L'Aubrac, Toulouse

The penultimate instalment in my Toulouse posts, L'Aubrac is a really cool restaurant filled with rugby memorabilia, and serving huge amounts of classic southern French food.

I was first attracted to it by the promise of an all you can eat starter if you get the "formule" - and it definitely didn't disappoint.

You get brought a huge basket of meat

Pretty much a brick sized slab of pâté

Butter and pickles (I LOVE pickles so that is an amazing addition)

And a basket of freshly baked bread

And you're free to cut, spread and eat to your heart's content! They even keep topping up the basket of bread - I think we went through three this time!

The pâté is one of the best I've had (sadly I have never thought to ask what it is, but I think it's probably "Pâté de Campagne) and all of the meats are delicious (I think the big one in the middle was my favourite); I probably could have carried on eating them all night. However, having learnt from past errors (I was so full after my first time here that I could barely walk and had to get a taxi home) I decided to pace myself.  

After you've finished this, you might have thought it was time for the main course, but no. They bring out more (coarse) pâté and different ham!

Me and my dad both think the coarse pâté looks a bit like cat food but he was brave and tried some and said it was good!

Now, after eating more than I probably would in a typical day just from the starter, the mains come out

Toulouse sausage and chips

The chips aren't the best, but the Toulouse sausage (an appropriate choice) is garlicky, herby and flavoursome. And after the starter I didn't even feel like I needed the main to be amazing - it's not cordon bleu food, it's just homely and filling which was perfect.

For pudding you can choose from either unlimited cheeses (so pretty much like the starter but with cheese), or sorbet or ice cream. Seeing as strong cheeses are the one thing I can't tolerate, and also after unlimited meats and a main anyone who can do more unlimited food must have a stomach of steel (or not be making the most of all you can eat), we both went for sorbet (lemon and raspberry) it was delicious and a refreshing end to a meat heavy meal!

Shiny and happy

I'd recommend this restaurant to anyone who can make the most of all you can eat, who wants to try typical southern French food and/or who likes rubgy, as it's so rugby themed!

A couple of photos from our first visit there:

If only I was still this tanned..