Auberge de Vieux Logis

The Auberge de Vieux Logis is in the main street of the sleepy but pretty village Conteville in Brittany, 8 miles from Honfleur. There was a carpeted L-shaped dining room, with a small garden terrace at the back. Eric Boilay’s cooking was very traditional, with starters priced €35 - €45, fish dishes €28 - €42 and meat dishes €36 to €40, with cheese €10 and desserts at €15. There was a tasting menu at €75, and a shorter version at €55. We chose from the a la carte menu.

The French wine list was not particularly long and ranged widely in price, with a few basic wines available at around €30 but also some prestige bottles such as Chateau Petrus 1993 at €2,310 for a wine you can buy for about €1,050. More everyday examples included Drouhin St Veran 2009 at €36 compared to a shop price of about €12, Louis Jadot Aloxe Corton 1999 at €88 for a wine you can find retail for about €28 and Chateau Beychevelle 2004 at €172 compared to a shop price of around €69. We drank Guigal Condrieu 2007 at €96 for a wine that retails at about €28.

Initial amuse-bouches consisted of small pieces of skate served on little spoons and a peanut Madeleine. The skate was of good quality, with a hint of lemon (15/20) but the peanut Madeleine had a rather dense texture and limited peanut taste (12/20). Further nibbles were saddle of rabbit with foie gras and black pudding with apple on a crouton. The rabbit had good taste, with the hint of foie gras giving a pleasing richness (15/20), and the black pudding was good, the apple providing some much needed balancing acidity (14/20).

My langoustines with foie gras starter worked well, the langoustines themselves lightly cooked and clearly of good quality, the warm foie gras quite a rich contrast, though the dish would have been even better with something sharp to balance the foie gras (16/20). I tasted a good scallop carpaccio with a nice citrus dressing (15/20) but a lobster starter was slightly overcooked (14/20).

This was a very classical menu, and I have not seen Tournedos Rossini for many years. The beef was carefully cooked and had good taste, though again the foie gras needed something to balance its richness (14/20). I also tasted a pleasant turbot dish (14/20) and carefully cooked ris de veau (15/20).

Cheese was ripe but served fridge cold, which was a pity, as it was so cold that its taste was lost (12/20). My dessert of pancakes flambéed with Grand Marnier was the best dessert, the pancakes perhaps a little heavier than they should be, but still enjoyable (15/20). This was better than the desserts that my companions had. Coffee was pleasant.

Service was friendly and fairly capable, though there were times when no waitresses were present in the room, and it was not as if they were exactly rushed off their feet: on a Friday night in mid April there were precisely two tables taken in the whole restaurant, including us.

Overall this was a pleasant enough meal, but at a price that was hard to justify for the level of cooking, which for me was distinctly below the level that you would expect given the current single Michelin star status of the place. The menu is quite old fashioned and I do not mind that at all, but there were a few slips in execution and no dishes that really dazzled. The locals appear to have voted with their feet given the lack of business on this evening (the other table of diners were foreign visitors like us). The bill per person with two bottles of reasonable wine between three people, and some drinks beforehand was €195 a head, which felt uncomfortably high for what was delivered.