Les Bacchanales, a fine dining restaurant in Lyon
Les Bacchanales grew out of a desire to create a place of our own in Lyon: somewhere guests would be welcomed as they might be to a celebratory dinner, with a certain sense of ritual — a little luxurious, deliberately old-world — and with the personal, unaffected and attentive hospitality that we associate with the French art of receiving guests.
This is the restaurant of two people who did not set out to create just another restaurant, but their restaurant.
The setting is part of the experience. Tucked away on the first floor of one of Ainay’s historic buildings, beneath a magnificent timber roof structure dated October 1643, Les Bacchanales deliberately withdraws from the bustle of the street. Upstairs, the dining room is intimate and hushed, filled with Baroque music: a setting outside time, made for letting go, taking one’s time and allowing oneself to be surprised.
Push open the door, step beyond the curtain and let us lead you upstairs into our world.
The Bacchanalia: The Story behind the Name
The name is clearly an allusion to Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, another obvious thread running through the restaurant and a passion shared by both owners. Jérôme is an enthusiastic hunter, and a curious seeker, of uncompromising winemakers whose philosophy is as forthright and authentic as his own. It is also a more subtle nod to the cult of Dionysus, the Greek counterpart to Bacchus, a ritual honoring the god who shapes the world through madness and orgiastic excess; in a setting so orderly and meticulously crafted, we leave it to you to discover the truth behind the allusion...
Jean-Baptiste Magno: cuisine rooted in tradition and passion
At Les Bacchanales in Lyon, Jean-Baptiste Magno, trained at the Institut Paul Bocuse and shaped by experience in distinguished kitchens, creates food firmly rooted in the great French culinary tradition — from Lyon’s legendary Mères to Escoffier and even the great Carême.
It is a cuisine built on the almost alchemical craft of stocks, jus and sauces, and on preparations that may seem somewhat elaborate by contemporary standards, but remain central to the chef’s inspiration.
That tradition is modernised, thoroughly absorbed and enriched by an Italian sensibility inherited from his family background.
Enough of “creativity”. Here, passion comes first.
Menus and pairings: the fine-dining experience in Lyon
In the evening, our menu is offered in either seven or five courses. On Saturday evenings, only the seven-course tasting menu is served.
At lunch, from Thursday to Saturday, the same cuisine is reworked into a four-course menu using the same carefully selected ingredients — equally suited to a business lunch or simply to the pleasure of a leisurely meal.
Our cooking is seasonal, organic and locally sourced because we believe it should be, but without dogma.
The food and wine pairings are composed with the same care, with particular attention to lesser-known regions, appellations and grape varieties, chosen for the way they work with each dish — sometimes with a degree of audacity.
Les Bacchanales seats around twenty guests. Service is polished and professional, with conversation and interaction whenever guests welcome it.
For groups, the Salon des Bacchanales, our private dining room on the ground floor, welcomes parties of six or more in a space reserved entirely for them.
With only around twenty guests in the dining room each evening, we recommend booking ahead so that we can preserve both the intimacy of the restaurant and the attention given to every table.
Wine, above all, is about encounters
Behind the wine list at Les Bacchanales are first and foremost people: winemakers, small estates and little-known appellations that Jérôme seeks out with the same curiosity and exacting standards that Jean-Baptiste brings to his ingredients.
No compromises, and no safe choices simply for the sake of familiarity: this is a living wine list, shaped by conviction, discovery and personal favourites.
