As you know, I really love the city of Besançon, which I already talked about at length in a previous article, “A long weekend to visit Besançon“, where you’ll find lots of information about the city, as well as ideas for sights to see and things to do in town and around it.
In this article, I’m sharing a complementary list: my selection of great food spots in Besançon and the surrounding area, which we had the chance to try out during two stays in the city with my favorite photographer, in May 2021 and November 2022. These places often let you discover local products and a few regional specialties to taste if you come to the Doubs, like Morteau sausage or Jura wines… Did you know that just 300 years ago, Besançon was a city of winegrowers with the biggest vineyard in Franche-Comté? (It was the phylloxera crisis in the 19th century that put an end to this important winemaking tradition!)
Table of Contents
Foodie shops in Besançon
In this section, I’m sharing a selection of shops where you can buy delicious goodies in Besançon. On Sunday mornings, I recommend heading to the Rivotte market to stock up on local products, and especially, in our case, cheese! In 2021, we took the opportunity to raid the market’s cheesemongers for Comté and Morbier (I recommend the ones from the Histoire de Goûts stand).
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Where to buy good local products? Lulu Muc et le Lapin (closed)
The shop Lulu Muc et le Lapin (closed) offered 100% Franche-Comté products (cheese, meat, charcuterie, wines, drinks, groceries, sweets…). It was the perfect place for a foodie shopping spree and to bring a few specialties back home. They also offered to put together a custom Franche-Comté picnic for you.
On the picnic menu: cooked Morteau sausage and country terrine (ferme Bulloz Fontain); smoked ham (maison Thaurin in Moutaine); 18-month reserve Comté (Marcel Petite); wild garlic tomme (ferme du Pré Verdot in Pouilley-les-Vignes); organic sheep’s milk tomme (ferme des Aubracs in Trésilley); pink radishes (Gaec du Champ libre in Grosbois); sèches comtoises and gaudes cookies from the biscuiterie Douce Comtoise; “Grand Angle ville de Besançon” milk chocolate bar from the Chocolaterie Grandvoinnet in Besançon; baguette from La Huche à Pain; red wine from the Loue valley; Chardonnay white wine from Moutherot; organic apple juice from the Jardins de Cocagne.
My tip: go have your picnic at the Gare d’Eau.
Tested in 2021
Lulu Muc et le Lapin
52 Faubourg Rivotte 25000 Besançon
Tel: 03 81 81 38 65
Permanently closed
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Where to buy cheese in Besançon? La cave aux fromages
This great spot specializing in cheese and regional products, with a lovely selection of local cheeses, is right next to the city’s Fine Arts museum. We stocked up on Comté of course, but also on Morbier to bring home in our suitcase (our train neighbors loved it!). The shop offers no fewer than 11 different Comtés, with aging times ranging from 6 to 40 months.
Tested in 2022
La cave aux fromages
2 rue Gustave Courbet 25000 Besançon
Restaurants in Besançon
Below, I’m sharing a selection of restaurants that we had the chance to try during our two getaways to Besançon (in 2021 and 2022). There’s something for every taste, I think, and for every budget too!
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Where to eat local in Besançon? Restaurant Casinne
This very friendly little spot in the city center favors organic, homemade food made with local, seasonal ingredients. As a result, the menu is very short (which is always a good sign). The restaurant even displays where most of its ingredients come from on a small sign at the entrance.
We tried: veal blanquette with rice (12,50€); mini pumpkins stuffed with mushrooms, served with polenta and parsley salad (11,50€); for dessert, tarte tatin with crème fraîche (7,50€), rum and raisin baba (7,50€), sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream (7,50€).
To discover on the drinks side: local beers from the Brasserie l’Origine du Monde and the craft brewery Bières Ney (4,70 € a beer).
Restaurant Casinne
132 Grande Rue, Besançon
Prices: lunch menu with only 2 dishes (12,50€ and 11,50€) / expect to spend around 25€ per person for a main course, a dessert, a drink and a coffee
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Where to have lunch on a terrace in Besançon? Restaurant Les Gamins
This restaurant is a little gem and one of my favorites from our 2021 stay when it comes to food! First of all, the restaurant’s terrace is set up on a very quiet pedestrian street with hardly any cars passing by, which is so pleasant. And on the plate, it’s delicious! The chef is one of the best in town and his dishes are simple, balanced and perfectly executed. You can go there without hesitation, I promise you! As for wine, the owner is a connoisseur (he’s a former sommelier) and he offers a really lovely wine list. I recommend letting him guide you if you’re a wine lover and want to discover some beautiful wine estates.
