Les Grandes Tables Du Channel - Calais

Saturday lunchtime, grim as only the Pas de Calais can be when the wind howls cold and wet from Le Manche . The restaurant is joined with a bistro in a large dilapidated warehouse which is accessed via acourtyard. You see the building clearly as you...head into Calais Centre from the motorway, on the Rue Verdun a large polygonal tower on the right hand side. Austere surroundings, but clean and welcoming. Amuse bouche of beautiful salami, followed by a soup of chestnuts and foie gras; next came whelks with a persillade; monkfish with romanesco,, mashed and raw grated with wasabi. Duck confit with a celeriac dauphinoise, and as a pudding, icecream with pistachios. Coffee and calvadosfinished the meal, which with a few generous pichets of crisp white plonk came to about 90€ for two. Flavours are immediate and clean; cooking is executed with both precision and panache the kitchen is open, and you can watch the chef preparing your next course, which can be an education in itself. We both thoroughly enjoyed dining here, and look forward to our next visit. I find French food is often formulaic and disappointing, food passed off to be better than it is. If you have had the same experience, I warmly recommend a visit to this inspiring and generous hostelry

We happened upon this restaurant by chance looking for an out of town pleasant atmosphere and we certainly dropped lucky!!! Its a little out of town but worth the search. Our french is very basic but we got along well with staff who didnt speak...english well but tried their best. Fortunately our understanding of culinary terms is a little more than basic. The food was fantastic with a chef who obvioulsy knows his 'stuff ' and thinking out of the box with fantastic flavours black radish and shrimp starter was excellent followed by mains of duck with celeriac with flavours that pounced upon the palate divine!! Only one of us had dessert ice cream with pistachio nuts I 'm told was delicious. A typical business type luncheon venue with a difference. Chef came to talk to us after the meal if you go there and mention 'Gavroche ' you can claim a free coffee or tea after the meal, we discussed this restaurant so I asked him if he would do this and he said Yes!! Menu courses go from 2 courses 18 euros to 32 for the full monty. Please try this great food for yourselves and if you dont like any of it I 'll buy you a drink when we meet? Graeme

We drove so often past this converted slaughterhouse and wanted to visit – this time en route home to the eurotunnel we stops – and I am so glad that we did. we had just had a bad experience in chateau tilque, where. eating was horrific – so that we visit the bistro to lunch and enjoy a beautifully cooked onglet and fries, with a very acceptable carafe composed by red – was an unexpected joy, and to just a quarter of the price. I would not hesitate to go back – and make my first call, not the last one. my only criticism, why didn't we know about it?

When they eat somewhere in the pas de calais, they eat here. this is a star restaurant at a price considerably less than they would expect. a new menu every month is always mouth water. the service excellent. do not hesitate.

A kind of hidden gem, because it is in the le channel cultural center and they need to know that it exists to find it. but it is about a 5 minute drive from eurotunnel on the way to calais and worth finding. there is a bistro and a restaurant. I always eat in the restaurant because it is very good. it is usually quiet too midday and the staff are friendly and helpful.