Discovering a New Restaurant in Cluny

Well it isn’t really a new discovery, we have seen this restaurant many times before, it is a pizza joint, just “the wrong side” of the market square, with a rather tatty terrace that projects into the road making driving up the main street a little tricky.

Now doesn’t that sound like a good recommendation of a restaurant? I think that explains why we had never been. For whatever reason (mainly because all our favourite restaurants were shut for their holidays) we decided to give it a go last weekend.

We arrived at La Calbrese at 12.00 and the place was empty – not a good sign I thought. The waiters were very friendly and we were shown to a nice table. The restaurant itself was very clean, modern and roomy; it had a really nice atmosphere about it.

Quick snap before the hoards of eaters turned up.

The menu looked interesting, a bit more than just pizzas and pasta, which is more than you can say for most French restaurants of this genre. We were so engrossed in the menu that we didn’t spot the other hungry lunchtime guests arriving and by the time we had made our choice, we looked up to find the restaurant was packed.

The lasagne I ordered came with salad at a price way below the competition in town and Cees’ spaghetti bolognaise looked very good as well. Both of us were very impressed with the quality of what we received. The pasta was al-dente, the balance between the pasta and sauce was just right, the parmesan was freshly grated, the wine was very good - in fact I can’t fault anything about the place.

Doesn't look worth the effort, but it is.

I am so glad we finally tried it, but I do have some reservations about recommending it to others, if too many more people start going there, we won’t be able to get in! They were turning people away before half past 12 which shows just how wrong our earlier impressions had been.

Summary - this is an absolute bijou of a restaurant, we will certainly be going back and we will try their other main meals next time, to see if they live up to the high standard they have set.