To taste: wasabi guacamole, fried potato wafers with spices (starter of the day 5,50 €); guinea fowl supreme stuffed with Morteau sausage (weekday lunch special 10,90 €); Black Angus picanha (Uruguay) with a beef jus reduction and lemon polenta crisp (26,50 €); for dessert, don’t miss the salted butter caramel rice pudding, which is amazing (even I, who don’t usually like rice pudding much, was won over / 6,50 €); orange blossom madeleine with blood orange sorbet (4,50 €); lemon meringue tart (7,50 €).
Good to know: a vegetarian dish is available on request, depending on what’s come in that day (14 €).
Tested in 2021
Restaurant Les Gamins
10 rue Pasteur 25000 Besançon
Prices (in 2021): starter of the day at lunch 5 € and à la carte between 11 € and 14 € / dish of the day at lunch 10,80 € and à la carte between 9 € and 26,50 € / desserts between 4,50 € and 9 €
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Where to eat vegetarian in Besançon? Chez l’Unalôme
This ethical, sustainable and creative restaurant serves vegetarian and vegan dishes, cooked according to what comes in from the local producers it works with directly. The restaurant puts the quality of its ingredients front and center, using products from farming that respects living things and natural cycles whenever possible. You can eat in or take away.
The place also offers a nice, carefully curated little selection of wines (wines by the glass between 6,20 € and 7,50 €), with a good share from Jura winemakers in particular, as well as local craft beers (between 5 € and 11 €).
Tested in 2022
Unalôme
3 rue Rivotte 25000 Besançon
Prices (2022): starters 8,50 € / mains 19 € / desserts 7,50 €
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Where to have a medieval meal in Besançon? Le Calice Enchanté
I loved the soul and the atmosphere of this place, which really offers a unique experience, I think. The concept is to serve a starter, a main and a dessert every day that strictly follow medieval recipes, in the tradition of experimental archaeology, while using as many local and seasonal products as possible, of course. The couple who opened this place in 2021 is truly adorable, and they do the serving (and the cooking) dressed in outfits that are a bit “medieval fantasy” style, which totally sets the mood. On top of that, they’re passionate and highly knowledgeable about medieval history, tales and legends, and they could talk for hours about that period and about medieval cuisine too. So on top of enjoying a delicious meal, we learned lots of really interesting things on the subject!
What to try: for drinks, I recommend trying the hypocras (a wine with honey, cinnamon and spices – 4 € a glass) and the mead (an alcoholic drink made from honey – 4 € a glass); that day, for the starter we had a brouet (a medieval soup), for the main it was pork with honey, apple and ginger, and for dessert a baked apple with almond and hazelnut powder.
Tested in 2022
Le Calice Enchanté
9 rue Peclet 25000 Besançon
Prices (2022): single starter at 6 € / dish of the day at 14 € / dessert at 4 €
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Where to go for brunch in Besançon? Aime Café Miam
This lovely little spot on the place Saint-Amour offers a very complete 24 € brunch menu on weekends. It’s also a great place for breakfast or an afternoon snack.
On the brunch menu:
- a hot drink
- a cold drink
- a granola bowl
- 1 savory dish of your choice: we had the eggs Benedict with bacon and the avocado toast
- 1 dessert: we had the carrot cake and the banana bread
Tested in 2022
Aime Café Miam
2B Square Saint Amour, 25000 Besançon
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Where to have a gourmet dinner in Besançon? At the restaurant Le Parc (closed)
2026 update, the restaurant is closed. What follows is my review from back when I tested it:
This restaurant is the rising star of Besançon’s gourmet scene, and you can tell it’s aiming for the award of the same name from the Michelin Guide. The setting, in the city park (it was actually the former Besançon Tourist Office building), puts it in the middle of a very soothing green haven. The panoramic terrace is particularly enjoyable for that reason, right in the heart of the surrounding nature.
On the plate, you’ll find elegant and ambitious cuisine that pays tribute to local products and know-how. Special mention for the wine list, which let us discover a few little local gems. And the service is impeccable, as it should be in establishments of this standard. In short, a place to keep an eye on in the years to come!
Our tasting menu: duck and foie gras pâté en croûte; croque finger; beetroot and fresh goat cheese, pickled raspberry and toasted seeds; fragrant rice paella-style; confit lamb shoulder, cauliflower and broccoli; kiwi, coconut and tarragon; vanilla cream, rhubarb and strawberries.
