Occitan gastronomy on the grandest scale

Although I have often written about the gastronomy of southern France, particularly from a historical angle, I have never before devoted an entire article to a single restaurant because I do not purport to be a restaurant reviewer. But yesterday, my wife organised lunch in such an unusual eatery I have decided to make an exception. 

I enjoyed our lunch so much I thought it would be a good place to take Madame Taylor for dinner on her birthday. Unfortunately, I found that the 9th March is already fully booked. In fact, the first available date for dinner for two is 2 October 2024! For a restaurant that serves 350,000 customers a year, or nearly 1,000 meals every single day, this is an extraordinarily long wait. It also suggests that Les Grands Buffets in Narbonne is an extraordinary restaurant in more ways than one.

This titan of Occitan gastronomy has been filling its tables since 1989 and it has become such an institution, it ranks as one of the leading tourist attractions in the area. As a comparison, the wonderful new museum about Roman Narbonne, Narbo Via, welcomed 67,000 visitors in 2022.

Forewarned of the scale of this operation, I did not expect to find Les Grands Buffets hidden away in some quaint, historic corner of the old Roman city. But neither did I expect to find myself queueing in the foyer of a council-run leisure centre where other visitors were buying tickets for the ice-skating rink, the bowling alley or the aquatic centre.

In between these ticket counters is a statue of Silenus, a companion of the Greek god of wine, Dionysus. A flight of steps leads towards dark wood and glass doors that give the entrance an almost oriental feel. Just inside, an old weighing machine from Paris offers the health-conscious the possibility of weighing themselves in and weighing themselves out (during lunch, I put on three kilograms, or about 7 pounds).

Inside, the dining space is divided into several areas, including an outside terrace for summer, all decorated with original sculptures and other works of art. Inevitably, the tables are close together, but transparent screens provide privacy and the ambient noise is unexpectedly muted. These features add to the experience, but most customers obviously come here for the food. Which leads to the question, what attracts so many gourmets to Les Grands Buffets? Is it the cheese? With 111 different varieties on offer, the restaurant holds the Guinness World Record for the largest cheeseboard, and diners munch their way through 500 kilograms a day. Or perhaps the main attraction is the seafood, or maybe the roast meats and cured hams, the panoply of desserts or the old-fashioned ice-cream palace. All this is spread out over several different areas with some hot items being cooked to order in front of you (my omelette aux cèpes, for example).

The wine list deserves a special mention because you are unlikely to find such good wine at such good prices anywhere else. The restaurant claims that its wines are sold at the same price you would pay if you bought them direct from the vineyard, a claim that I was able to verify online for a random selection of bottles. Apart from champagne, they all come from south-west France, 70 are available by the glass and organic wines are well-represented. 

The price for lunch or dinner is €57.90, children aged 6 to 10 eat half price and those under 6 dine free. If you are tempted by lunch rather than dinner, you will not have to wait until October for a table – often a couple of weeks at most. But the restaurant’s popularity and long waiting lists has provided other restaurateurs with an opportunity. La Table d’Oc in Villeneuve-Lès-Maguelone opened its doors in 2017 and seats 200. More recently, November 2023 saw the opening of Saveurs Gourmandes in Albi which, with 450 covers, is almost as large as its competitor in Narbonne. Both these big buffet alternatives are considerably cheaper than the original, but I have yet to test their quality. Note that in Albi, if your eyes are bigger than your stomach, your bill may inflate considerably: each time you fill your plate and don’t finish it, you will be charged an extra €5.

And finally, a word about regional politics, not usually a subject associated with a single restaurant, but then not many restaurants employ 130 full-time staff and claim to be the largest in France. 

Two years ago, Les Grands Buffets shocked Narbonne by announcing it would relocate to a neighbouring town such as Béziers, Carcassonne or Perpignan. The main reason was dissatisfaction with the maintenance of the premises which, as you will have gathered from the start of this article, is part of a complex owned by the municipality. And the exterior of the building and the foyer is clearly out of keeping with the experience which awaits the diner once he or she has passed the swimmers and ice-skaters and vending machines and entered the restaurant. 

A change of mayor in Narbonne town hall may lead to a change of heart. In early February 2024, the regional press reported that the mairie of Narbonne has come up with a new proposition: it intends to redevelop Narbonne’s Parc des Expositions, including a luxury hotel and a casino. Why not relocate Les Grands Buffets to the same site?

At the time of writing negotiations are ongoing, but forget politics and enjoy the experience as it is.

​I’ve made note in my diary on 9th March 2024 to book a table for two on 9th March 2025. 

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