EBG Rating: 7.9/10

Choice/Quality of Drinks:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Bespoke cocktails heavily accented by the use of Arquebuse liqueur in a high number of recipes.

Style/Décor:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Superb vaulted basement with carefully curated retro signage including the eponymous Bon Secours fastened behind the main bar under a stone arch. Upstairs is also furnished and perhaps is used at busier times – there is a seperate bar at ground level.

Atmosphere/Character:
❤️❤️❤️
Very calm and rarefied air in the basement, with an ease from the careful muted lighting. Perhaps a little bit too stiff-shirted overall though.

Amenities/Events:
❤️❤️
Food, snacks

Value For Money:
❤️❤️❤️
Although face value prices are not cheap, the price:performance is good and as a one-off can certainly be justified.

Description:
Showing it sometimes pays to research beforehand, our first visit here was met with a locked door and an empty room, the waiter in the backroom potentially cleaning up for the night. Something about that didn’t seem right though, so I lingered until catching the waiters eye. They then met me at a a side door.

The password was requested and thankfully they took pity on me, giving me a rather big clue (it’s what’s written directly under the bars name on the laminated signs by the door) and I was led in.

Instead of being sat in the room visible from the street (situated along the lanes of Vieux Lyon), I was led down an ancient stairwell into a basement bar.

Tastefully decorated with retro signage, some of the French liqueur Arquebuse. This gives the bar its name, a 1930s brand which features heavily on a list of bespoke cocktails on a menu you will be handed as you are led to your table.

Under stone vaults and effective, warm muted lighting, a sense of ease and calm is imbued. There is plenty to look at, but the tempo persuades you to take it at a leisurely pace.

I opted for an Absinth-Pastis-Cream blend which was utterly delightful, potentially a top 5 cocktail in my life. Naturally, these do not come cheap in a reasonably upscale hidden bar in Lyon’s old town, but it was certainly one of the most delicious drinks I’ve put in my mouth.

It is a really wonderful setting and beautifully curated bar, perhaps the only downside an unnecessary formality brought on by the hidden bar setting, which succeeds in making it special feeling but could potentially feel more welcoming streetside, and more fun in the bar.

Those constructive criticisms aside, you should certainly mark this one down to visit.

(Added March 2026)