Au Cochon Prieur - Aubeterre-sur-Dronne

I recently had an evening meal at this restaurant with two friends. Service was excellent and the place had a great, relaxing, atmosphere. My food (the ham hock) was delicious - but my friend had the steak and was very disappointed in it. As the name says - it is a speciality pig restaurant - so a suggestion might be to stick to the food they are superb at serving... I had no complaints..

We ate here twice in 4 days- the daily specials are great value (and delicious) and the staff are lovely and very helpful.

The setting is lovely, and the waiting staff are great but please don't make the mistake I made by ordering a steak. Tough as old boots, and maybe more. Stewing steak I would put it as. I needed the donkeys teeth to chew it. Sorry, but no. Chef knows what he is cooking, and to put it bluntly, that isn't acceptable. The odd thing is that it was the most expensive dish on the menu!A real shame as it is 2 mins from a friends place. Other stuff was fairly well received, but I will not be back. Ever!No photos, as I don't promote rubbish.

A group of seven of us went for dinner at Au Cochon Prieur. We were staying with friends in their farmhouse in Laprade. They seated us outside at a lovely table and the lady serving us was very friendly. We practised French on her and she practised her English on us. Priceless. Toni had a salmon starter and I had a beautiful smoked duck breast dish. For mains Toni had to have the pork seeing it was the house specialty but seeing as I don't eat pork, I went for the smoked trout which was exceptional. And for dessert I had something like an Eton Mess and Toni went for an apricot clafouti. Both were yummo. A really nice night for both service and food.

Sitting outside was nice but it does not have the view of the restaurant just up the road. The food as you would expect is very pork orientated but the service was ultra slow and the food nothing really special. There is little else better in the village but I certainly would not travel from elsewhere to have a meal here.