The best of the rest: Holiday restaurants were homey, with some flashes of elegance

We had kitchens at our disposal for most of the holiday, limiting the number of restaurant meals.  Given how much we ended up spending when we did go out, this was a good thing!  Last entry, I told you about my favourite restaurant meals of the trip.  Here's an overview of the also-rans.

Le Fleury, Beaune

Though it's the centre of Burgundy's legendary wine region, Beaune isn't crowded in the off season, and on Sundays it's a ghost town.  The majority of the restaurants within the town walls are closed, which made Le Fleury ... right around the corner from the star sight of the medieval hospital ... a beacon of light on a grey, wet afternoon.  We had a delightful four course chef's set menu for 49 euro in this elegant, modern restaurant that's more formal than the typical tourist place.  Scallop and jerusalem artichoke to start, then lamb, followed by cheese and excellent puddings, plus a good selection of local wines by the glass.

Le Bistrot des Grands Crus, Chablis
Our most disappointing meal out.  It was also our cheapest by a wide margin (62 euro for two courses, a glass of wine and coffee each), so perhaps it suffered badly by comparison.  The high expectations had been set by a great review in our Burgundian food and wine guide, and the fact that this is the cheap and cheerful sister to Michelin-starred Hostellerie des Clos nearby, where I'd eaten an amazing meal on a previous visit.  The food was good, and traditionally Burgundian, but unexceptional.  Ham persille and beef bourguignon were better elsewhere.  The best dish here was a salad served with breaded and deep fried rounds of goat cheese.  Some good wines by the glass.

Palace de Menthon
Menthon-Saint-Bernard is a holiday village on the east side of Lake Annecy, dominated by the family

castle of the holy man after whom the village is now named.  (Sadly, no large dogs with casks of brandy under their chin were in evidence.)  The Palace is a grand Victorian place on the lake shore, which was empty and echoing with pre-season maintenance when we popped in.  There's quite a funky, modern restaurant all done in vivid colours, with magnificent views, off a surprisingly basic lobby.  We didn't eat here ... the place clearly wasn't geared up for lunch ... but they scrambled together coffee and pastries for us and sat us in splendid isolation on a sunny balcony overlooking the lake.  I'm not sure I'd go back for dinner, but the coffee and cake was great.

Le Vieux Logis, St. Jorioz (Lake Annecy, France)
Not in any directory, no signs out front, this place is as local as it gets.  Our friends Cora and Didier eat at this simple, child-friendly spot all the time, where two ladies do all the cooking and don't mind if the kids play behind the bar.  It's built around a wood fired oven where they make pizza.  There's fondue (both meat and cheese) and raclette, and that's about it.  Delicious, homey and cheap, it's a required stop whenever we visit.

Paoli, Florence
This has been a regular stop for me in Florence for years, notable for its fabulous location just off the main street linking the duomo and the Piazza Signoria.  The food's dependable, most of the waiters speak English and the frescoed interior with scenes from Dante's life (his house is a stone's throw down the street) make it highly atmospheric.  My starter of ricotta-stuffed tortelloni in a truffle cream sauce was excellent, the follow up of wild boar stew on polenta was hearty, veering towards leaden.  (Although that might have been bad ordering.  It was far too heavy a main after such a big starter.) Piers was less enthusiastic about his starter of cured meats, followed by a forgettable pork cutlet in cream sauce.  Overall, the food was good rather than great; stodgy and overly-traditional.  Still, it's far better than many of the tourist rip-off joints in the main part of town.

Ristorante Senese, Lastra a Signa (near Florence)
While Paoli is nothing but tourists, this family restaurant in the Florentine suburb of Lastra a Signa sees few.  On the night we were there, we sat between a large family celebrating grandpa's birthday and a group of twenty-somethings celebrating life with the harsh but cheap house chianti.  (We tried one glass, but preferred a nice bottle of Montepulciano.)  This place is known for steak, specifically the classic bistecca Fiorentina.  This is a t-bone, usually more than a kilo and cooked on the bone, very rare.  That's what we had, with a side of fried seasonal artichokes.  One of the best steaks I've ever had, but not a very balanced meal.  Even split between two, this is just too much protein for your own good.  I'm glad I did it once, but think I might go for a nice little fillet on a return visit.

La Taverna Caruso at Villa Caruso Bellasguardo, Lastra a Signa
A bit like the fondue place, you'd never find this without locals to guide you.  Enrico Caruso bought a villa in the hills above Lastra a Signa after becoming the world's most famous operatic tenor and these days it's the only noteworthy historic sight in town ... though it's little visited and far from pristine in its condition.  The road leading there is so severely potholed we were worried about doing permanent damage to the car, and you take the path from carpark to restaurant through the overgrown, unlit garden at your own risk.  The food comes out of Caruso's own kitchen; if you need the toilets you're sent upstairs into the main house.  The permanent restaurant has evolved from the team that caters special events here; evidently it's used for weddings and other big parties in the summer.  Very local, very seasonal ... pasta with rabbit and fried artichokes were the highlights.  Probably worth popping in for lunch if you were touring the villa, but not worth the perilous night-time journey unless you want the thrill of saying you ate in Caruso's basement.

And then, sadly, there's the meal that never was.  We were on our way to Ristorante Da Delfina in Artimino, in the hills further along the Arno from Lastra, when our car started to judder as if on the brink of collapse.  I suspect, had it not been for that mis-adventure, this would have been one of the top meals of the trip, as this is a highly-acclaimed spot and my memories of eating there years ago are great.   Instead, we spent hours in a garage and I had a particularly tasty canoli in Lastra's Sicilian bakery.   Another homey, simple treat from this leg of the trip.