Aux Trois Cochons

The bouchon is an institution in Lyon, "atmospheric" restaurants serving traditional Lyonnais food. The décor generally follows the same formula - red and white tablecloths, dark walls, mirror behind the bar - as does the food. Lyon is famous for "snout-to-tail" eating, with delicacies such as tripe, pig's ears, chicken livers and veal feet. For squeamish diners there are quenelles, light and fluffy fish dumplings, and saucisson. Having read that the rue des Marroniers was the best place to find bouchons, we headed down there with empty stomachs ready to sample the famous cuisine. Aux Trois Cochons had a good looking three-course menu for 18.50€, and was already fairly full of happy looking diners so we headed in. The décor was classic bouchon, but instead of traditional French music playing we had the pleasure of listening to a local radio station.
Stu opted for pig's ear salad, while I opted for saladier lyonnais, a selection of regional specialties such as pickled pig's cheek. Stu's plate was packed with frisee lettuce topped with thinly sliced pig's ears tossed in parsley and garlic. The pig's ears were chewy and gelatinous and were lacking the required crispiness but were somewhat saved by the taste of the garlic and parsley. My entrée, on the other hand, was an unmitigated disaster. The first problem was that everything was fridge cold, so had obviously been made up in advance and just taken out before serving. The olive oil potatoes were undercooked, old-tasting, and lacking the aforementioned olive oil. The white beans were also undercooked to the point of being inedible. The pig's cheek and herrings were tasty but only because they had not required any intervention from the chef. Holding out hope that the next course would be better, we waited for our mains - chicken liver vol-au-vent with quenelles for both of us. The chicken livers had been made into a mousse in the form of a small "cake" with a pastry cap, surrounded by a tomato sauce with slices of quenelle in it. Unfortunately our hopes were dashed upon the first mouthful. The chicken liver cake tasted bland, bordering on unpleasant, but at least the texture was terrible! It was grey and grainy without proper seasoning. As for the tomato sauce, I would not be surprised if they had used Dolmio pasta sauce, and it did nothing to improve the dish. The only thing that I can say about the quenelles is that they were truly Michelin-grade (and I don't mean stars).
Having already paid for dessert, we decided to give the restaurant one last chance to redeem itself. Stu decided on a tarte aux pralines and I took a crème caramel. Praline usually designates a hard caramel with nuts in it but in the Lyon region it is instead a red coloured candied nut mixture. In a praline tart, the praline is melted and baked on a short pastry shell. The Aux Trois Cochons's version was basically sickly red goo on tough pastry, with only two nuts on the top. A dollop of cream could have perhaps negated the sweetness, but there was none to be found. Now, a crème caramel is a classic French dessert, an upside-down caramel-coated baked custard. It's a relatively easy dessert to make at home, and when down well is a delicious combination of creamy custard and sweet caramel. My crème caramel was presented as two cut-out pieces of custard with a caramel from a bottle squirted over the top. The custard was rubbery and fridge-cold and the caramel was too sticky. Nestle sells ready-made crème caramels at the supermarket for a fraction of the price which are much better examples than this one. With our plates once again returning to the kitchen unfinished the wait staff didn't even bother to ask us whether we'd enjoyed the meal or not. The finishing touch came on paying the bill when they tried to charge us for a coffee that we hadn't ordered. Like the chicken livers, the evening left a bad taste in our mouths. So much for Lyon's foodie reputation!