The wines: house aperitif (Batak pepper syrup and crémant du Jura); IGP Champlitte Domaine de la Paturie Par Amour; Côtes du Jura Trousseau Domaine des Ronces.
Tested in 2021
Restaurant Le Parc (closed)
Place de la 1ère Armée Française, 25000 Besançon
Prices: chef’s tasting menu at 97 € / 3-course menu at 74 € / food and wine pairing at 65 €
The good deal: market menu at lunchtime only with starter + main + dessert at 39 €
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Where to have dinner at a green-star restaurant in Besançon? Restaurant Le Saint Cerf
This restaurant, which has had a Michelin Guide green star since 2021, was one of the loveliest discoveries of our stay in Besançon in November 2022. In the kitchen is the young chef Xavier Choulet, who works only with seasonal products from regional partners. The place really won us over, both for the quality of what you find on the plate and for the intimate, cozy atmosphere of this contemporary bistro that embodies the renewal of Besançon’s gastronomy. So it’s a place I warmly recommend.
Tested in 2022
Restaurant Le Saint Cerf
1 rue Mégevand, 25000 Besançon
Price (2022): escape menu at 70 € (food & wine pairing at 30 €) / seasonal 3-course menu at 50 €
The good deal : the lunch menu with starter + main + dessert for 30 €
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Where to have dinner with a view in Besançon? Restaurant Le Sauvage
This lovely spot belongs to the hotel Le Sauvage (which I told you about in my other article on Besançon), and it also has a very good restaurant. So even if you’re not staying at the hotel, you can still enjoy the place with a meal in its restaurant. And on sunny days, you can have dinner on the terrace with a view of the setting sun, and I can promise you the setting is enchanting. This dinner was also the occasion for a wine crush, with the discovery of a Pays de Franche-Comté wine, an old-vines Chardonnay from the Vignoble Guillaume, which we loved (photo below)!
To taste: cucumber gazpacho with herb-marinated trout gravlax; veal, pork and poultry pâté en croûte; roasted cod loin, crunchy vegetables, ricotta-spinach cannelloni; poached, confit and grilled octopus with a creamy risotto; cheese selection; poached rhubarb, crumble and sorbet.
Tested in 2021
Hôtel Restaurant Spa Le Sauvage
6 Rue du Chapitre, 25000 Besançon
Prices: 39 € menu with starter + main + dessert / Rooms from 115 €
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Where to have lunch along the Euro Vélo 6? L’Epicerie du Canal
During our bike ride along the Doubs and before our canoe activity, we stopped at L’Epicerie du Canal. To be honest, we had a few letdowns during our lunch (very slow service, decent dishes but nothing more…), but maybe we just caught them on an off day… It’s a shame, because the place is ideally located if you’re going for a stroll in the area, and the setting really doesn’t lack charm. Let’s hope we were just unlucky.
The positive point of this lunch is that it gave me the chance to discover a Franche-Comté specialty (and you know how important that is to me when I’m traveling): the croûte aux morilles, a recipe made with morels in a cream sauce and toasted bread croutons (lightness incarnate / 22,50 €).
Tested in 2021
Epicerie du Canal
7 Rue du Halage, 25720 Avanne-Aveney
Dishes priced between 15,50 € and 23 €
link to the restaurant’s website
Bars in Besançon
In this section, I’m sharing a selection of Besançon bars where you can go for a drink. Unfortunately, so far I’ve only had the chance to try one place, so I may have to add to it on our next visit to the Franche-Comté city.
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Where to have a cocktail in Besançon? La Buvette du Conservatoire
This spot, which overlooks the place de la Révolution, is a really nice place serving quality cocktails and a few lovely little boards to go with them. The bar is also set in a former grain loft, in a building dating from 1722. When we visited in 2022, we were told that a Loiseau restaurant would be opening right next door in 2023… So we’ll have to check that out on our next trip to Besançon!
Tested in 2022
La Buvette du Conservatoire
27 rue des BoucheriesPrices (2022): cocktails between 8 € and 12 € / mocktails 8 € / boards and tapas between 4 € and 16 €
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Thanks to Besançon tourisme and to the aiRPur agency for these two delicious welcomes during which we discovered plenty of lovely spots in Besançon.
I hope that with all this I’ve made you want to visit the Doubs and Besançon, and if you have your own favorite spots and tips for this destination, feel free to share them in the comments below!
Photo credits: Nicolas Diolez and Melle Bon Plan Photos are not royalty-free; permission from the photographer is required before any use.
