A highlight of our few days in Lille, France was dinner at Rouge Barre, which translates to mean Red Bar. Somehow Nik found this restaurant doing a random search and we’re glad to have stumbled upon it.
Rouge Barre Restaurant
Chef Steven Ramon
Steven Ramon, the chef and owner of Rouge Barre competed on Europe’s version of Top Chef in 2014, where he finished in 4th place. Following that appearance, he opened his own restaurant in Lille.
It’s a two level space with a nice long bar up front, seating in the front and back and then the kitchen at the far end. There were two waitresses and one sommelier. Chef even served a few of the courses during the meal.
Dinner at Rouge Barre
Your only option for dinner is a tasting menu of either five or seven courses. (56€/76€) We chose the seven courses and added the wine pairing as well. Getting straight to the point, the tasting menu was amazing.
If you include the amuse-bouche and the entrement (palate cleanser,) we had more than seven courses and everything was delicious. While both Nik and I can be picky about certain foods, we tried and liked everything.
The Amuse-bouche
The amuse-bouche came in two parts. One was presented on a wooden block. One of the bite-sized foods was a chunk of smoked salmon with chives on a skewer. The other was like a whipped cheese bite.
On a small dish we were served a garlic cream croquette that we were told to eat as a single bite. It was like a food explosion in my mouth, so good. Nik and I could have had several more of those garlic croquettes.
First Course – Haddock
Though the menu said Moule for the first course, they were out of it and we got Haddock instead. It was interesting. It looked somewhat pureed and topped with egg and a little cheese. Reminded me of a smoked whitefish spread. This was probably our least favorite of the menu.
Second Course – Seabass
The second course was Seabass that was low temperature cooked, chilled and served with a passion fruit quinoa. It was tasty.
Third Course – Crab
The third course, which would’ve been excluded in the five course menu was crab. The crab meat was shredded and layered like a lasagna between thin turnip slices. It was garnished with spinach slices and was sitting in bowl with parsnip and spinach sauces. Really quite good.
Fourth Course – Scallops (Saint-Jacques)
The fourth course was a scallop dish. There were two scallops topped with a sunflower nut mix, almost like a mustard, and served on spiraled butternut squash on a biscuit with a light fish sauce around it. The biscuit was crunchy with a hint of sweetness to it. This was one of our favorites of the menu.
Fifth Course – Veal
We finally got some meat in the fifth dish. Veal with what they call a forgotten vegetable: parsnip. The parsnip was served three different ways: pureed, as chips and roosted. Parsnips are an underrated vegetable. This was course was absolutely delicious.
Palate Cleanser/Entremet
Next came the entremen: lemon, cashew cookie and pineapple. Really good.
Sixth and Seventh Courses – Dessert
In the five course meal, you choose only one dessert. Since we got the seven course, we got both dessert options. The first was all apple. Apple ice cream on cooked apple. Some ginger in there and apple slices on top.
Dessert number two was the chocolate course. A scoop of hazelnut ice cream on the far left. In the middle was a little hazelnut spongecake topping the “Hershey kiss shape” chocolate which had wasabi cream on the inside. The light brown scoop on the plate was a hazelnut pudding, very light. The big ball on the back right was a cocoa chocolate with caramel and a little wasabi heat.
A bonus dessert came out to us too. Two lemon merengue bites and mini cakes with whipped gingerbread cream on top.
Overall, dinner was great! Each course had a wine presented and paired, a mix of white or red depending on the course. We liked them all. If you find yourself in Lille, put Rouge Barre on your list for a meal. You won’t regret it.
Related: Sightseeing Around Lille
Additional Eating and Drinking in Lille
We can’t forget about some of the other places we stopped at while in Lille. In no particular order, we hit a few beer bars and restaurants around town.
Bierbuik
Not far from our hotel or Grand Place was Bierbuik, a hip little brewpub. The highlight was their fries in a Maroilles cheese sauce. I was worried the cheese might be a strong funky style, like a blue cheese which I don’t like. Luckily it wasn’t like that all, but more of a cows milk that was soft and creamy. If it came with gravy, we’d just call it Poutine! We also got their pork sandwich, which was pulled meat and loaded with all sorts of toppings- lettuce, avocado cream, cheese. Both were pretty good.
La Capsule
Nor far from Bierbuik was La Capsule, a pretty great beer bar. Over 20 beers on draft and meats and cheeses available for snacking.
Beer Square Lille
A friend of ours told us about Beer Square and I’m glad we stopped in. Friendly staff who joked with us about why we came to visit Lille. It was also a short walk outside of the main square so it was nice to see a different part of the city.
In addition to roughly 20 beers on draft, they have a full kitchen. We ordered two waffles and they were perfect in portion size and taste. Definitely put Beer Square on your list for Lille.
Babe
While we don’t have any pictures we had dinner at Babe, a place we learned about from this Top Jaw video. Nik got the streak frites and I got their burger. Both were very good and was the perfect spot to eat before our Bonnie Tyler concert.
