Where to eat in and around Laurens
Eating in and supermarkets - click for details
Restaurants
It’s worth noting a couple of important considerations when making plans to eat in the area. Firstly, that lunch is when the majority of French enjoy their main meal of the day. It’s something to be savoured, can take a couple of hours and the French’s right to lunch is not to be disrespected or ignored.
Consequently, if you want any surety over the standard and availability of a table for lunch it’s important to pre-book a few days in advance during the week, and probably a week in advance if you want a table on Sunday.
If you forget to book, you can find availability in the less popular restaurants (and it’s reasonable to extrapolate that less popular means not as good) or towards the end of lunchtime where you’re likely to have to rush more than is ideal (the French do not operate an ‘all day’ sitting option; there is always a session between lunch and dinner where good restaurants close their doors).
Secondly, that local restaurants operate differing opening time during the winter months compared to late spring to the end of autumn. Consequently, during the winter months, you may well find restaurants that are only open at lunchtimes and/or on Thursday – Saturday evenings. It’s best to plan to eat in on Sunday & Monday evenings whatever the time of year.
This area of Occitaine is littered with little villages, like Laurens who have a single restaurant so you may need to drive for 10 – 15 minutes from here to get to the restaurant of choice, The roads are quiet, some trips utilise the backroads (single track, unlit passages through the vineyards) and it’s rumoured that the ‘gendarmerie’ visit the area once a year whether they’re needed here or not…. Except for Sundays during the day, when office seem to set up specific ‘look out’ points to replenish their coffers with small but annoying fines … Sunday would not be the day to test the drink/drive laws.
We’re still new to the area and our voyage of discovery is in its infancy, but here are a few options to get you started ….
Abbaye Sylva Plana
La Mécanique des Frères Bonano *
Abbaye Sylva Plana
https://www.vignoblesbouchard.com/francais/restaurant-laurens-beziers-abbaye-sylva-plana.asp
This is the closest restaurant to the house. The restaurant is linked to a local wine producer. Consequently, the restaurant offers within its wine list their own wines which are very reliable and good value. In the summer we’ve eaten here on the terrace several times, having been introduced to the restaurant by the estate agent Charles (a local lad who lives in the village) during our initial property search. The food is generally good, and the service has always been charming & efficient.
Distance = 1.3kms. 17-minute walk or a 3-minute drive.
Address:
13, ancienne Route Nationale
34480 Laurens - FRANCE
Office : 04 67 24 91 67
Restaurant : 04 67 93 43 55
L'ALTER/NATIVE *
La Mécanique des Frères Bonano *
Abbaye Sylva Plana
https://lalternativegoujon.fr/
Expensive, fabulous food.
The name Gilles Goujon has become an indisputable label since he was awarded his third star ten years ago.
Gilles GOUJON has designed a menu focusing on fish and vegetables to develop the restaurant's aquaponics vegetable garden.
“It's a virtuous closed-circuit culture. It's a system where fish farming irrigates the vegetable garden” - Gilles Goujon.
12 Rue Boieldieu
34500 Béziers
Tel : 04 67 49 90 00
Email : contact@lalternativegoujon.fr
La Mécanique des Frères Bonano *
La Mécanique des Frères Bonano *
La Mécanique des Frères Bonano *
https://www.lamecaniquedesfreresbonano.fr
Expensive, fabulous food.
This well-oiled machine on the banks of the River Orb, now home to two brothers – one a sommelier, the other a chef, was a cloth mill in a former life. Inside, granite and wood dominate the decor, while a glazed wine cellar stands in the centre as a reminder of the pivotal role played by wine here. The savvy wine selection demonstrates a penchant for Languedoc-Roussillon (but not exclusively), and the food and wine pairings are judicious. Chef Clément delicately balances a lineup of traditional flavours, illustrated by matured Aubrac beef (incredible meat, consummately cooked) with a confit of shallots, aubergine in basil and foie gras. Friendly atmosphere courtesy of Benjamin's seamless, cheerful front-of-house management. Tapas menus at the Trou du Kru bistro.
Lieu-dit La Mécanique, Sainte-Colombe
34390 Colombières-sur-Orb
Chateau St Pierre de Serjac
Chateau St Pierre de Serjac
La Mécanique des Frères Bonano *
A 15-minute drive across country takes you to the village of Pouzolles. In the dark, you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled for the entrance to this luxury chateau as it sits on an unlit country road. It is worth a visit for lunch to get a full grasp or the beauty of the chateau and its surroundings.
The food quality has been hit and miss. The chateau has its own working vineyard, and unless you know the wines on the list and therefore have a preference, the estate wines are pretty good. Their white is an unoaked Chardonnay that seems to marry itself easily to the menu and not a bank breaker at €22 a bottle.
We also like to go early evening for a cocktail before retiring at home for dinner.
Château St Pierre de Serjac
D30 entre Pouzolles et Magalas 34480 Puissalicon Tel: +33 (0) 4 67 80 76 00 resa@serjac.com
La Carte Timbree
Chateau St Pierre de Serjac
La Carte Timbree
This is a good option for a relatively inexpensive lunch or dinner. Again a 15-minute cross country trek, through St Genies de Fontedit, takes you to Thezan Les Beziers and the restaurant is situated on the main square opposite the town hall. Thezan is a small village and so parking might be limited on the main square but there is a free car park within a few minutes from the restaurant.
