Boniface La 7ième Vague

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Allan
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Boniface La 7ième Vague

Post by Allan »

A few years ago Boniface-Coquillages, a major local wholesaler and retailer of seafood, opened a restaurant and called it La 7ème Vague (the 7th wave). Somehow the name never really stuck and it seems to be widely referred to as Chez Boniface.

Whatever it is called, it is a smart modern restaurant in the Technosud development area, not far from Perpignan University, with ample on-site parking.

The restaurant has a mix of high and low tables so if you are vertically challenged or just don't like sitting on a high chair then make sure you specify a low table when booking

Bucking the trend of most french restaurants, it offers an extensive menu, obviously aided by the fact that they are retailing and wholesaling the same range of seafood from their adjoining property.

As you would expect, the menu is virtually all seafood although they do offer Iberian ham and fois gras as entrées and sirloin steak as a main course along with a vegetarian dish. In addition to the extensive menu, they have a list of 'catch of the day' which on our visit contained various types of sea bream, sea bass, turbot and sole. These are cooked to your liking and sold by weight.

I ordered Crabe gratiné à l'antillaise which was crab meat cooked in a shell with coconut milk and sweet curry. My wife opted for the fois gras.

For main course I ordered Mediterranean sole and my wife went for the lobster. I queried the absence of fish knives but was told that we wouldn't need them as they always prepare the fish before it is served.

My sole arrived looking splendid on a metal platter and the waitress made an excellent job of filleting it, though I have to say that I quite enjoy eating a fish on the bone and practicing my pseudo surgical skills - but not without a fish knife.

My wife's lobster was immaculately presented and I thought good value for money.Both dishes were served with home-made chips.

They have an extensive wine list, none of which were particularly expensive and all seemed to come from this region.

We just had ice cream for dessert but there was a wide choice of that , along with a decent list of desserts and cheese.

All in all, an enjoyable evening, it is fair to see that if you don't fancy seafood, then this is probably not for you. If you do however, it offers far and away the best selection in the area.

Another trend that they are bucking is that they have a proper website showing a full menu and not one of those ghastly jumbled up Facebook pages that so many restaurants seem to be using.

http://www.boniface-coquillages.com/res ... vague.html
martyn94
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Post by martyn94 »

Thanks. I only see them from driving past, but there seems to be a “thingâ€￾ in Perpignan for restaurants in what are essentially industrial estates. The pricey fish shop in Port-Vendres, Cote Catalane, has something which seems similar.

I used to eat sole at a long-defunct restaurant called Sumners in Llandudno. My father liked it from his youth, and for the motherly waitresses (“hello captain 94, you don’t look a day olderâ€￾, which was a palpable lie). The soles hung over the sides of the plate, and you had to do your own surgery. And it was accurately cooked.
Anthea & Tim
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Post by Anthea & Tim »

While we have never eaten at La 7ème Vague I would observe that the fresh fish and fish products on sale are of a very high quality - the smoked sardines are amazing.

Next door to La 7ème Vague there is also Thierry Astruc's restaurant http://www.astruc-traiteur.com/ - well worth a visit.

On the related post (from Martyn) on the Les poissonneries de la Côte Catalane (aka La Criée), while the "new" one is very good, in our opinion, it does not have the atmosphere of the predecessor establishment just around the corner.
martyn94
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Post by martyn94 »

[quote="Anthea & Tim"

On the related post (from Martyn) on the Les poissonneries de la Côte Catalane (aka La Criée), while the "new" one is very good, in our opinion, it does not have the atmosphere of the predecessor establishment just around the corner.[/quote]

It’s a bit dismal to come the oldest inhabitant, but when I first came here, in the early 80s, there really was a criée in the strict sense: ie an open-outcry wholesale fish auction, every evening, when buyers “cried outâ€￾ the prices they were prepared to pay. And then there were people with stalls outside selling retail what they had just bought wholesale.

I guess it has been a long time since PV landed enough fish to make that worth bothering with. I’ve read that it all goes back to Algerian independence in 1962, when a good chunk of the Algerian fishing fleet migrated here, adding more and bigger boats, and correspondingly greater pressure on the local fisheries. In any event, someone managed to wreck them.
martyn94
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Post by martyn94 »

Anthea & Tim wrote:
Next door to La 7ème Vague there is also Thierry Astruc's restaurant http://www.astruc-traiteur.com/ - well worth a visit.
Astruc used to have an outlet in Port-Vendres: it was just a boucherie-traiteur, not a restaurant. It seemed underwhelming and pricey to me (it had, and its successor has, no direct competition). But I guess the mother house is much grander.
Anthea & Tim
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Post by Anthea & Tim »

Astruc used to have an outlet in Port-Vendres:
There is also an Astruc traiteur in Collioure. Can't comment on prices, it always seems to be closed when we are passing.
martyn94
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Post by martyn94 »

Anthea & Tim wrote:
Astruc used to have an outlet in Port-Vendres:
There is also an Astruc traiteur in Collioure. Can't comment on prices, it always seems to be closed when we are passing.


You expect to find anywhere open in Collioure at this time of year?
martyn94
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Post by martyn94 »

From memory, the Astruc in PV didn’t open in the afternoon until 1630, so maybe you just need a longer siesta.
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