Château Sainte Sabine - Sainte-Sabine

We stayed at the lovely Château Sainte Sabine hotel (see separate review) and dined at the restaurant Le Lassey on one evening. In many ways we rather wish we had not. It does not really cater well for children, particularly one with a dairy allergy....A fortnight before we ate there, we asked them to put their imagination to work to adapt some of their dishes to be cows dairy free. That leaves plenty of scope with goat and nut milk options. On the day, they simply served up their standard children's option of burger and chips. Nothing was available from the adults menu, which was a grave disappointment to a child used to good food. To compound the feebleness of the effort, her food was served before the starters of the adults food, which was belittling. Even when it came to the service for the adults, this was not as expected for a restaurant with such pretensions to excellence. Bread was not served to everyone, and we had to reposition our wine on our table and serve ourselves as the waiters neglected this. The food itself was excellent, and had that not been the case I would have only rated it two stars. In summary, mediocre service at a high price.

We enjoyed a drink on the Terrace before dinner, with a wonderful view across the fields of Châteauneuf. I began with an egg dish, the sauce which surrounded my egg was absolutely delicious. I then had Duck, which also was done beautifully. My companions had...Escargot, Sweetbreads and Lamb. All meals were delicious and presented beautifully. We all had Soufflé for dessert, of course they were gorgeous and complemented by the lovely glass of champagne kindly supplied by the charming Maitre D’!! A thoroughly enjoyable experience in a historic setting, Totally recommend.

We ate at the sister hotel, Levernois a couple of years ago and although that was a Michelin starred restaurant we were expecting great things from Sainte Sabine. From the menu it was clear that Sainte Sabine was trying to emulate a michelin star standard of cuisine.We went for the menu Gourmande and chose from two choices for every course. Each course was of a very high standard so it was such a shame that the culinary experience was let down by some poor service and silly mistakes. Firstly we were surprised that dogs were allowed into such a high class dining room. One dog in particular smelled very bad and could be smelt from right across the room putting us off our food. Secondly we had to asked to be brought bread 3 times before we got any which eventually came half way through our starter, even though every other table got theirs when they arrived. The third and most unfortunate issue was that there was a caterpillar on a lettuce leaf on my main course. Luckily my eagle eyed wife spotted it and pointed it out to the waiter. He took the culprit along with its leaf back to the kitchen and apologised. From the level of restaurant this is aiming to be I would have expected them to replace the dish or take the price of it off the bill, neither of which they did.

We absolutely loved our dinner and service here. The food was delicious, creative, and well prepared. The service was impeccable and also very fun. Watching the staff was impressive because they work so well together and seem to have well choreographed moves as they walk through the dining room from the kitchen to each table. The crab and cucumber cannelloni was light and refreshing, the trout was fresh and delicate and the veal was tender and delicious. The cheeses (I only tried 3) were among the best I've had in France and the soufflé was fabulous. Highly recommended!

Depending on the night, the food is either Bistro style or Gastronomic. Great staff, great food and a great wine list. Highly recommended.