Restaurant in Arnage, France
Michelin Plate, €€€, worth the trip south
Auberge des Matfeux holds a Michelin Plate for both 2024 and 2025 and a 4.7 Google rating from over 700 reviews — strong credentials for a €€€ Modern Cuisine table south of Le Mans. Chef Xavier Souffront runs a seasonally driven kitchen that rewards visiting at the right time of year. Booking is straightforward, making this the clearest choice for serious dining in the Arnage area.
At the €€€ price point, Auberge des Matfeux is positioned as a serious dining destination rather than a neighbourhood bistro, and the Michelin Plate recognition it has held consecutively through 2024 and 2025 confirms that inspectors consider the cooking worth your attention. For a food or wine enthusiast making a trip to the Le Mans region, this is the address that makes sense: formal enough to justify the spend, rooted enough in its locality to feel like a genuine reason to visit rather than a branded outpost. The question is not whether the kitchen is competent — the 4.7 rating across 707 Google reviews answers that , but whether the full experience earns its place in your itinerary over alternatives further afield.
Auberge des Matfeux sits along the Avenue Nationale in Arnage, a commune just south of Le Mans. Chef Xavier Souffront leads a kitchen working in the Modern Cuisine register: a style that in France typically means classical French technique applied to seasonal, often locally sourced produce, with contemporary plating and structure. For the explorer-minded diner, this is a genre that rewards visiting across different seasons precisely because the menu's character shifts with what is available and what the kitchen chooses to foreground.
The Le Mans region sits at the southern edge of the Pays de la Loire, where the Loire Valley's influence on produce , cool-climate vegetables, river fish, the first asparagus of spring, game in autumn , shapes how a kitchen with this sensibility approaches its menu calendar. Right now, in the current season, that means the kitchen is likely working with whatever the Loire Valley corridor is producing at its peak. If you are planning a visit, the most useful timing question is not just when the restaurant has availability, but what the regional larder looks like at the moment you plan to arrive. Autumn and spring tend to be the strongest seasons for this style of cooking in the Loire hinterland: autumn brings game, mushrooms, and the last root vegetables; spring delivers asparagus, river fish, and the first young alliums. Summer has its own logic , lighter constructions, stone fruit, tomatoes , though the kitchen's emphasis may shift accordingly.
This seasonal rotation matters practically: if you visit in the same month two years running, the menu will feel different. That is a feature, not an inconsistency. For the explorer who has dined broadly across French regional tables , from [Arpège in Paris](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/arpge-paris-restaurant) to [Flocons de Sel in Megève](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/flocons-de-sel-megve-restaurant), or further afield at [Mirazur in Menton](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/mirazur-menton-restaurant) , the interest here is in how a €€€ regional table interprets this seasonal logic without the resources or reputation of a three-star operation. Auberge des Matfeux is doing this at a more accessible price tier, which makes it a useful data point in any serious survey of French regional cooking.
The 4.7 score from 707 reviews is a meaningful signal in a region not saturated with high-profile dining options. It suggests consistent execution across a wide range of guests , not just destination diners arriving primed to be impressed, but locals and Le Mans race visitors with varied expectations. That breadth of positive response across 700-plus data points is harder to fake than a handful of enthusiastic press mentions.
For context on what the Michelin Plate means: it signals that inspectors consider the food good enough to note, without awarding the star that would indicate exceptional cooking in the inspectors' view. At €€€, that is an honest positioning , you are paying for a polished regional table with genuine kitchen skill, not a destination restaurant built around a singular chef vision. Compared to starred tables in the broader region, the spend is lower; compared to casual dining in Arnage or Le Mans, you are stepping up meaningfully. The sweet spot is the diner who wants more than a brasserie but is not chasing Michelin stars specifically.
