Restaurant in Loué, France
Michelin-recognised cooking, low booking pressure.
Ricordeau holds Michelin Plate recognition for both 2024 and 2025 and scores a 4.8 on Google across 121 reviews — a strong signal for a modern cuisine restaurant in a small Sarthe town. At the €€€ tier, it offers a serious food experience without the starred-dining price premium. Book in advance for weekends; a car is required to get there.
Yes — with conditions. Ricordeau is a Michelin Plate-recognised modern cuisine restaurant in the small Sarthe town of Loué, earning that recognition in both 2024 and 2025. A 4.8 Google rating across 121 reviews is unusually consistent for a restaurant of this scale and location, signalling that guests who make the trip are reliably leaving satisfied. At the €€€ price tier, it sits in a range where the value case depends almost entirely on the quality of the tasting experience — and the evidence suggests it delivers. If you are building a food-focused itinerary through the Loire region or the Sarthe, Ricordeau warrants a place on the list.
Loué is not a destination that announces itself. The town is leading known outside France for its Label Rouge free-range chickens , a geographically anchored product that carries genuine provenance credentials. That agricultural context matters here: this is a part of France where the supply chain from farm to kitchen is short, and a restaurant holding Michelin recognition in this environment is making a statement about ingredient quality as much as technique. The address at 13 Rue de la Libération places Ricordeau in the centre of a modest market town, which shapes expectations before you walk in. Do not arrive expecting a grand country house or a hotel dining room with polished formality. The physical setting is small-town France , and that is precisely the point. Intimacy at this scale means the room will feel personal rather than theatrical. Parties of two are likely to feel well-accommodated; larger groups should confirm availability in advance given the probable seat count at a venue of this type.
Ricordeau's classification as modern cuisine at the €€€ level, combined with sustained Michelin Plate recognition over two consecutive years, suggests a kitchen operating with clear culinary intent rather than casual ambition. The Michelin Plate designation , awarded when inspectors judge that a restaurant serves good food, without yet reaching the star threshold , is a meaningful marker. It tells you the cooking is technically sound and worth seeking out, while setting honest expectations about where it sits in the broader hierarchy. For the food-focused traveller, that positioning is actually useful: you are paying for serious food without the price premium that comes with starred dining.
The modern cuisine classification implies a kitchen that moves beyond classical French canon , expect precision and seasonal thinking rather than tradition for its own sake. In a Sarthe context, the regional larder (poultry, river produce, local vegetables) provides the raw material; the tasting menu format, if offered, is where that material gets shaped into a progression with deliberate structure. The arc of a tasting menu at this level typically builds from lighter, more acidic openers through to richer, protein-forward courses, with desserts that either provide clean contrast or mirror the savoury programme's flavour logic. Whether Ricordeau structures its menu this way is not confirmed in the available data, but the combination of Michelin recognition and modern cuisine framing makes a considered, multi-course format the reasonable assumption. Confirm the current menu format when booking.
For the explorer-type diner , someone who treats a meal as a piece of research into a place and its produce , Ricordeau has a strong case. You are eating modern French cooking in a town whose agricultural identity is a matter of national record. That is a different experience from eating the same price-tier food in a city, and it is worth factoring into the decision.
Booking at Ricordeau is rated Easy. Given the venue's location in a small French town rather than a major city, demand pressure is lower than at comparable Michelin-recognised restaurants in Paris or Lyon. That said, a 4.8 rating with 121 reviews suggests a loyal and growing audience , do not assume last-minute availability is guaranteed, particularly at weekends or during summer months when regional tourism peaks in the Loire corridor. Book a week or two ahead to be safe. Hours, phone number, and online booking method are not confirmed in current data; contact the venue directly or check for a listing on a French reservation platform to confirm. Dress code is not formally stated , in a small Sarthe town at the €€€ tier, smart casual is a reliable baseline. Overdressing is unlikely to be necessary; underdressing is probably noticed.
Loué is accessible by car from Le Mans (approximately 30 kilometres northwest), making it a practical add-on to a Le Mans itinerary or a stop on a longer drive through the Sarthe and into the Loire Valley. There is no train station in Loué itself; a car is the practical requirement for visiting. If you are planning a wider food trip through France's regional dining scene, Ricordeau fits into an itinerary that might also include Troisgros - Le Bois sans Feuilles in Ouches, Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern, or Bras in Laguiole , all Michelin-recognised restaurants outside the major cities that reward a detour. For broader regional planning, see our full Loué restaurants guide, our full Loué hotels guide, and our full Loué experiences guide.
For context on what Michelin Plate recognition looks like across France's regional dining scene, comparable venues operating at a similar level include Au Crocodile in Strasbourg, Assiette Champenoise in Reims, and Auberge du Vieux Puits in Fontjoncouse. At the higher end of the French modern cuisine spectrum, AM par Alexandre Mazzia in Marseille and Mirazur in Menton show what the ceiling looks like. Flocons de Sel in Megève is a useful reference point for modern cuisine outside Paris at the starred level. For international modern cuisine benchmarks, Frantzén in Stockholm and FZN by Björn Frantzén in Dubai illustrate the format at its most ambitious.
Also worth exploring for a full picture of the area: our full Loué bars guide and our full Loué wineries guide.
Quick reference: Michelin Plate 2024 & 2025 | Google 4.8/5 (121 reviews) | €€€ | Modern Cuisine | Loué, Sarthe | Booking: Easy | Car required.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricordeau | Modern Cuisine | €€€ | Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | Easy | — |
| Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen | Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Kei | Contemporary French, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| L'Ambroisie | French, Classic Cuisine | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Le Cinq - Four Seasons Hôtel George V | French, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Mirazur | Modern French, Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
A quick look at how Ricordeau measures up.
Yes. Ricordeau's location in a small Sarthe town means the room is unlikely to feel overwhelming for solo diners, and the relaxed booking pressure at a €€€ Michelin Plate venue outside a major city works in your favour. Solo visits are better suited here than at Paris counterparts where counter seating and pacing are more tightly managed. Book a standard table and you should be well accommodated.
Bar dining availability is not confirmed in available venue data for Ricordeau. For a Michelin Plate modern cuisine restaurant at the €€€ level in a small French town, the format typically centres on table service rather than bar seating. check the venue's official channels at 13 Rue de la Libération, 72540 Loué to confirm options before visiting.
Ricordeau's Michelin Plate status and €€€ pricing point to a dress standard above casual, but it is not a three-star Paris institution where strict formality is expected. For a modern cuisine restaurant in a small Sarthe town, neat, put-together clothing is a reasonable baseline — think dinner-out rather than black tie. Overly casual dress would feel out of step with the setting.
At the €€€ price level with back-to-back Michelin Plate recognition in 2024 and 2025, Ricordeau delivers structured modern cuisine at a standard that justifies the format. Compared to Paris restaurants with equivalent or higher price tags, the booking ease and smaller-town setting reduce the friction considerably. If tasting menus are your preferred format for a special meal, this is a reasonable choice for the Sarthe region.
For €€€ modern cuisine with Michelin Plate recognition two years running, Ricordeau offers better value-for-effort than comparable Paris addresses where the same spend comes with harder bookings and more competition for tables. The Loué location means you are not paying a city premium. The trade-off is that you need a reason to be in or passing through the Sarthe — it is not a standalone destination for most travellers.
Loué is a small town and does not have a roster of comparable fine dining options. If you are weighing Ricordeau against a broader trip decision, the nearest relevant comparison is driving to a larger city in the region rather than finding an equivalent locally. For modern cuisine at higher recognition tiers, Paris addresses like Kei or Le Cinq operate at a different scale and price point entirely.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
