My parents were visiting, and on the last night we wanted to go somewhere which had plenty of meat-free offerings for Marie.Le Jardin de Berthe is renown in Lyon for their huge range of salads — around 40. Many of these contain meat, so omnivores may not be disappointed. If you really — really — don't want a salad then there are some ravioli-based dishes on the menu, but I'd probably advise you to go elsewhere.
The 'Jardin' part is perhaps a little misleading: the dining room is a vaulted cellar, not a verdant courtyard. There are a few two-person tables on the pavement outside if that kind of thing souses your herring.
The first thing I noticed was how LOUD it was in the dining room. It was impossible to hold a normal conversation as all the diners were bellowing at the tops of their voices. The situation improved later, so I guess it was due to a particularly noisy group whom everyone had to shout over. But to start we were all yelling like yuppies in a Bishopsgate wine bar.
Menus are in French — usually no problem — but we were puzzled by the meaning of gésiers, which appeared in several salads. Marie didn't know because she doesn't eat meat. My parents didn't know because they don't speak French. I just didn't know.
The waiter didn't know either, but he went to ask the chef, and came back with a few samples on cocktail sticks. They turned out to be bits of chicken stomach (that's how the chef described them anyway). Gizzards to me, and quite tasty if you don't stop to think about it.
We all picked our salads, and Pops ordered a bottle of Côtes du Rhône.
In very short order, four enormous salads arrived.
And they were huge. I think I was the only person to finish mine. Pops has ordered one with a 'mixture of chicken and veal, à la kebab'. He had taken this to mean thing-on-a-stick, but that's brochette in French: a kebab is that greasy elephant's leg thing that kebab shops put up to keep the flies away. So he was not too impressed with that, but it looked OK to me. But then I guess I eat fried chicken stomachs, so cannot be classified as particularly fussy.
I like my wine to be either good, cheap or both. The Côtes du Rhône was none of the above.
We had desserts; mine was great tarte au citron with a slightly unnecessary and over-sweet caramel sauce. Maman raved about her ice-cream.
I enjoyed my salad and have already been back to repeat the experience. It was much quieter this time.
Salads €10 - €13, bottle of wine €14.
Decor: 3.5/5
Service: 4/5
Price: 4/5
Toilets: 3/5
Le Jardin de Berthe, 3, Rue de Fleurieu, 69002 Lyon (google map)
04 78 38 24 46
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