Restaurant in Périgueux, France
Michelin-recognised value in Périgord's capital.
Le Pétrocore holds Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025, making it one of the most reliable special occasion options in Périgueux at the €€ price point. A 4.9 Google rating across 121 reviews backs the consistency. For modern cuisine with genuine ambition in southwest France without the outlay of a starred address, this is the booking to make.
If you have already eaten at Le Pétrocore once, the question on a return visit is not whether the kitchen is consistent — the Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025 answers that — but whether the season has shifted enough to make the menu meaningfully different. In Périgueux, where the Dordogne's agricultural calendar is as pronounced as anywhere in southwest France, a kitchen at this level should be reading that calendar closely. Le Pétrocore does. That is reason enough to come back, and reason enough to book the first time if modern cuisine at a mid-range price point is what you are looking for in the region.
The short verdict: book it for a special occasion dinner when you want more ambition than a bistro but do not want to commit to the full outlay of L'Essentiel, which sits one price tier above at €€€. Le Pétrocore earns its Michelin Plate recognition without asking you to spend at starred-restaurant levels.
Le Pétrocore sits at 15 Rue Eguillerie in the centre of Périgueux, a city whose food identity is built on Périgord's larder: walnut, truffle, duck, and foie gras. A modern cuisine address here is working with extraordinary raw material. The kitchen's approach, implied by consistent Michelin Plate recognition over two consecutive years, is to treat those ingredients with technical discipline rather than folksy abundance. That positioning puts Le Pétrocore in a different register from the region's more traditional tables without stepping outside its own price band.
The Google rating of 4.9 across 121 reviews is, at this sample size, a meaningful signal. It is not a number that sustains itself through novelty alone , it suggests repeat visitors are finding the kitchen reliable across multiple visits and across different seasons. For a celebration dinner or a serious date in a city the size of Périgueux, that level of consistency matters more than it would in a major metropolitan market where you can simply move on to the next option.
The Périgord calendar divides into distinct phases that a kitchen at this level should be reflecting on the plate. Winter and early spring belong to black truffle (Tuber melanosporum), harvested in the Dordogne from roughly December through March. If truffle is the draw, January and February are the right months , you want to be here when the season is in full swing, not trailing off. The Sarlat market is the region's reference point for truffle supply, and restaurants with the right relationships access the same product.
Spring shifts the menu toward asparagus, morels, and the lighter end of the duck preparations. Summer in the Dordogne brings tomatoes, stone fruit, and the kind of vegetable abundance that can expose a kitchen's range beyond its signature proteins. Autumn is the moment for cèpes , the Périgord's celebrated porcini-adjacent mushroom , and the lead-up to the new walnut harvest. Each of these phases offers a genuinely different eating experience, which is the practical case for a return visit.
For the purposes of planning: if you want the most regionally distinctive menu, visit between November and March. If you want lighter, more vegetable-forward cooking, May through June is the window. Either way, the kitchen's Michelin-noted consistency suggests the execution will hold across seasons even as the ingredients rotate.
At €€ pricing in a Michelin-recognised modern cuisine kitchen, Le Pétrocore is one of the better value propositions for a celebration meal in Périgueux. The relevant comparison is with L'Essentiel at €€€, which carries more prestige and a higher price, and with Hercule Poireau and L'Épicurien, both also modern cuisine at €€ but without the same two-year run of Michelin Plate recognition. For a birthday dinner or anniversary where the budget is real but you want more care on the plate than a brasserie delivers, Le Pétrocore is the right call.
It is worth noting that the address , a central Périgueux street rather than a destination-outside-town setting , makes logistics simple. No rural taxi problem, no need to plan around a dedicated drive. That practical advantage is underrated for special occasion planning, particularly if you are staying in the city centre. For hotel options nearby, see our full Périgueux hotels guide.
Périgueux is not a city with the restaurant density of Bordeaux or Lyon, which means the shortlist for serious eating is short. Le Pétrocore, L'Essentiel, and Oxalis form the upper tier. If your trip includes multiple nights, the case for eating at more than one of these is strong , the city's dining options thin out quickly below that band. For a broader view of what to eat and drink while you are here, our full Périgueux restaurants guide covers the category in full. You can also explore bars, wineries, and experiences in the region.
For reference on what Michelin Plate recognition looks like at the higher end of French cuisine, the benchmark addresses include Mirazur in Menton, Bras in Laguiole, and Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern. Le Pétrocore is not in that tier , the Michelin Plate is a quality marker, not a star , but it is operating with the same culinary seriousness at a fraction of the outlay.
