Le Victoria
21 Placa du 8 Mai
Castres 81100
05 63 591468
De Luxe Restaurant French classical, 50
Le Victoria is rated as the top restaurant in Castres and I think that is a fair call.
It is located in an old square behind the rather dull cathedral but this little basement restaurant is anything but dull. The steps down from the ground floor reception-area-cum-bar are not for the feint hearted. I dread to think what happens to anybody silly enough to become incapacitated: not a good place to need carrying out of!

The top gastronomic menu is a real demonstration of the class and style of this operation. From the amuse bouche, unusually listed as part of the menu but almost a course in itself, to the vast pudding plate, every dish is interesting and different.

I had suggested to Lord Toad that the menu would not be a challenge after our lunchtime indulgence because menus tend to serve smaller portion: I could not have been more wrong. After the amuse bouche we had three kinds of foie grass: two classic preparations and a small piece of suitably pink plain goose liver. The half lobster was not small, the palate cleaner was an excellent apple ice cream in calvados and the so-called main course was a beautifully tender and cooked piece of beef with a rich ceps sauce. Then came that desert: eight supposedly sampler sizes of different deserts; I have been in restaurants where those sampler sizes were the size of a fully priced desert!

The only disappointment was the wine, mainly because we chose a local wine, a Fitou, that was really not good and nothing like the Fitous I am used to which are robust and strong: this one was best described as anaemic and camp!

Le Victoria
21 Placa du 8 Mai
Castres 81100
05 63 591468
De Luxe Restaurant French classical, 50
Le Victoria is rated as the top restaurant in Castres and I think that is a fair call.
It is located in an old square behind the rather dull cathedral but this little basement restaurant is anything but dull. The steps down from the ground floor reception-area-cum-bar are not for the feint hearted. I dread to think what happens to anybody silly enough to become incapacitated: not a good place to need carrying out of!

The top gastronomic menu is a real demonstration of the class and style of this operation. From the amuse bouche, unusually listed as part of the menu but almost a course in itself, to the vast pudding plate, every dish is interesting and different.

I had suggested to Lord Toad that the menu would not be a challenge after our lunchtime indulgence because menus tend to serve smaller portion: I could not have been more wrong. After the amuse bouche we had three kinds of foie grass: two classic preparations and a small piece of suitably pink plain goose liver. The half lobster was not small, the palate cleaner was an excellent apple ice cream in calvados and the so-called main course was a beautifully tender and cooked piece of beef with a rich ceps sauce. Then came that desert: eight supposedly sampler sizes of different deserts; I have been in restaurants where those sampler sizes were the size of a fully priced desert!

The only disappointment was the wine, mainly because we chose a local wine, a Fitou, that was really not good and nothing like the Fitous I am used to which are robust and strong: this one was best described as anaemic and camp!