FORUM

I like to finish a meal with something sweet, but don't always want a full dessert but I am very partial to a cafe gourmand.
Can anyone recommend their favourite place for this perfect end to a meal, please?

Thats disappointing, clearly nobody else shares my sweet tooth . I will have to do my own very pleasurable research

I can assure you that you are not alone in having a sweet tooth!

Why no responses? Because, although there are many of thousands of anglophones living in the PO, only a very few are willing to share information publicly. In any event many of us rarely dine out. Either it's just not our thing or we're getting by on a tight budget. Maybe both!

Sorry if this sounds a bit negative but that's how I see things.

Gus

Gus Morris wrote: ↑Thu 06 Dec 2018 12:09 I can assure you that you are not alone in having a sweet tooth!

Why no responses? Because, although there are many of thousands of anglophones living in the PO, only a very few are willing to share information publicly. In any event many of us rarely dine out. Either it's just not our thing or we're getting by on a tight budget. Maybe both!

Sorry if this sounds a bit negative but that's how I see things.

Gus

I agree with Gus that many of us are shy to the point of being invisible. But I’m not: I will pipe up to almost any topic, to the extent of feeling guilty, as here, when I have nothing to say. I have had OK cafés gourmands, and (perhaps more often) tedious and stodgy ones, but none where I could imagine thinking “gosh, I must have that again”.

The starting point, I think, is that almost any dessert, nowadays, comes off the back of a lorry, unless the place is quite tarty or unusually scrupulous. So the opportunities to shine are very limited. The choice is usually between three or four small bits of industrial pudding or one bigger bit.

All is not entirely lost. When I want to treat myself, and guests, and still get there and back on foot, I go to “La Balette” in Collioure, and have their lunchtime menu. It’s a one-star Michelin place, so I guess they cook it themselves: you certainly get all the Michelin flummery, and a lovely view (better when you can eat outside obviously). You get three pleasant (seasonal) courses, including a decent pudding. And if you lash out for a coffee to finish, you get some petits fours which could substitute for the other components of a café gourmand.

The good news is that it only costs €35, Monday to Friday, including a decent glass of wine. The bad news is that it used to cost €29, Monday to Saturday, until quite recently.

The other menus are rather more expensive and on my one recent experience (not at my own expense) a long-winded and pretentious pain in the neck.

Like Martyn i’m not shy but I don’t normally eat desserts, particularly since it is rare to find a decent one. Sometimes my wife and I share a café gourmande as she doesn’t drink coffee.

The only decent one that I can think of is at La Llonja in Port Argeles which is pretty decent for most things.

Just rolling away from a delicious lunch at the Bateau Ivre in Saint Cyprien . Lots of choice with salads, loads of interesting sounding wok dishes, great burgers, (which we had), an interrupted view over a sunny port ....and a rather delish Cafe Gourmand for which I shall upload the photo when I get home if I remember!

[quote=Kate post_id=124995 time=1544368977
an interrupted view over a sunny port ....and a rather delish Cafe Gourmand for which I shall upload the photo when I get home if I remember!
[/quote]

Interrupted by who? I suppose it was the gilets jaunes again. But it’s certainly a lovely day, interrupted or not.

thanks Kate, will give the restaurant a try next time we are in that neck of the woods.