In winter it’s often all too easy to forget about the lovely old town area here in Alpe d’Huez, which can mean missing out on some of the real gems of restaurants the resort has to offer.
One of these real hidden gems is the Pizzeria Le Roy Ladre which you'll find down a little cobbled lane, opposite L’Indiana Bar and behind O’Bar. It's hugely popular with locals and seasonnaires alike and this itself speaks volumes.
It’s a small restaurant with around 25 seats and is situated in a converted “cave” (French for cellar). The first thing that struck us upon entering was the wonderful smell of freshly baked pizza. I never get tired of that smell and I knew then we were onto a winner.
The restaurant is brightly decorated with typical alpine adornments on the walls with wooden tables and chairs, giving it a genuinely alpine and really wonderful feel to it. It’s run by a family and this is very evident in the welcome you receive – very warm and genuine. It wasn’t too busy when we arrived, with around 10 other diners which meant that we were given a choice of tables.
The lady owner brought us the menus and took our drinks order. Having been skiing all day and then to the gym I was craving some carbs, so I had already decided to go for pasta rather than a pizza (for a change) so I decided on the lasagne and salad. Rachel was intent on pizza (she had been bending my ear about pizza for about 5 days) and she duly choose the Pizza Souveraine – a lovely tomato, cheese, ham and mushroom pizza.
All of the pizzas on the menu are aptly named after some of the pistes here in Alpe d’Huez – there’s the Sarenne (Tomatoes, cheese, bacon, onion, mushrooms and cream) and the Tunnel (a stuffed pizza with tomatoes, cheese, ham, egg and cream) to name but a few.
It’s not as big or commercially orientated as some of the other restaurants in resort (which is lovely) and the food is freshly prepared, so the service is a bit slower than in other places, but wow, it was worth the wait. The table opposite us received their pizzas just after we had ordered and this was really unfair – it looked and smelt lovely and made the wait for ours seem a lot longer, and judging by their reaction it tasted as good as it looked.
My lasagne was gorgeous and obviously freshly made and was accompanied by a really nice salad, along with some chilli olive oil. Solely for the purposes of this article (yeah right) I tried a slice of Rachel’s pizza, and boy it was a good one, with a lovely thin crispy base and plenty of tasty toppings. As is usual for me, two empty plates was the outcome!
It’s always tough when trying to compare pizza from one restaurant to another when they are both so good. The last pizza I had was from Pinocchios Restaurant and I really can’t say which was better, they are both great pizzas. But Le Roy Ladre has a smaller more typical old town alpine feel to it, which I really like. With prices for pizzas ranging from €9.80 to €15.80, lasagnes at €12.90, steaks at €19.90 it’s pretty good value too.
Additionally, it’s very child friendly, they even have a pot of colouring pencils to keep little ones entertained and they do a great children’s menu at €9.50 or an option for ½ a lasagne or tartiflette for ½ price, so there’s plenty of choice for younger ones.
We paid €43.10 for a fabulous pizza, lasagne and salad and two drinks each (€3.20 for a small beer – not bad) which I think is pretty god value as the quality was truly top notch.
Le Roy Ladre is definitely an “Arnie” restaurant for me….”I’ll be back!”….
