Local Restaurants

The Gatine region of the Deux Sevres boasts several restaurants that are worth visiting. One of the delights of rural France is that you will find restaurants serving food that would garner rave reviews in England but for a fraction of the price you would pay there. This guide from accueil Vendée lists several good restaurants within easy reach of la Ménantelière.

The following are establishments we are more than happy to recommend.

La Petit Noisette at Vernoux en Gatine offers excellent cuisine at very reasonable prices, it is just a 10 minute drive from la Menantelierre.


Le Lion D’Or, St Hilaire de Voust – less than 5 Km from la Menantelliere this restaurant has recently been refurbished. The property is owned by the commune who rent it out to a young couple who offer fabulous cooking at very reasonable prices – check this review for an idea of the standard and value on offer.

At Secondigny there is a lovely restaurant overlooking a lake, Les Terraces du lac offers good quality dining at a reasonable price.

Vouvant offers several places to dine but our favourite is the Auberge de Maitre Pannetier which has a lovely outdoor dining area where you can watch the world go by.

Les trois Cocottes at Mervent offers good value dining with an elevated view of the river/lake that surrounds the village on three sides.

Le Pinky restaurant, 3 rue du Minage, across the road from the market in Fontenay le Comte is well worth a visit, their set menus at lunchtime offer great variety at very reasonable prices. Whilst they don’t have a website yet they do have an email address fredobriand@orange.fr

This may sound like heresy but if you have ravenous teenagers the Gourmet d’Asie in Fontenay le Comte is a Chinese Buffet Restaurant that is very popular with locals and British visitors and ex-pats alike. It is on a retail park behind the Hyper-U on the route heading West out of F-leC towards la Rochelle. You pay a fixed price per head and can help yourself to as much as you want, apparently Saturday evenings are a bit frantic, good news is that unlike a lot of French restaurants it is open on a Sunday evening.

A map of all our local attractions can be found using our Google Map of the area.

Be sure to bookmark this page as we will be adding more and more restaurants in the coming months.