Pau Restaurants

I am not against drug addiction, but of course do not make publicity for! I like the name of this small restaurant, located off the beaten paths, and at short walking distance from the Chateau. The name reminds Orient, and yes, it is a Far east restaurant, offering mainly Thai dishes, but there is also local food. So, Orient, unexpensive (buffet for 9 Euros), very quiet, nice multicultural staff. For me a break from local food, and when alone in Pau, I like to find little places for lunch or dinner, like this one; the typical bearnese building, with cobblestones, mansards, renovated, is also something which attracted me to that place and my bike in front was safe in that quiet area during my lunch.

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No gastronomy, but a wonderful view on the Pyrenees; l’Aragon is located on the Boulevard des Pyrénées, and having lunch outside, with that view should be a “thing to do” when in Pau. There are several restaurants on the Boulevard des Pyrénées, but this one is the less “tourist trapping” restaurant. I do not really remember the food (probably ordinary western, I am sure there are pizzas and same sort of fast food dishes. The waiters are kind, competent. . . . and wear a Parisian style red waiter cardigan. . . ; if you do not like to spend too much money on food, it is a good place where kids are welcome (they are usually not in the upscale restaurants I like).

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La Table d'Hôte is located in the “rue du Hédas “, in the old quarter of Pau; you can reach the area either walking down one of the stairways coming from the main streets ( rue des Cordeliers, rue René Fournets. . . ) or from the western end, close to the Chateau; and going there, you will see some little monumentslike the fountain on picture 2.
Setting is nice for summer days, but in early or late season, the sun is oblique, and there is no sun on the terrace and it can be cold in the deep street.
But the important is food here: I remember I had wonderful fish (Atlantic and St Jean de Luz are only one and a half hours drive away), in Spanish style, Gascony black pork stuffed with prunes, but the top is of course the “Poule au pot”; the hen in the pot.
The “Poule au pot”, is a traditional dish where the hen is cooked with lots of different vegetables (and spices) in water, simmering for a few hours. . . . It is a tradition in Pau, as Sully, a minister of king Henri IV wanted every subject of the kingdom be rich enough to put a hen in the pot at least every Sunday.
So: poule au pot is the must here, and as the chief waitress and all the staff are very warm welcoming, offering a glass of wine, it is very recommendable. Deserts are sophisticated (strawberry soup!) and excellent.
Good wine list.
Closed Sunday and Monday

Favorite Dish: Pictures, no dishes. . .
mainpicture: seen from Rue des Cordeliers, preparing the tables.
picture 2: Fountain at the west end of rue du Hédas
picture 3: The restaurant from the street.
picture 4: Rue du Hédas

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Very well located in the city centre, on Place Royale Le Champagne enjoys a terrace under the shade of linden trees, where people working in the surrounding offices or shops have their lunch; so, for lunch, not very sophisticated cuisine, but fresh and excellent; local style food mainly. For dinner (and in summer, on the terrace too!), a bit more upscale food, (with of course, the unavoidable fat goose or duck liver, just quickly fried with apple slices), the famous bearnese soup (the garbure), and other local favourites.
Lunch or dinner on Place Royale is very enjoyable, not far from the sights to the mountains, close to the city hall, a quiet place, as the main part of Place Royale is planted with trees and there are no vehicles; there are other restaurants close by. Visiting the city, it makes a very good break during the visit!

Favorite Dish: Pictures. . .
mainpicture: Le Champage terrace ”Unter den Linden”
picture 2:another view of terraces
picture 3: Quiet place royale
picture 4: Shady place royale

