Le Silex - Tautavel

Firstly, at €19.90 for a 3-course lunch (without wine) in France this is excellent value. Wines have a standard €6 markup in what they say is the price from the producer, which is very reasonable. In Spain (where wine is included) I would have been less happy with the value.The ambience is a bit scruffy - nothing stylish nor alternatively quaint - boxes everywhere; untidy. We stood around for an age waiting to be seated while a single couple was being served. So we sat ourselves down and were promptly redirected to another table. Menu arrived promptly and then another long wait before the food and wine orders were taken. Another long wait (still only 1 other couple) for the wine to arrive. From then on everything went smoothly. For the price the dishes were inventive / non-standard (as opposed to many in rural Catalunya), and all were well cooked and presented.If you focus only on food quality and nothing on service and ambience, Silex is top notch.

For late October Tautavel offered an uncharacteristic variety of open restaurants for lunch. The English speaking proprietor/chef explained the plat du jour which turned out to be a fantastic lunch with imaginative egg/foix-gras starter, main of beautifully cooked steak in tomato sauce with potato/veg timbales and pistachios panne cotta for desert. Our girls steak hachets were fine if suffering from the normal French lack of vegetables. Overall a lovely lunch, bit more than a standard plat du jour but worth it.

We stayed in Tautavel for a week and ended up having dinner at the restaurant 3 nights. The food is really good - one of the best restaurants we ate at during our 3 weeks in France (a 3 course menu is around 25 Euro). The food is rather simple catalan food with good and organic ingredients. However we did experience that one or more courses was sold out even when we arrived when the restaurant opened for dinner.The wine concept is amazing!!! Every bottle is priced based on the cost at the wine estate and then added 6 Euro, which means that you at a restaurant can enjoy a really good bottle of wine at a very reasonable price. The selection is very extensive (the waiter can help you if too many choices) and there are very good local wines - it's a good way to test if you want to go to an estate later. Many of the wines are biodynamic/natural (the latter we do not have great experiences with but was very surprised of the high quality of also these wines). Although they do have wine per glass, just order a bottle, cause as in the rest of France you can expect a bit of a wait on your food :)The waiters and the owner are very welcoming and we always received a good service. In addition to the owner, another chef is English speaking, and was also very helpful with suggestions for food and wine - she is a big plus for the restaurant!It seems like everything is thought out in this restaurant. Although rather simple, the atmosphere is very warm and tasteful - e.g. the great wine glasses.All in all definitely worth at least one visit if you are in or around Tautavel!

Very friendly service in this outdoor restaurant with a nice menu full of fresh and quality products. The waitress is super nice and helpful. The chef not only cooks very well but also knows his wines! Check out the super rich selection of locally produced wines and he can recommend very good bottles. They are also very cheap as they function as a wine store! Very good experience and quality food unexpected in this small village

I have been there several times and always had good food In addition which is quite unusual in France they accommodated individual /specific diets e.g I went with my granddaughter who had nut allergy and he took us round his kitchen to show us the ingredients he uses so we felt confident to dine there I also took my elderly parents and he was ultra patient with them and they had a really good night with great food.Its a great little find

The place looked inviting and most pleasant and the menu de jour sounded good. There was only one choice of main course, which was meat. I enquired about how the meat was cooked and explained my husband's need for soft meat as he has problems with his teeth. The owner/chef stressed it would be "very tender". However, when it came it was too tough for him to chew. We then called the chef and explained again, whereupon he took a piece of the meat from my husband's platter with his fingers, chewed it and pronounced "this meat is good"! I did not deny the meat tasted good, butrepeated that it was too tough for him to chew. He then agreed to make him a hamburger instead and we thanked him. However, when paying the bill I was astonished to find that he had charged for the hamburger in addition to the meat that my husband could not and did not eat. I queried this since I have never encountered a restaurant where they charge for replacing a dish that a customer is dissatisfied with.Eventually, he agreed to take the extra dish off the bill, saying "but you never come here again"! The owner/chef's unpleasant behaviour ruined what could have been a lovely meal.

We dined here a few days ago and were delighted with the excellent food. The chef took time to check that things were as we wanted them and also to explain how he achieved some of the flavours which he achieved.A really good restaurant with a tremendous choice of reasonably priced wines.

Overnight stay in Tautavel and after spending delightful morning in museum there and hiking up to ruined chateau , finished off our visit in this charming restaurant ,lunching in style on their pretty terrace and congratulating ourselves on the find .food was delicious , fresh , original and using local produce were possible .