Another French bistro, another order of beef tartare please! Only unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of this one at all. We had taken a lovely 1/2 day tour of Avignon, which is the closest big town from where we were staying. There is an interesting papal palace and a few other cute sights around the city that made it worth a day trip. We ended our tour in the middle of town where there were several traditional looking outdoor French cafes. Since there were so many of us, we ended up picking Le Crillon since it could seats us outside and it had some semblance of an outdoor misting system since it was pretty hot outside. It honestly looked exactly like the two other cafes right next to each other and all of them looked like they catered to the busy tourist crowds with roughly the same kind of menu.
As expected the menu is typical French cafe food and since we were still binging on cheese and other heavy foods at the house, I went with the healthier meal of beef tartare again. Sadly this one was not as good as the other one A la Maison. Right off the bat you could see that the consistency of it was more on the mushy side. I like my tartare to be more chopped or cubed in texture but this one just reminded me more of ground beef, which one I associated it with that, was a real turn off to me. Plus it was missing the all important raw yolk!! Who serves a beef tartare without the egg?!? The overall flavor was kind of bland and boring as well. Luckily it was served with fries and a salad that helped to fill my appetite.
Given the craziness of the trip, none of us really took the time to research where to eat after our tour so maybe this could have been avoided if we had planned in advance. But it's really hard to plan with so many people involved and so many last minute changes. While I didn't think my meal was awful, I was definitely not impressed by it, especially given how local of a dish it is.
Nez Place du Rouvis, 84190 Gigondas, France 4 Forks
If you ever have the chance to go to the South of France, I'm begging you to spend some time in Gigondas. It is seriously the cutest town I've ever seen. It's a tiny wine city that oozes charm. One of the people there had mentioned that there are more wine stores and restaurants than there are people there. It's like Napa or Sonoma but way cuter with their stone houses and blue shutters. We had the great pleasure of getting a private wine cellar tour which was super fun. Luckily the guide had asked us if we had any lunch plans and we stupidly said we'll just figure it out when we're done with our tour. She looked at us like we were completely insane. Apparently every place here is packed all the time, so you have to make a reservation. The first place we wanted to try was all full, but their sister wine bar called Nez was free so we snagged a reservation there.
I should caveat that it's really less of a restaurant but more of a wine bar that happens to serve some food. The menu is tiny, so be prepared to only choose from 1-2 options. Aside from that, the outdoor atmosphere is lovely. It's a great place to relax and enjoy some wine and take in the sights. They start you off with some small appetizers - one was a tabouleh plate, another was pig snout salad (it was very good and crunchy) and then a small serving of cheese. It was a good light starter to the meal. For my main I got the special of the day which was lemon risotto with chanterelle mushroom. Amazing! It had an excellent consistency - firm but with a hint of softness to it. It was very heavy on the lemon flavor - it almost tasted like they zested an entire lemon but that didn't really bother me too much. The mushrooms were fabulous and a nice salty combination with the risotto. It was definitely a heavy dish but not so heavy that you felt gross afterwards. It was also plated beautifully which was expected in such a lovely city.
Although tiny, I was simply enamored with this city. It screams cute European feel - it's almost a page out of Beauty and the Beast. Obviously if you want to eat at some of the larger restaurants in town, its crucial to make a reservation in advance, although I have read that some places aren't even open for lunch. While I thoroughly enjoyed my experience here, I will say that the limited menu was a bit of a turn off in the beginning but it all worked itself out. Besides, if you can't find anything you like to eat you can always just order wine and cheese all day and still be a happy camper too.
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