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Labarthe is one of the places where I like to take my visitors to Pau for a dinner, I am sure they will not be disappointed! Labarthe is located in the small village of Bosdarros, about 10 km south of Pau, on top of a hill in the Pyrenees foothills.
Chef E. Dequin had an international career, before coming back to his home village, where he blends his foreign experience and the local tradition of cooking and presenting the dishes. There are regular menus with a great choice of dishes mainly based on local products (farm poultry, local beef, vegetables from the villages around), but may I recommend the “menu découverte” (discovery menu)? This is a sort of an introduction to “modern” Bearnese cuisine, where you get an assortment of 8-10 different dishes (portions are small, don’t be scared!), from entrée to desert, where you will discover –among other--smoked duck fillet with cooked mango slices, Jerusalem artichokes with pork fillet, tomato and basil sorbet. . . . . feast for the palate. . . . .
The restaurant room is a little bit small and dark, but you come here for dinner; in summer, as the sun sets late, before going for dinner it is very enjoyable to have a short walk in the village, look at the old church, the surrounding hills and the majestic mountains in the background; it opens appetite.
Wine list is of course fitting to the meals; if you are in a mood for an aperitif drink, a local Jurançon will wonderfully introduce you to the following wonderful (I do not have other words!) meal.
Closed Sunday evening, Monday, Tuesday

Favorite Dish: Pictures, no dishes. . . .
mainpicture: Spring in the foothills of the Pyrenees; here near Bosdarros
picture 2: Main street of Bosdarros, with Auberge Labarthe
picture 3:Sign of the “Auberge Labarthe”
picture 4: Picture from the website

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If you do not find a place to have lunch or dinner in Pau, either it is 1st of May, or you think you are in Pau but you are elsewhere. . . . !In Pau town itself without suburbs, there are more than 170 restaurants. Then, of course, there is restaurant and restaurant. I do not tell about the fast food things (yes , a pity, even here there are) neither will I tell about cafeterias, bars where you can get sandwiches, etc. . .
For the tourists who do not want to spend too much time and money for food (but at least good food), the best area is in the Chateau area, where you can find local and lots of small “exotic” (Indian, Thai, Italian,) restaurants. With fine weather, the tables are outside and this is mainly a pedestrian area.
The other area which I can recommend is the rue du Hédas area (about 8-10 restaurants in this area), a street which is on a former creek, with bridges above it; you cannot miss when walking in Pau ( it is down of the steep streets east of the chateau); here the restaurants are a bit more upscale and quite nice for dinner rather than for lunch. There is a tip about one of them.
The restaurants I write tips about are for food and wine lovers (and these are restaurants were I was at least twice), and some of them are very simple popular places, and others are very high range restaurants (up to two stars in Michelin, if some of the readers know this ranking), but still affordable and some of them are in the countryside near Pau.
It is not a gastronomic guide, I write about the places I like and I can recommend!

Favorite Dish: mainpicture: opposite the entrance of the Chateau: there are a few restaurants with correct food.
picture 2:Rue des Etats, near the chateau, a few terraces on a sunny day; simple food.
picture 3: Boulevard des Pyrénées, of course, with outlook on the mountains and good food.

For somewhere cheap and friendly, in a good location, Cafe Spacy was a pleasant place to have lunch. It is on Rue Henry IV within two minutes of Pau Castle. As an added attraction it was playing some upbeat (but non obtrusive) dance music. For me, Cafe Spacy's main selling point is its cheap lunchtime formule ~ main dish/pudding/drink for only 8 euros.

The choice of food was very limited and the dishes were tasty, but not large. I had a croque monsieur (french cheese/ham on toast) with juicy carrot and cous-cous, followed by a slice of (microwaved) apple tart. There was a wide choice of drink, from wine and beer to fruit juices.

The staff were very helpful. I asked about some shopping information on Pau and, after ten minutes, found the waitress had been on the internet and reading the local paper to try and answer my question!

Address: Rue Henry IV, not far from Castle. There is a wide choice of reasonably priced restaurants in this area, including a competitively priced creperie directly facing the Castle.

This restaurant serves very very nice typical southwestern food.

Duck in any state you can think of, beef filet in sauce, etc you name it. It doe snot look like a 3 star restaurant but the quality of the food is to die for.

Favorite Dish: anything that has duck in it, but specially the "foie gras".