Eating out in Lille
…check our restaurant guide 
here…
Courses
A French meal may include numerous courses, in this order:
- Apéritif – cocktail, pre-dinner drink
- Amuse-bouche or amuse-gueule – snack (just one or two bites)
- Entrée – appetizer/starter (entree can mean “main course” in English)
- Plat principal – main course
- Fromage – cheese
- Dessert – dessert
- Café – coffee
- Digestif – after-dinner drink
Local dishes from Nord-Pas-de Calais
Starters
Beer or garlic soup.
Fish soup
Flamiche aux poireaux (brioche-like dough, usually garnished with leeks)
Soupe des maraichers – Vegetable and herb soup.
Tarte aux endives- Endive tart (produced locally in St. Omer / Arras areas)
Goyère au maroilles (brioche-like tart with cheese, usually made with Maroilles)
Meat
Carbonade flamande – (Flemish dish) beef cooked in beer and onions
Coq à la bière (chicken stew) – chicken cooked in beer with vegetables. Best made with free-range poultry from Licques.
Hochepot – typically Flemish meat dish in which pieces of beef, lamb, veal and pork are cooked together, with all of the vegetables of the pot-au feu (stew).
Lapin au Pruneaux – Rabbit with prunes.
Pot’je vleish (Flemish dish from Dunkirk) – cold meat brawn made from three or four meats usually veal, bacon and rabbit (sometimes with chicken, duck and rabbit). Traditionally eaten cold, or warm accompanied by French fries and a good regional beer.
Fish
L’anguille au vert – eels cooked with herbs (sorrel, spinach, chervil, cress and parsley) in white wine
Carpe à la bière – carp from local rivers, cooked in butter with onions, shallots, celery, bay and thyme; then baked with strong local beer and spiced bread
Caudière – Fisherman’s soup originally cooked by fishermen on their boats from fish caught the same day.
Mussels
Waterzoï de poissons – a freshwater fish stew, a traditional recipe of poached and creamed fish accompanied with vegetables “en julienne” (leeks, celery and carrots).
Other
Chou rouge à la lilloise – red cabbage and onions, with cloves, nutmeg and whole peppers. Best with roasted meats.
Desserts
Babeluttes de Lille – caramels
Battu – a plain, brioche-like cake used for celebrations in the North
Betises – mint humbugs.
Chuques du Nord - coffee sweets with caramel centre
Cramique – type of brioche with currants
Gaufres – waffles
Pain d’épice – gingerbread
Tarte aux Fromages - a Light cheesecake made with cottage cheese and eggs
Tarte au Gros Bord – a speciality of the Boulonnaise region which is also known as a “li bouli” (‘lait bouilli’ or ‘boiled milk’) tart. Brioche-like dough garnished with warm custard and prunes.
Tarte aux sucre – brown sugar tart
Vergeoise – white or brown sugar with a particularly creamy and liquid consistency. Very nice in dairy products, it is often used in local dessert recipes (crème brûlée, tarte au sucre).
Bistouille – a strong coffee laced with alcohol
Cheeses – local cheeses tend to be strong
Maroilles (spicy, piquant and washed in beer every ten days during its maturation), Dauphin, Trappiste, Rollot, Vieux Lille, Boulette d’Avesnes (powerful), Mont des Cats, Fromage de l’Avesnois, Fromage de Bergues.
Cooked Meats
Andouille de Cambrai – a cold meat product made from pork stomach and intestines. Product covered by a regional label.
Andouillette de Cambrai – cold meat product to be grilled, made from calf’s caul.
Boudin flamand – Flemish black pudding, stuffed with currants, vergeoise and cinnamon.
Langue Lucullus – a speciality from Valenciennes. Smoked beef tongue pastries with a foie gras mousse.
