EBG Rating: 7.6/10

Choice/Quality of Drinks:
❤️❤️❤️❤️

Style/Décor:
❤️❤️❤️❤️

Atmosphere/Character:
❤️❤️❤️❤️

Amenities/Events:
❤️❤️❤️❤️

Value For Money:
❤️❤️❤️❤️

Description:
A holdover from the days when Croix-Rousse was studded with punk bars and dropout joints, des Capucin’s occupies a small square of the same name, and its central location feels very much like a “f-you” to the gentrified bagel joints and and wine bars that have popped up since the 1990s.

Run by two-brothers, the mode here is distinctly counter-cultural, scuzzy, grungey and punk, with floors encrusted with the memories of nights gone by and the views and values of the thousands who have passed through it. That mark on the place is indelible, so it really does count as one of Lyon’s most distinctive.

Beer – which is surprisingly decent, is sold at a fair rate overall and reflects a city where the standard offerings almost everywhere have been elevated since the days of Kronenbourg being the one and only.

Gig nights and winter months draw customers inside, but as always in France, any excuse to be on the terrace is taken – you may find the inside somewhat empty at various times of the year.

One of those bars that will be instantly love-and-hate depending on your tolerance levels or affection for punk, but it’s a fine example of what it does and what it’s trying to be.

(Added March 2026)