As is standard in France the menu is priced based on the number of courses you have (€33 - €38), and within each course there’s a few options that follow a fish, meat, vegetarian and/or pasta format (not so for the desserts!). The food is good, better than the building might suggest (that’s not to say the location and restaurant aren’t without charm) and certainly there’s no lack of creativity here.
The owner speaks very good English, so if you’re feeling early visit nerves with the language, this is a great option with the promise of some very decent cuisine.
They serve a local beer which is a pleasant opener and the wine list is also well chosen and relatively good value.
3 Pl. de L’Hôtel de ville, 34490 Thézan-lès-Béziers
L’Ocre Rouge
Chateau St Pierre de Serjac
La Carte Timbree
At just under 20 minutes this restaurant might be on the cusp of local but it’s worth a visit. Nathalie and I stayed here when we were making our final preparations to take ownership of Chemin des Puits in September 2021. The village in on the road out of Laurens towards Bedarieux.
The food is excellent, and the wine list is well chosen. It’s a family run hotel/restaurant and benefits from the passion and commitment of the owners who run front of house and cook the food. Reasonably priced too…
Parking is a slight pain, but there is a public car park in the village from which you turn right and head up the hill; the restaurant is in a small square to the left. The dining room itself is under a vaulted ceiling.
12 Pl. de la Croix, 34600 Hérépian
+33467950693
Pica, Pica – Beziers
In Pezenas… Le Poisson Verre and La Ripaille
Pica, Pica – Beziers
A more upmarket offering that many in the area, Pica Pica offers both tapas and main meals. The restaurant is set at the head of the Place de Jean Jaures. There’s a car park underneath the square , so park in there and the exit will pop you up within 200 metres of the restaurant. It’s attached to the Hotel XIX.
It’s nicely laid out; service is good and the food is also pretty decent. Not Michelin star decent but very enjoyable. Wine prices vary but there’s good stuff at the lower price range, and to be honest that where I recommend you purchase. The Leon Barrel red, is from a winemaker 10 minutes from the house, is popular particularly with the Americans and commands a price on that basis (€67 when we visited). We think there are better priced wines that go with the food at the €30 marker.
If you’re here for a week and fancy one more fancy evening, it’s definitely worth a visit.
Might sound an odd choice but the Taramasalata (Tarama) was the best I’ve tasted, the duo of anchovies with mandarin & fennel also excellent and if you’re like me order the ham croquettes – also excellent. We had the churros for dessert, and beware churros for 2 is easily enough for 4 unless you’re still really hungry.
Bouzigues…. Oysters
In Pezenas… Le Poisson Verre and La Ripaille
Pica, Pica – Beziers
For lovers of oysters (huitres) the place to travel to locally is Bouzigues. With over 15 restaurants on the road that skirts the lagoon (a 15-minute walk from the first to the last), you’re really spoilt for choice. All score well on trip advisor (4.5 and better) and on the day we visited they were all booked out with hopeful punters lining the kerbs opposite waiting for a table to become available. The oysters themselves are taken from the lagoon opposite (so effectively travel 200 – 300 metres from bed to plate).
€45 gets you more than two can eat including some ‘au gratin’ and a bottle of the local PicPoul wine. The wine needs to be open for 20 minutes to air, but give it that investment and you’ll realise the wine goes perfectly with the seafood fest that awaits.
At weekends, the locals congregate here so booking ahead is important. Our advice is follow trip advisor until we’ve done further research and you shouldn’t go far wrong!
It’s a 50-minute jaunt, so allow time to get there and have a walk along the front. And, if it needed saying (which we hope it doesn’t) Bouzigues is on the coast (the Med) so head east!
In Pezenas… Le Poisson Verre and La Ripaille
In Pezenas… Le Poisson Verre and La Ripaille
In Pezenas… Le Poisson Verre and La Ripaille
In the centre of the old town, a street across from where the Saturday market is held is Le Poisson Verre. The entrance is through a narrow stone alleyway that during summer months is likely to have a table of two hogging the right-hand side. We ate lunch here on one of those days where we’d failed to heed out own advice and hadn’t booked. We’d liked the look of the restaurant opposite (La Ripaille) but it was full and with little choice left and running out of time we gave it a go. To be honest it was fine without setting the heart or tastebuds alight (in France that moment when you fall in love is known as a ‘coup de couer’ – this wasn’t such a moment).
If you found yourself there, grabbed a seat in the heart of the restaurant and choose wisely from the menu you wouldn’t be upset. The menu is extensive enough to have something for all; the waiter who served us was efficient and charming and compared to the restaurants that run along the main road through Pezenas (by the main carparks) this is definitely a step in the right direction.
We’re yet to try Le Ripaille, but I sense these two might be inter-changeable, so it’s about what on the menu resonates, availability what you’re looking for…. both score 4.1/4.2 on TripAdvisor but because of the location most of these reviews will be from tourists.