For broader exploration of what the region offers beyond dining, see [our full Arnage restaurants guide](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/arnage), [our full Arnage hotels guide](https://www.joinpearl.co/hotels/arnage), [our full Arnage bars guide](https://www.joinpearl.co/bars/arnage), [our full Arnage wineries guide](https://www.joinpearl.co/wineries/arnage), and [our full Arnage experiences guide](https://www.joinpearl.co/experiences/arnage). If you are building a wider French regional dining itinerary, the tables that share a similar regional-seasonal philosophy include [Troisgros - Le Bois sans Feuilles in Ouches](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/troisgros-le-bois-sans-feuilles-ouches-restaurant), [Bras in Laguiole](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/bras-laguiole-restaurant), [Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/auberge-de-lill-illhaeusern-restaurant), [Les Prés d'Eugénie - Michel Guérard in Eugénie-les-Bains](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/les-prs-deugnie-michel-gurard-eugnie-les-bains-restaurant), [Paul Bocuse - L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges in Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/paul-bocuse-lauberge-du-pont-de-collonges-collonges-au-mont-dor-restaurant), [Georges Blanc in Vonnas](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/georges-blanc-vonnas-restaurant), [Auberge du Vieux Puits in Fontjoncouse](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/auberge-du-vieux-puits-fontjoncouse-restaurant), [La Table du Castellet in Le Castellet](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/la-table-du-castellet-le-castellet-restaurant), [Maison Lameloise in Chagny](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/maison-lameloise-chagny-restaurant), and [Frantzén in Stockholm](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/frantzn-stockholm-restaurant) for a sense of how the seasonal-modern format plays across different contexts.
Address: 289 Av. Nationale, 72230 Arnage, France
Price range: €€€
Cuisine: Modern Cuisine
Chef: Xavier Souffront
Awards: Michelin Plate 2024 and 2025
Google rating: 4.7 (707 reviews)
Booking difficulty: Easy , no evidence of significant lead time required
Hours: Not confirmed , check directly before visiting
Phone / website: Not listed , search the venue name directly to confirm current contact details
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auberge des Matfeux | Modern Cuisine | €€€ | Easy |
| Plénitude | Contemporary French | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Pierre Gagnaire | French, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen | Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Kei | Contemporary French, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Le Cinq - Four Seasons Hôtel George V | French, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
At €€€, it sits at the serious-dining tier for the region, and back-to-back Michelin Plates in 2024 and 2025 confirm the kitchen is performing consistently. For that price point south of Le Mans, there is no comparable Michelin-recognised alternative in Arnage itself, which makes this the default choice if modern cuisine and a credentialed kitchen matter to you. If you want a more straightforward bistro spend, the value case weakens.
Booking 2–3 weeks ahead is a sensible baseline for a Michelin-recognised table at this price point, and further in advance around the Le Mans 24 Hours race period in June, when demand across the entire area spikes sharply. Contact directly via the address at 289 Av. Nationale, 72230 Arnage to confirm availability. Last-minute walk-ins at €€€ Michelin Plate restaurants are a gamble.
Group suitability is not confirmed in available venue data, so check the venue's official channels before assembling a party larger than four. Michelin Plate restaurants at this price point often have private dining options, but this is not confirmed for Auberge des Matfeux specifically — do not assume.
Bar seating details are not available for Auberge des Matfeux. Given the €€€ positioning and Michelin Plate recognition, this reads as a sit-down dining destination rather than a bar-first venue. Confirm with the restaurant if a counter or informal seating option matters to your visit.
Within Arnage itself, there is no documented Michelin-recognised alternative, which is part of what makes this address notable for the area. For a broader comparison, Le Mans city centre has additional dining options at lower price points if the €€€ commitment feels steep. If you are travelling specifically for food rather than the Le Mans region, Paris offers far more competition at this tier.
Specific menu format details are not confirmed in available data, so the tasting menu case cannot be made or broken here. What is confirmed is that Chef Xavier Souffront runs a modern cuisine kitchen with Michelin Plate recognition in two consecutive years — a signal of technical consistency. check the venue's official channels to confirm current menu formats and pricing before deciding.
The combination of Michelin Plate recognition, €€€ pricing, and a chef-led modern cuisine kitchen in a low-competition area makes this a credible special-occasion choice for the Le Mans and Sarthe region. It reads as the kind of address you would use for a milestone dinner when Paris is too far. Confirm private dining options directly if the occasion calls for a dedicated room.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
