Auberge du Vieux Puits

11360 FONTJONCOUSE

19/20
Exceptional Restaurant

BOOK

7 PHOTOS

Chef Gilles Goujon

Cooking French | Gastronomic | specialty

Price Indicative price per person (excl. drinks)

260€ à 290€

Gault&Millau's review

19/20

Exceptional Restaurant It's fair to say that Gilles Goujon has been vindicated, as in a very short space of time he's got his hands on a very promising young chef and an excellent pastry chef. Who are they? Enzo Goujon and Axel Goujon... Yes, children next to their father, it could be a laborious legacy, but believe us, these two could be working today in any of the big houses. The former and his accomplice Paul Rey form a complementary duo, totally in the spirit of the house (precision, technical virtuosity and indispensable gourmandise), while the latter is already bluffing in his mastery of exercises that have become classics (the chocolate marquise, the dazzling strawberry-rhubarb with its hibiscus gin coulis). From one end to the other of these polished sequences, the house style, illustrated by the now-famous totem fish bone, is applied to even more family-style dishes. But don't imagine for a second that the great Gilles is letting go of the oars. He's at the helm better than ever, in the role of boss and father, spiritual and biological. And he orchestrates the symphony for an audience dazzled by this inveterate hunter-fisherman's assertive knowledge of plants: peas, morel mushrooms and a magnificent mushroom-crisp undergrowth herald the great protein dishes, the royal denti with celtuce, the cephalopod-stuffed baluchon with a super-powerful bone juice, the grandiose Limousin wagyu crossbred beef with its cheek bourguignon and marrow flan, chevreau ("all the pieces"), a wonderfully rustic and sylvan song with crispy green asparagus, bucatini gratin in blanquette, as addictive as ever, and a light aroma of nepita, the Corsican marjoram. The service, orchestrated by Vincent Labarsouque, remains one of the best in France in this five-toque queen category, so human, personalized and sincerely kind, the cheese cart is mind-boggling (you'd be hard-pressed to guess just how prodigious the region is!) and the cellar, always animated by a sommelier team that's also top-of-the-range, says it all about the Corbières, Minervois and Languedoc neighbors. If, by chance, you're lucky enough to be passing through in autumn, you'll find game bird dishes that will make your hair stand on end, and vice versa, yet another specialty of the ever unique and indispensable Gilles Goujon.