My husband and I stopped in for a couple coffees after exploring the town. Nice, typical cafe with…read morevery friendly staff. The owner greeted us with, "Bonjour!" and a smile and a handshake before taking our order, and was very patient with our very limited French. Plenty of locals and regulars coming and going, and good windows to watch passing foot traffic.

From the owner: Retour en Savoie Le restaurant Chez Les Fondus, situé en plein centre-ville de Saint-Etienne,…read moreressemble fort à un chalet savoyard de par sa décoration intérieure. Vous retrouverez l'ambiance d'antan grâce à des tables en bois, des nappes à carreaux, un vieux fourneau et des vieux objets chinés. La cuisine servie est savoyarde. Fondue, raclette mais aussi pierrade, braserade ainsi que des crêpes sont au menu.

From the owner: Bon vin et cochonailles Le concept de "Vert Bouteille" connaît un franc succès auprès des…read morestéphanois. Ce resto-bar propose du vin de qualité et une cuisine simple et traditionnelle : andouillettes, jambon grillé, tartines, salades... Autre atoût, l'ambiance est conviviale du midi au soir. Il est aussi possible de venir uniquement déguster un verre de vin, d'aller faire un tour à la cave et découvrir les nombreuses bouteilles qui y dorment.

Service is slow even though I'm used to "not-so-fast" French service. We took suggestion of the…read moreday, ok, for the meat it was okay, but just okay, nothing special, it's suggestion of the day, so no surprise here. For my fiancée we took a salad, which was also one of the suggestions, and here starts some strange thing - the salad had some dirt on the leaves and it was awful. We asked the waiter to come, it took him almost half an hour for that, but the place was not even close to be full, after that waiter suggested us to replace this salad, but the mood was already spoiled and we decided to leave and never come back to this place.

From the owner: La Java Bleue est un bistrot à viande spécialisé dans la viande boeuf française et de race noble.read more