an uncharacteristic variety of open restaurants for lunch. The English speaking proprietor/chef explained the plat du jour which turned out to be a fantastic lunch with imaginative egg/foix-gras starter, main of beautifully cooked steak in tomato sauce with potato/veg timbales and pistachios panne cotta for desert. Our girls steak hachets were fine if suffering from the normal French lack of vegetables. Overall a lovely lunch, bit more than a standard plat du jour but worth it.