After a nice day of checking out the Markets and doing some exploring, we decided to do a bit more walking before dinner.
We also decided to drop by a couple of places I had on my "list" to try and make dinner reservations for upcoming nights. Many of the restaurants I had on my list didn't do online reservations and required a phone call. Unfortunately, my French is beyond hideous, so we decided to try and appear in person to make reservations. Unfortunately, since this was a weekend, it was big time fail.
On this night though, we had dinner reservations. It was quite a blessing in disguise. I mentioned in an earlier post, that I had tried to get a private tour with Elyse Riven who heads up Toulouse Guided Walks and is often a guest on one of my favorite podcasts, Join Us in France. Unfortunately, Elyse was I believe out of the country at the time, so we downloaded her VoiceMap audio tour. Elyse was kind enough to make some recommendations for dinner and also for visiting Albi, which is where we were headed the following day.
One of the places she recommended and was on my "list" was Les P'tits Fayots, a nice little restaurant that does small, shareable plates. And they did online reservations!
The location is on a side street, the restaurant quite discreet.
The Missus enjoyed the fact that veggies were well represented on the menu and also enjoyed the wine selection. The service was very warm and friendly. Toulouse is a lot ore laid back than Paris!
The first item up was the Pomme de Terre Confit & Hareng Fume. Wonderfully earthy potatoes confit which was paired nicely with the savory smoked herring.
The mustard creme added a bit of punch and along with the starchiness of the potatoes helped handle the umami-heavy herring.
Next up; the Sable Emmenthal Noisette.
Basically Emmenthal and hazelnut biscuits; this was quite an interesting combination. The celery cream was interesting; we actually enjoyed the greens and herbs the best, nice texture and a touch of bitterness.
Sucrine & Ouef Mollet. You know the Missus and eggs right?
The Missus loved the runny soft boiled egg and even the creamy Mornay Sauce, which was very balanced in terms of butteriness and cheesiness. She also loved the sucrine, a lettuce that seemed like baby romaine, it tastes so clean and the shaved Parmesan and mild sauce added so much savory notes to the dish.
The last dish was actually our favorite. The Langoustine Boullion.
The Langoustine was so tender, sweet, and oceany. And that broth was seasoned perfectly, with just enough salt to highlite the touches of sea faring flavors. Bread with this……
We really enjoyed our meal. It was our favorite of our stay in Toulouse. We loved the service and the food!
Les P'tits Fayots
8 Rue de l'Esquile
31000 Toulouse, France
As you walk to the gate you can't help but notice the bust to the right. Who is this you might ask? It is the bust of 
One thing that is easily noticed as you cross the drawbridge into the city are all the formidable battlements and defenses. There's a huge metal gate to crush you, notice the curve as you cross into the city, that serves a defensive purpose as well; to slow you down as you attacked the city.
Which included the same salad, some fois gras, but much more. There was a nice cured duck breast and more importantly, what you see at the bottom of the plate in the photo above, Gesiers de Canard, duck gizzards. I had really enjoyed the version 
Man, this was not to our liking. It was super salty, the duck confit dry, the sausage tough and bland, and worst of all the beans were hard and undercooked. I did appreciate the piece of pork rind at the bottom of the pan. But overall, this was not very good.
This "interesting" building is 
The croissant was dark, flaky, and light. But it really lacked the butteriness I like and was on the dry side.
And while we loved the heads of kings of Judah that originally graced Notre Dame and were severed during the French Revolution ("off with their heads I say!!!!") in what is called 
We were instructed to start with the "naan", basically a buttery cube of flatbread with wonderfully flavored fowl in it. The skewered liver was wonderfully gamy and delicious. 
Man, this was much better than I expected. The beef, while perhaps chopped a bit more finely than I like was nicely chilled, with a clean finish, loved the ratio of capers and scallions to beef. But the most surprising thing were the frites, which were crisp outside and creamy inside.
A very pleasant dish. The skate had been nicely prepared, buttery in texture, good black pepper, though perhaps a bit more salt would have helped. Very moist and tender. The accompanying veggies were fine and the caper butter sauce did well with the fish.
The women were from London and arrived via the Eurostar. Something I'd like to do in the future!
