LA BARBACANE

We had our anniversary dinner here and absolutely loved it! I would definitely recommend booking in advance, we were very lucky to get a cancellation seat. We had the seasonal tasting memory and thoroughly enjoyed it. The food and the service was fantastic! The staff were so friendly and attentive - couldn’t fault anything. It was a windy/rainy night when we were there so we definitely want to return on a sunny evening to enjoy the outdoor seating.

A lovely place richly decorated. Setting was beautiful. Service impeccable. Sommelier very helpful! Servers prompt and doting but not intrusive. The cheese trolley was amazing! The whole experience 5 stars. But… food does not wow you. They had everything else except great food. It was good but did not keep up with the standard of everything else Good to visit to experience a 5star service and setting but don’t expect the same from the food

From the time you sit down into this magnificent courtyard, everything is magical. Gauthier was incredible to council for the wines and Paul was looking after us all evening with clockwise precision !!! It got a bit fresh at the end of the meal and they moved us to comfortable leather armchairs inside for dessert. Nothing was too much for service. Food was crescendo, surprising tastes to start and tease your taste buds to the climax of desserts. Thank you !!

Live music Funky Divas played while the sun set over the castle: great view great atmosphere and food. During the summer great concerts and live music in a beautiful romantic garden. Hard to beat. The staff at the hotel is friendly and the food is lovely. Very nice cocktails and aperitifs before a night out or adter a long day. A new night spot in Carcassonne.

This beautiful restaurant is a wonderful experience in food, fine dining and excellent people. During our lunch, we enjoyed local cuisine prepared to perfection. Merci beaucoup!

A special place. Fine dining in a castle, doesn’t get much better than that! The setting and atmosphere was a lot better than the food. They weren’t trying too hard to maintain their Michelin rating. However, overall it’s just something special. Of course you’d get better one star food elsewhere but would it have the setting? No.

We have been traveling in France for one month and a half, and this has been one of the greatest culinary experiences. All the dishes were delightful, but the duck breast was totally amazing. The service was also great and we had a lovely night.

Memorable meal in Carcassonne, late September 2019. The maîtres d'hôtel could not find our reservation, but they were polite and found a nice table for us. The room is marvelous. We splurged on the expensive tasting menu, which provided one surprising item after another. All were beautiful, innovative and delicious. We also ordered the wine pairings, and the discussions with the young sommelier were a delight. Wonderful wines. And the service could not have been more attentive, graceful, and warm. Everything was elegant without being stiff or pompous. In a word--perfect. Deserving of its Michelin Star status. I adored the meal but the amount of food and wine was staggering. A dazzling procession of complex, clever, decorative, refined dishes — so much food! A plate of fish with accompaniments, a plate of beef with accompaniments, pork with accompaniments, and THREE desserts, AND a new wine with each item. Fabulous, but not something to do often! Next time I’ll choose something simpler at this lovely restaurant. Mais je ne regrette rien. To top it all off — the walk to the restaurant from our abode on Rue Longue was especially beautiful. Sunny as we walked up to the medieval city, and then magically moonlit as we walked home several hours later. I recommend!

We visited for lunch and were thoroughly impressed with everything. The service, food, setting and sommelier were all fantastic. It was a beautiful day so we were able to sit outside which was wonderful.

A Michelin starred restaurant, the food was well planned and exquisite. We tried the Signature Menu at 104€ per person and it was an experience to remember. It is listed as a 6 course meal, but there were several extra smaller courses included. I walked away so full! The service was attentive. The ambience was casual as most if not all of the diners were travelers, so were not dressed super fancy. However, this did not take away the fine dining aspect of the meal.

This was a great location for a leisurely lunch in the sun. Sat outside in the dappled shade of the trees. Of course a beautiful location with great ambience. Food was really nice, both to the eyes and for the tastebuds. I would say value for money. Only negative really was the young service team, who are a bit rough around the edges and although there were plenty of staff around, they could have benefited from some more experienced guidance. Definitely worth the visit and will be returning when I'm next visiting Carcassonne.

