Logis Hôtel Restaurant le Coq Hardi

We stayed one night as we were enroute to Germany. Our room was spacious with a balcony overlooking the Loire, the bed was comfortable. We eat in the restaurant, choosing the Gourmet menu, the food was superb and prepared to the highest standard. The service was great and the wine list extensive with on emphasis on local wines. We have stayed here before and will definitely come back again.

When driving through France, my priorities are changing. Gone are the days when I would stay in an international chain in the center of a town or city and now I want to stay above a good restaurant in a French wine region. Le Coq Hardi is located just outside the village of Pouilly sur Loire on the main road with easy parking (because I always search parking!) In front of the hotel. I doubt in high season parking would be difficult as the road doesn’t seem to be that busy. Check-in was easy, the owner is a pleasant chap who speaks a bit of English. So, let’s start with the rooms … okay, the owner apologised about the size of the room … but it had a comfortable bed, a good size bathroom, and the most amazing view of the River Loire. Rather than a little balcony, the room had a huge decked space above the restaurant. I can imagine in the warmer months sitting out on the decking looking at the night sky. I must say I had the most peaceful night's sleep with the door open. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t book the hotel for the room but rather the restaurant. The owner is an ex-Chef de Cuisine at Hotel Ritz in Paris. We started the evening with a few glasses of local wine (Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre), sat outside enjoying the view of the river, listening to the birds, and basically chilling following a drive from Rotterdam. Following a glass or two (or was it three), we moved into the restaurant. We decided on one of the set menus (no laughing but called the Coq menu) priced at a very reasonable 40 euros plus a bottle of Pouilly-Fumé at about 40 euros. We started with a complimentary hors d’oeuvre of local mushrooms. I then ordered a snail soup, followed by Pikeperch in a wine and butter sauce caught in the river at the bottom of the garden, and finished with an apple millefeuille. The service was very good, the serving staff did speak a little English and I must say the food is Michelin star quality. Breakfast is ordered on arrival which is dangerous as I basically said yes to everything on offer. In the morning, breakfast was waiting for us on the table, and as expected the ingredients were top quality. Would I come back if stopping in the area, definitely. Would I recommend it to my friends… maybe not because it does not have that many rooms and I would be annoyed if they booked it out. Any niggles… just one … the only toiletry in the bathroom was a bar of soap. To be fair it was a fancy artisan soup and did the job but not what I’m used to.