France Voila travel and French tourism, canal cruisers, boating on the canal du Midi

Restaurant Review -By Carole - October 2002

Le Calamar
La Tamarissiere
Agde
tel. 04 67 94 05 06
NB Winter closing - from November to March

This is a wonderful restaurant, modern but warm with comfortable seating and lighting, and attractive modern artwork on the walls. The food is delicious (more details later) and the setting is lovely too. La T is a small 'suburb' of Agde, much prettier than the town itself, situated right on the bank of the Herault river as it joins the sea with a scenic light house and corny maritime views of sailing ships and fishing boats. There is a long sandy beach, with easy access parking. On the opposite bank is the larger and livelier resort of Grau d'Agde, an old-established French family resort with some wonderful private houses dating from the 1930's. From the terrace of the restaurant on a balmy August evening, sipping our glasses of chilled white sangria (a house speciality), and from inside the restaurant on an autumnal visit, the view is of lapping water, reflected lights and bobbing boats.

The menu is definitely 'raffine' which roughly translated here in the Languedoc means an artistic arrangement of salad leaves. In the case of Le Calamar the food is thoughtfully and generously presented . There is a fixed price 26 euro 3 course menu, the choice is small but covers meat and fish dishes, and there is also a small a la carte menu.My starters were smoked swordfish in the summer, and, last week, croustillant de chevre (a warm puff pastry parcel filled with melting goats' cheese) , both of these were presented on a plateful of mixed fresh salad leaves -very pretty and very tasty. Highly recommended by both Jack and Tony is the large bowl of large fresh juicy mussels, with lots of bread and a large napkin to mop up the sauce. In the summer I chose tuna as a main course, not really a favourite fish, but here it was prepared in a subtle cumin sauce and was excellent. One of our daughters had the magret de canard coated with honey, and she was puzzled by a flavour in the dish which she thought might be raspberry? strawberry ? - we worked out that it was the meat itself which unusually had been allowed to keep its own flavour. So for our autumn visit we all chose the duck and again it was delicious. The main dishes are served surrounded by a small selection of fresh vegetables. The puddings also scored highly with all of us. As a healthy (!) option I had a peach, roasted, flavoured with bergamot, served with ice cream, a wonderful collection of tastes. There is of course a wonderful chocolate concoction, creamy and crunchy. There is an excellent wine list with top local producers, including one of our favourite vigneron, Guillaume Darde from Octon. The owner was very helpful in the choice of wines and the service generally is attentive without being intrusive.

So, we are all looking forward to our next trip to La Tamarissiere, but maybe we will leave the buckets and spades at home and head straight for Le Calamar....