Unlike Hôtel de la Cité overall, this Michelin-starred restaurant was neither inspired nor inspiring. While the service was very professional while still welcoming, too often the food was just... confusing. From an amuse bouche featuring a pumpkin tartlet next to a fish broth en croute (Clash of Flavors!) to the chef's signature seasonal vegetables (Bland Mess!), I had no idea of Chef Jérôme Ryon's vision for the dishes, let alone the meal as a unified whole. Or, indeed, if he was anywhere within a hundred miles of the restaurant. We ate dinner on a weeknight during the shoulder season, and there were only a few other diners; I learned the restaurant is more popular for lunch, on weekends. Perhaps M. Ryon pays more attention during the high season? If so: a meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant should always be outstanding. The meal we had was disappointing. Two stars for the service and semi-reasonable prices.

Great place with very attentive service ! Extremely friendly and enjoyable ! Food is great, wine is great, especially the red! Perfect french lunch in the centre of medieval city!

We have recently caught the Michelin star bug, and found this gem on our summer trip to France. Extracted from my travel journal... We are greeted with a tiny beaker of vichyssoise, a tiny soup spoon with a dollop of blended peas with a delicious sprig of ham embedded in it, and a little cube of sheep's cheese with a tiny cherry. The soup was only so so, but the other elements were miniscule delights. Then an amuse-bouche of a cube of garlic-infused potato resting on truffle sauce arrived to also help get the party started. I think sommeliers are trained to praise any selection made by a guest, but right or wrong I was happy with my choice of a Mourvedre grown in the region. Dr. Pookie opted for the seasonal menu based on carrots and potatoes, while I ordered a la carte. My starter was some lightly fried vegetables with truffle slices and tiny croutons with truffle sauce. A wide variety of veggies in the dish: artichoke heart, asparagus, freakish baby beet, carrot, onion, mushrooms... I don't remember Dr. Pookie's, but you can bet it had carrots and potatoes in it. I didn't have a fish course, but she had Artic char with the tiniest carrot bits and tater tots you ever saw. For the main course, I had something that was sort of a fancy variation on the tournedos de Rossini I had in New Orleans, but they had gone further with fancying it up. It arrived as a perfect cylinder, like an impossibly perfect filet, but it was actually three layers. Meat cake! The bottom was a disk of filet. The middle layer was shredded meat in a rich dark Perigourdine sauce, and the top layer was a ring of filet, with a plug of foie gras filling the punched out middle. And yes... that's a churro on top. I really enjoyed it a lot. The foie gras had a more appealing texture, to me, than what I'd had in New Orleans, which was too runny/fatty. But the sauce is what really made the dish so good in the shredded meat that soaked in it. The solid parts of steak were perfectly good, but because they were thin, it was hard to appreciate them as steak, and I'm not sure whether it even mattered that I asked for it medium. Still I did enjoy it quite a lot. For dessert I had the strawberry tart, and it was really quite impressive. About ten different ingredients all put together into a little merry-go-round. Tart base with strawberry creme, and another cookie, and a layer of strawberry slices, and a punched out disk of white chocolate with little creme poofs topped with sort of a strawberry fruit jelly. Pretty fantastic. To aid in digestion, I had a chartreuse. Lovely herbal fragrance, it's almost as fun to inhale as drink. La Barbacane did a great job of wiping away the terrors of travel that had plagued us for most of the day. The setting of the Barbican is also fantastic, being on the terrace behind the Hotel de la Cite. The setting sun gave vibrant hues to the building and the neighboring castle. Like in Rennes, as the light faded, swallows came out to eat the early evening bugs. At first in singles and twos, soon there were little groups and temporary swarms of swallows swishing and swooshing through the air above, silhouetted darkly against the sunset sky, making their occasional war-cheeps. The staff was all elegant and helpful, with at least a half dozen people attending to us at various points in the meal.

Mid-dinner, I was wondering why this restaurant had no Michelin star and, as I checked, I found they got their first one a month before. Fully deserved. My wife and I shared a dish of vegetables as appetizer, cooked in olive oil and with truffles. I cannot remember better tasting vegetables. Next my wife's risotto was exceptionally light and flavorful. My beef included a mix of beef cheek and four gras and melted in my mouth. The suggested wines went exceptionally well, mine being a great Minervois from Château Camplong. Service was remarkably nice and thoughtful. Now here comes the truly exceptional part. We had three kids with us. Age 4-9. Their food from the kids menu was just as exceptional: their beef was more tender and flavorful than I have seen in most restaurants. Their appetizers were also first class. I would come back there in a heartbeat. Also, I am pretty sure I never have a 5 star review before.