Last Sunday Graham and I took a drive out to find a restaurant that someone we’d met in Sainte-Foy-La-Grande’s super weekly market had recommended.  We had been charmed by the location, the service and impressed with the 2 appetisers we’d selected (we hadn’t planned on a full lunch when we set out).  So much so that when we were at this weeks’ Marché des Producteurs (oysters & steak frites) where we met up with our Auzzie guests Paul & Viv and a neighbour, Helen, we made a plan to go to La Table Rouge again this weekend for lunch.

And what a lunch it was.  Of the 5 of us we chose 2 appetisers (Graham & I were sharing): 3 Gambas in an Armagnac Cream sauce and one aubergine with warm goat’s cheese & grilled red peppers.  Viv was delighted with her veggie entree.  We all thoroughly enjoyed the shrimp, although I have to confess that I wasn’t entirely sure that I liked the mixture of Armagnac & shrimp (both were excellent individually, but for me they weren’t a show stopper when combined, but that’s why they make chocolate & vanilla).  Don’t get me wrong – I ate every last morsel, and the home sun-dried tomatoes that were served as a garnish were divine.

There was a similar run on the main courses.  4 of us ordered the scallops with sauteed foie gras in a Champagne sauce, while my meat-&-potatoes beloved, Graham, opted for Filet de boeuf.  Oh lord, when the plate arrived I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.  What a marvelous mixture: beautifully presented, excellently cooked and seasoned.  It was so good that I could have eaten it again.  Graham said that his was the best beef he had ever had in France.

We finished with a chocolate dessert for Helen, a panna cotta each for Viv & Paul while I, predictably, chose the cheese platter.  Graham elected to have only coffee, which he pronounced as so good that he took 2 more!

I would never have thought of combining scallops with foie gras.  It was sinfully good.  The sauce that accompanied it was essentially a beurre blanc flavoured with a Champagne reduction.  The richness of the foie gras contrasted wonderfully with the slightly dry velvetyness of the scallops and the smoothness of the sauce brought everything into a wonderful harmony.

The cheeses that formed my platter were well aged: there was a deliciously runny slightly blue brie-style cheese, another, firmer, blue cheese, an aged manchego and a slice of cantal, all served with an onion marmalade and some salted dried figs.

The service was friendly without being overly familiar (although I hope that we will return sufficiently often to be treated as family eventually), efficient without being in-your-face and, when lunch service was over, it was lovely to be able to meet Kate, the Patron & chef, and learn some of her life story.