Auberge de Combes: a real taste of the Languedoc

Over the past few years we’ve become so disillusioned with restaurants in the Languedoc that we almost invariably end up eating at home.

That included the Auberge de Combes - a small family-run inn up in the mountains above Lamalou-les-bains with fabulous views over the surrounding countryside. When we discovered it 4 or 5 years ago we loved the food but were shocked when we checked the menu one day to find that the new generation had taken over and that it seemed to be in the grip of molecular gastronomy.

Happily Bonano fils has decided to move on and although there are still copies of Ferran Adria’s cookbooks in the dining room they’re not influencing the food which is firmly back in the hands of papa. In fact they’ve moved boldly in quite a different direction introducing a natural wine bar and largely natural wine list which may make some customers as apoplectic as I am about smears, drizzles and foams

Cleverly they’re keeping their options open. There is still a bit of fancy presentation and exotic flavours such as the cod with coconut milk, ginger and lemongrass on my fixed price La Balade du Chef menu but you can also order good old-fashioned dishes such as a fall-apart tender daube of Charolais beef and hearty plate of country ham with cep butter, two generous specials from the blackboard which could easily have fed the two of us even if we hadn’t ordered anything else.

My 32€ (£22.90) four course menu included a Spanish-style ‘amuse’ of 3 different tapas, two generous slices of homemade terrine, a main which included 4 quail breasts (below), a whole goats cheese, a miniaturized gateau St Honoré (a choux puff filled with crème patisserie and drizzled with caramel) and some petits fours. We badly needed our post-lunch walk to recover.

My husband being a natural wine nut we drank a couple of glasses of a local ‘pet nat’ (petillant naturel from Domaine Rimbert) and two more from one of the more hard core offerings from the list - a deliciously funky red called Les Temps de Cerises from a local producer called Axel Prufer which they solicitously offered to decant for us then rebottled so we could could take the remainder home. But they do have less scary wines if that puts you off. A few more wines by the glass would be welcome given the restaurant’s location.

The only other quibble I have with the place is that the service is a bit slow and distracted. Despite the fact that there were only 10 other people there it took us almost half an hour to get a glass of wine and about 40 minutes for our first course to arrive. I imagine it could be worse at weekends and in the summer when there are also outside tables though maybe they take on extra staff at those times.

That aside it’s perfect - a restaurant that really reflects the Languedoc and there are far too few of those these days.

The Auberge de Combes is at 24240 Combes by the D180 from Poujols. Tel: 04 67 95 66 55. Our bill came to €126 (£90.22) but you could easily spend less. There’s a 25€ lunch menu that includes a glass of wine. (It has a Michelin Bib Gourmand.)

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