10 Best Local Dishes from Lyon

Salade Lyonnaise is a simple and delicious green salad in Lyon. It combines bitter frisée lettuce, crispy bacon lardons, and croutons, and a soft poached egg. There’s also a version with chicken livers. All are coated with a punchy dressing made of Dijon mustard and walnut oil.

The curly Lyonnaise salad is popular in Lyon’s bouchon (bistros) and across France. It can be served as an appetiser or as a light lunch with some bread and cheese.

Quenelle is an iconic speciality of Lyon that dates back to the 19^th century. This dish has tender oval-shaped dumplings typically filled with creamed pike, a type of freshwater white fish. They can also contain meat, poultry, or vegetables combined with flour, breadcrumbs, or cabbage dough.

Quenelle is usually poached in water or broth, before being served in a creamy sauce. You can enjoy these light dumplings as appetisers or the main course. Thanks to its rather subtle taste, it’s often accompanied with rice, veal, and vegetables.  

Pâté en croute consists of a meat pâté wrapped in a pastry and baked until crispy. This Lyon dish is so popular that the city even hosts a chefs’ championship on the innovative preparation of the dish.

You’ll be pleased to discover the flavourful taste of the pâté. It’s traditionally cooked with meat marinated in a mixture of wine, bay leaves, and spices. The filling can be pork with duck foie gras, but veal, chicken, and rabbit are common alternatives. You can enjoy pâté en croute cut in slices as an appetiser, or as a main course with a green salad.

Poulet Célestine is a traditional chicken dish with a romantic backstory. In 1860, Jacques Rousselot, a talented young chef, invented the dish as a way of expressing his feelings to Celestine, a beautiful widow who managed the du Cercle restaurant. 

Poulet Célestine contains sautéed chicken, mushrooms, and tomatoes, along with a sauce made with cognac, white wine, and various spices. Enjoy this savoury dish with a glass of red wine – and your other half.

Tablier de sapeur is one of the most typical specialities of Lyon. The dish appeared during the time of Napoleon III – it literally means the ‘sapper’s apron’’ thanks to its resemblance to leather aprons worn by soldiers during the 19^th century.

Tablier de sapeur is made of beef tripes marinated in white wine, lemon juice, mustard, and spices. Then, it’s covered in breadcrumbs and pan-fried until golden. Pair this dish with mayonnaise-like gribiche (hardboiled egg) sauce, potatoes, seasonal vegetables, or a green salad.

Rosette de Lyon is one of the most famous local sausages. This high-quality cured pork sausage is traditionally flavoured with wine, sea salt, garlic, and various herbs. The natural sausage skin is then covered with black pepper.

Rosette de Lyon, which can be 1 metre long, is strung and dried for several months. You’ll appreciate the sausage’s distinctive flavour by enjoying it sliced into thick slices and served as an aperitif, paired with local cheeses and red wine.

Saint-Marcellin cheese has had a Protected Geographical Indication since 2013. It’s very popular in Lyon, often served as dessert. Made of raw cow’s milk, this cheese is small, soft, and creamy.

The Saint-Marcellin cheese can be enjoyed soft or hard, depending on the degree of ripening. You can spread it on pain brié (pounded bread) or pain viennois (a sweeter type of baguette). You can also enjoy it with dried fruit, which pairs well with the cheese’s tender texture.

Tarte aux pralines is an iconic Lyon’s dessert that’s easily recognized thanks to its gorgeous pink colour. Some say the tart’s origins go back to the 17^th century, though the Lyonnais tart as we know it today appeared several decades ago.

The irresistible taste of tarte aux pralines is due to the pink pralines’ filling, which is made of tiny, caramelised almonds coated with pink-tinted sugar. You can find this pretty tart in many bakeries across the city. You can also have it as dessert at a bouchon (bistro).

Coussin de Lyon is a delicious dessert invented in 1960 by Lyon’s famous chocolatier Voisin. Coussin is the French word for cushion, as this confectionary was inspired by a 17^th-century procession in Lyon. At the time, Catholics carried a wax candle and a gold crown on a silk cushion to ask the Virgin Mary to save the city from a plague epidemic.

Coussin de Lyon consists of a turquoise marzipan filled with dark chocolate ganache and flavoured with Curaçao liqueur. You can find this sweet treat exclusively in several outlets of Voisin in Lyon. It’s sold individually or in velvet boxes – the latter is a great gift for loved ones back home,

Cervelle de Canut is a creamy soft cheese usually served as a starter or aperitif in Lyon. The dish has a curious name that means “silk worker's brain”, as it was made popular by silk weavers during the 19^th century.

Cervelle de Canut will please you with a fresh and creamy taste of cow's milk, mixed herbs, garlic, olive oil, shallots, salt, and pepper. This savoury cheese can be eaten with potatoes on a baguette or crusty bread.