Reservations: Easy to book , walk-in may be possible but a reservation is advisable for dinner, particularly on weekends and during truffle season (December–March). Budget: €€ , mid-range; expect a meaningful but not punishing bill for two with wine. Address: 15 Rue Eguillerie, 24000 Périgueux. Awards: Michelin Plate 2024 and 2025. Dress: No confirmed dress code; smart-casual is safe for the ambition level of the kitchen. Groups: Contact the venue directly to confirm capacity for larger parties , seat count is not published.
Bar seating specifics are not confirmed in published data for Le Pétrocore. Given the central Périgueux address and the restaurant's scale, counter or bar dining may not be the format here , this is more likely a table-service kitchen. Contact the venue directly to confirm before assuming walk-in bar seating is an option. If bar dining is important to you, check our Périgueux bars guide for dedicated bar venues.
Yes, and it is one of the better value propositions in Périgueux for exactly this purpose. Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025, a 4.9 Google rating from 121 reviews, and €€ pricing make it a strong choice for a birthday or anniversary dinner where you want genuine kitchen ambition without the outlay of L'Essentiel at €€€. The central location also removes the logistical friction of a destination-outside-town booking.
No confirmed policy is published. For a modern cuisine kitchen at this level, the expectation is that the team can accommodate common restrictions with advance notice , but confirm directly before your visit, particularly if the restriction is complex. A phone call or email ahead of time is standard practice at restaurants of this calibre and avoids problems on the night. Website and phone details are not currently listed in our database; check Google Maps or the restaurant's own social channels for contact information.
Seat count and private dining specifics are not published. For a group booking , say, six or more , contact the restaurant directly to confirm capacity and whether a dedicated space is available. At €€ pricing in a mid-size French city restaurant, a semi-private arrangement is plausible but not guaranteed. If Le Pétrocore cannot accommodate your group size, L'Essentiel or L'Épicurien are worth calling as alternatives.
The closest peer in ambition and price is Hercule Poireau , also modern cuisine at €€. For a step up in prestige and price, L'Essentiel at €€€ is the obvious move. If you want regional cooking rather than modern cuisine, Café Louise (Italian, €€) offers a different register at the same price tier, and La Taula covers Périgord regional cuisine at €€. See our full Périgueux restaurants guide for the complete picture.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Le Pétrocore | Modern Cuisine | €€ | Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | Easy | — |
| Café Louise | Italian | €€ | Unknown | — | |
| L'Essentiel | Modern Cuisine | €€€ | Michelin 1 Star | Unknown | — |
| La Taula | Regional Cuisine | €€ | Unknown | — | |
| Hercule Poireau | Modern Cuisine | €€ | Unknown | — | |
| L'Épicurien | Modern Cuisine | €€ | Unknown | — |
What to weigh when choosing between Le Pétrocore and alternatives.
Bar seating is not confirmed in available venue data, so call ahead before planning on it. Given Le Pétrocore's Michelin Plate recognition and its position as a serious modern cuisine kitchen, the dining room is almost certainly the intended format. A reservation secures your spot; walk-ins without one are a gamble, especially on weekends.
Yes — at €€ pricing with back-to-back Michelin Plate recognition in 2024 and 2025, it is one of the stronger value cases for a celebration meal in Périgueux. You get a credentialled kitchen without the bill of a full Michelin-starred restaurant. Book a weekend dinner in advance, and if timing allows, winter truffle season adds an obvious occasion anchor.
Specific dietary accommodation policy is not documented for Le Pétrocore, so check the venue's official channels before booking. As a modern cuisine kitchen in the Périgord tradition, the menu will likely lean heavily on duck, walnut, and foie gras — relevant if you are vegetarian or avoiding rich proteins. Flagging requirements at reservation is standard practice at venues at this level.
Group capacity details are not listed in the venue record, so contact Le Pétrocore at 15 Rue Eguillerie, Périgueux to confirm. For larger parties in a city with limited restaurant density, booking well ahead is advisable — Périgueux does not have the fallback options of Bordeaux or Lyon if you lose a table. Smaller groups of two to four will find booking the more straightforward scenario.
L'Essentiel is the closest comparison — also Michelin-recognised and operating at a similar level in Périgueux. For a more casual meal, Hercule Poireau and Café Louise both offer solid options at lower price points. La Taula and L'Épicurien round out the shortlist if you want variety, but for a credentialled modern cuisine dinner, Le Pétrocore and L'Essentiel are the two names to compare directly.
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