"Just as we sat down to our table I got one of those phone calls you never want to get and as I reentered the restaurant area I wondered how on earth I would find an appetite on our last night. The menu allows 4-5...choices per course and I am starting to appreciate this type of establishment more and more. It inspires confidence that less should be more. I chose terrine de fois gras followed by peppered steak, which I fancied because I had spied the wood burning oven. Eating with a chef he pronounced the fois gras “ out if this world” and the owner proudly informed us it is made by her son. The pepper sauce was requested on the side just in case it was, as is often the case, very creamy. It didn’t appear to be, so I tried it, despite already warming to the flavour of my ribeye. It is sensational, each peppercorn al dente and bursting into the palate. Good wines were half the price of those in the main village or up the mountain and, with some wine spare, we tried the cheese-plate. Again, excellent. I asked Sebastian Snow, aforementioned chef friend, whether he thought any Italian Chef in London could, hand on heart, proclaim that they had never had a mural of Italian country scene in their restaurant. He failed the test, but his was only in the basement, unlike the one you will see at Martagon. The decor is homely, the food is what you are there for. This meal will live long in the memory. It restored my faith in all things French. A relationship that had been tested by a €32 very average cheeseburger( for my son I hasten to add) and a pair of prize French ski instructors, addicted to telling only the English where not to park in the village!!"
