4 Great Restaurants in Provence to Try

While planning your Provence adventure, make sure your lodging, whether hotel, villa, or Airbnb, is located conveniently to the region’s best restaurants. Dining is an important part of the Provence experience, so here is a short list of highly regarded restaurants in the region.

L’Oustalet, Gigondas

Photo courtesy of l’oustalet-gigondas.com

The gem of the hillside village of Gigondas in France is L’Oustalet. With bare wood tables and minimalist decor, this one-room restaurant focuses on the wine and food served. The chef, who believes wine is inseparable from food, develops dishes to complement the wines. The cuisine is Mediterranean-inspired, containing locally grown ingredients, some from the restaurant’s vegetable garden. Because the region is famous for its truffles, the menu reflects a high regard for this rare, earthy fungus.

The menu matches food and wine, so diners have the best possible taste experiences. The chef recommends pairing beef with fresh juniper with a Grenache and adds pine nuts to a classic Ventoux lamb to develop the flavours of the wine as you dine. If you want a taste of the restaurant’s popular dish, try the salted cod with flakes of local truffles.

The wine shop, managed by an A-list sommelier, incorporates a three-story wine wall. Most of the wine is from local vineyards, and the unique taste is attributed to the Mistral, a wind that dries out fungus. These fields are filled with ancient vines. Many oenophiles time their visits to the restaurant’s monthly wine tastings so they can finish their tastings with a glorious meal.

L’atelier de Jean-Luc Rabanel, Arles

Photo courtesy of tripadvisor.com rabanel.com

The 35-seat casual restaurant, Le Restaurant l’Atelier, the centre of Arles and France’s first certified organic restaurant, uses 100 types of heirloom fruits and vegetables from the establishment’s biodynamic farm. With no written menu, it serves delicious dishes described as explosive, such as sugarless sorbets made from vegetables at their seasonal height, figs roasted in black olive oil, and a vegetable yogurt with bits of morel mushrooms paired with guinea fowl baked in a salt crust.

The owner and chef Jean-Luc Rabanel pairs organic ingredients from his garden with locally raised beef, pork, game, herbs, and mushrooms. The chef has earned two Michelin stars, and he recently opened an adjoining bistro serving Provençal classics for lower prices.

L’Oustau de la Font, Le Village, Reilhanette

Photo courtesy of tripadvisor.com

This modern bistro, L’Oustau de la Font, offers high quality, traditional cuisine in an ancient stone house beside an old bath and laundry basin in the middle of a ten-acre park. In good weather, guests enjoy dining outside to enjoy the view of Mont Ventoux.

Chef of the restaurant, Ludovic Monier, serves a memorable terrine with layers of foie gras and spiced bread. He fills the “beggar’s purse,” a thin Tunisian pastry, with leeks, barley, and goat cheese. The “purse” is deep-fried and served with the acclaimed Nyons olives, mildly salty and bitter Tanane olives pricked on all sides, dry-cured, brined for six months, and then packed in olive oil. He purchases the organic sourdough bread from the baker down the road who uses a wood-burning oven.

The 2017 Michelin Guide notes the restaurant serves high-quality cuisine at a reasonable price.

Bistro du’O, Vaison la Romaine

Photo courtesy of bistroduo.fr

The restaurant Bistro du’O in the old town is run by a young couple who turned the former stables of the Château de Vaison into a welcoming space with 12th Century arches above its modern, rustic decor.

The restaurant’s dishes feature seasonal ingredients sourced from local farms, an entree of pork cheek ravioli with a slice of fois gras, fois gras with smoked salmon tartar, and lemon sorbet with lemon creme.

The owners who are experts at finding the best wines to accompany their dishes are ready to provide the best wine pairings for your meal.

Provence cuisine is among the best in the world, but choose restaurants wisely to discover the finest Provence has to offer.

This article is written by the editorial team at Luxury Mansion Rentals in Los Angeles, California.