Au Colombier

The Verdict

Au Colombier is not a destination restaurant in the way that phrase is usually meant. It sits in Anse, a small town in the Beaujolais corridor north of Lyon, and its €€ price point puts it firmly in the everyday-occasion bracket. The misconception to correct upfront: this is not a rough-around-the-edges local bistro that happens to have slipped under the radar. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand (2024) and a Michelin Plate (2025), which together signal a kitchen delivering cooking that consistently exceeds what the price suggests. If you are planning a day in the Beaujolais wine country and want a serious lunch without a serious bill, Au Colombier is the clearest answer in the area.

Portrait

The Bib Gourmand is the more meaningful of Au Colombier's two Michelin distinctions for most readers. Michelin awards it specifically to restaurants offering good cooking at a price they define as favourable — currently set at €37 or under for a two-course meal with a glass of wine or dessert in France. That credential, held in 2024, tells you something concrete: this kitchen produces food at a standard Michelin considers worth flagging, and it does so without pricing out the room. The Michelin Plate in 2025 confirms the kitchen has maintained quality through a year when plenty of Bib-level restaurants have slipped. That consistency matters more than either award in isolation.

For a repeat visitor, the question shifts from whether to go to when and how. Lunch at a Bib Gourmand restaurant in provincial France almost always delivers better value than dinner at the same address. The prix-fixe formula at midday tends to be tighter in price and more focused in execution — the kitchen is running at full capacity, the menu is typically shorter, and you are not paying for the evening's extended service overhead. At Au Colombier's price tier, a weekday lunch is likely the format where the kitchen's effort-to-cost ratio is sharpest. If you have been once for dinner and found it good but not revelatory, try lunch before drawing a final conclusion.

The cuisine type is listed as Modern Cuisine, which in this context means a French regional kitchen working with contemporary technique rather than the rigid classicism of a previous generation. In the Beaujolais and wider Rhône corridor, that usually means produce-led cooking with clear flavours and seasonal movement , the kind of food that reads simply on the plate but requires real skill to execute cleanly. Without confirmed signature dishes in the record, it would be wrong to promise specific preparations, but the Michelin endorsement gives you reasonable confidence that the kitchen is doing something worth sitting down for.

Au Colombier's address , 126 Allée du Colombier, Anse , places it in a town that most visitors pass through rather than stop in. That is part of the value. Anse sits between Lyon and the Beaujolais vineyards, making it a practical lunch stop if you are combining a day of wine tasting with something worth eating. The nearest major culinary reference points in the region include Paul Bocuse - L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges in Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or to the south and Troisgros - Le Bois sans Feuilles in Ouches further north , both in entirely different price and ambition brackets. Au Colombier fills a different role: accessible, dependable, and underused by visitors who default to Lyon for every meal.

Google Reviews sits at 4.3 across 1,311 ratings, which is a meaningful sample size for a restaurant at this level. A score that holds above 4.0 across more than a thousand reviews at a non-destination address suggests consistent delivery rather than a spike driven by one strong season. It also implies the room skews local , regulars tend to rate with more scepticism than first-time visitors, so a stable 4.3 earned largely from repeat custom is a more useful signal than a 4.7 from a smaller, tourist-heavy pool.

For a special occasion at this price point, Au Colombier works better than it might sound on paper. The Michelin credentials give it a level of formality and care that most €€ restaurants in small French towns do not carry. It is not the place for a major anniversary dinner if you want theatre and ceremony , for that, Lyon itself offers far more options, and you can explore the full picture in our full Anse restaurants guide. But for a birthday lunch, a low-key celebration, or a meal that needs to feel considered without demanding a significant budget, it is a strong choice. France's broader context of serious regional cooking , represented at the highest level by restaurants like Flocons de Sel in Megève, Bras in Laguiole, and Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern , filters down into restaurants like Au Colombier, where the regional tradition of taking food seriously at every price point is genuinely felt.

Booking is direct. At €€ in a town of this size, there is no reason to expect the kind of lead time required at a starred Lyon address. A few days' notice for weekday lunch should be sufficient in most seasons; weekends and public holidays in the summer months warrant earlier contact. There is no confirmed booking method in the venue record, so arriving without a reservation is a risk worth avoiding , call ahead or use whatever online system the restaurant operates directly.

If you are building a day around the Beaujolais area, Au Colombier is the most sensible answer to the question of where to eat well without diverting your budget from wine. Pair it with a visit to the vineyards, check our full Anse wineries guide for what is worth stopping at, and treat the meal as the anchor of the day rather than the afterthought. That is what it is equipped to be.

Quick Reference

Au Colombier, Anse , Modern Cuisine, €€, Michelin Bib Gourmand 2024 and Michelin Plate 2025, Google 4.3 (1,311 reviews). Easy to book; a few days' notice typically sufficient except peak summer weekends.