Thank Friday it's Lunchtime - Restaurant Carluc, Ceréste

This week's TFIL is a little different, in that we actually had our meal out on Thursday evening, not Friday lunchtime.  The quality of the food won't change from morning to evening, we reasoned, although there won't be a Menu du Midi (lunchtime special) on offer.

We ate in Carluc a couple of times last year and were never disappointed, so we had high hopes as we arrived at 7.30pm.  The owner greeted us like old friends, and actually, it felt like something of a homecoming - it hadn't changed inside at all, there were some familiar dishes on the menu and best of all, our friends R & G joined us for dinner!

The LSH and I have the same taste in a lot of things (except he likes fish!) and we often opt for the same dish.  This evening was no exception, and we both ordered the same starter, Croustillant de Chévre (goats cheese in filo pastry).  In fact, the croustillant appealed to everyone at the table and we all ordered it!

It was superb - goats cheese and mouth-watering semi-dried tomatoes wrapped in crisp filo pastry, with a crisp green salad on the side - an excellent start to our meal.

G and I opted for the same main course, Cuisse de Pintade, a leg of guinea fowl.  Guinea fowl has been a revelation and I buy it quite a lot in the supermarket here.  To me, it's just like chicken used to be, in the good old days before they started pumping it full of liquid.  The meat is more fibrous and less glaringly white than chicken, and although some people might find the flavour a little gamey, it just tastes extra-chickeny to me.

It came with a little heap of risotto, a really good gravy-like sauce and seasonal vegetables on the side.

The LSH ordered Bouef aux Echalots, or beef with shallots.  This is an old favourite on the Carluc menu, and it's always good.  The beef is cooked to taste (French people are always surprised when we order our beef rare!) and served in a rich sauce.

This was served with mashed potato and the same seasonal veggies.  It was very, very tasty, but the beef was a little tough.

R ordered spaghetti a la carbonara, I'm not sure why, I always thought he was a beef man myself!  He ate it all anyway and said it was good!

We finally moved on to dessert, where we encountered some more old favourites.  Unfortunately, at this stage, the wine was flowing, the company was good and the food was good, so we forgot to take photographs of the food...

The first old favourite was Pain Perdu - literally it means "lost bread" but "pain perdu" is French for stale bread.  In the sense of dessert, it means bread pudding.  It's quite different to English bread pudding, the bread is usually baked in slices and served with a caramel sauce, and, in the Carluc, topped off with cinnamon ice-cream.  If you're ever in Carluc, order it!  I promise you won't be disappointed!  Then there was Tiramisu, tarte tatin (an upside down apple pie) and crème brûlée... all good!

Price wise, dinner is always going to be more expensive than lunch, but even at that, this meal came out at just over €21 per head - not bad at all for good food in a pleasant atmosphere.  It's a very different place to the Saigon Wok which we visited last week, both offer different things, but I think I'd opt for Carluc any day I was given the choice.

Service : ✮✮✮✮✮

Food : ✮✮✮✮✮ 

Value : ✮✮✮✮ 

Ambiance : ✮✮✮✮

Thank Friday it's Lunchtime - Saigon Wok, Cavaillon

Last Saturday, I had to collect the LSH from Marseille Airport.  It had snowed overnight, leaving the road over the Luberon covered with a layer of packed, frozen snow.  By the time I left, the snowplough hadn’t passed yet, and I crawled carefully along.  I was confident that by the time I got to Manosque, it would be slightly warmer, with less snow, as Manosque is usually a few degrees warmer than our side of the Luberon.  I was wrong.  Not only was Manosque covered in snow, but the Autoroute was also snow-covered and treacherous.  At least the snowploughs were in action there, clearing one lane on each carraigeway, so I trundled along in a long line of traffic, presumably with a snowplough at the head of the line.  Traffic in the opposite driection was desperately slow, even at a standstill in some places, so when I finally met up with the LSH in a completely unsnowy Marseille, we decided to go home via the Western end of the Luberon – a long detour, but we decided to have lunch along the way and do our TFIL meal a day late.

Just as we passed through Cavaillon, I spotted this.

All-you-can-eat Chinese, basically.

We can’t lose, we said, and in we went.

You don’t often see very overweight French people, but there were quite a few in this place – it’s obviously a popular choice for those with – eh – large appetites.

It’s a gigantic hall of a restaurant, with the buffets laid out in the middle.  There was one with bits and pieces you could ask the Wok chef to cook, one with starters, one with mains and one with desserts.  We stuck the the stuff that was already cooked, to keep it simple, and we hit the starter buffet - nems (spring rolls), chicken things, fried vegetable things, prawn things and some other seafood things (that I stayed away from), with an array of salads and sauces to accompany them.

I could have just kept eating the starters until I exploded, but after one revisit, I moved on to the mains, in the interests of research, y’know.  There were Brochets à Poulet (chicken skewers), Thai Beef, Pork Caramel, Moules au sauce Chilli (chilli mussels, a weird combination, neither of us tried that) and Poulet au Gingembre (Ginger Chicken).  These were fine, but less awesome than the starters, with the exception of the Brochets à Poulet which were the best I’d ever had.  It’s possible that they were laced with MSG, but I reckoned that if it triggered a migraine, it would have been worth it.

By the way, if you really love spicy food, you'd be better off getting something cooked by the Wok Chef - the French don't really do "Hot" and we find that Chinese restaurants here cater to the French palate, with Thai and Chilli dishes tasting a bit bland.

Desserts were a bit lacklustre by comparison with the first two courses; there was Dame Blanche, a soft meringue sort of thing, crème caramel and fresh fruit.

Value for money?  At €12.90 per head during the week, it’s brilliant value.  If there’s something you don’t like, you can just go back to the buffet and get something else.  They put the price up at the weekend, so it cost us €14.90 per head, with a pichet of wine bringing the total up to €32.50.  If you’re a big eater and find the portion sizes disappointing during your Provençal visit, it’s definitely worth calling in here.

Comfort wise, yeah, it’s a big barn of a place with no ambiance whatsoever.  We were seated beside the door and were chilled everytime someone came in or out, despite the electric heater placed nearby.  The toilets were surprisingly minimalist for such a large restaurant, too – just one cubicle each for Dames and Hommes.  I bet the queues are not too nice when it's busy in the summer.

I wasn't overly impressed with the service.  I know it was self service, but they brought wine to our table (when asked) and cleared plates.  However, they also left us hovering in the doorway looking bewildered for quite a while when we arrived.  My advice is to march in confidently and just grab a table if that happens.

Here's the ratings.  I know it doesn't look great with the one star for Service and two stars for Ambiance, but that's just the kind of place it is.  I'd happily go back again.

Service : ✮

Food : ✮✮✮ 

Value : ✮✮✮✮✮ 

Ambiance : ✮✮

Thank Friday it's Lunchtime - Auberge le Luberon, Apt

One of my favourite Apt villas

I have a soft spot for Apt.  In the summer, it's buzzing with of tourists, but in the winter, it's a sleepy country town that only comes alive on a Saturday morning, when the market takes over the whole town.  The N100 runs through it, en route from Avignon to Forcalquier, and parallels the river Calavon, which also pass through the town.  On one side of the Calavon, the buildings are practical, commercial, almost industrial.  On the other side, faded old villas snooze in the winter sun, shutters closed against the cold. 

This was where we headed today - the Auberge le Luberon, a traditional hotel and restaurant, which looks across the Calavon to the business district of Apt.

We chose the Auberge le Luberon on a whim - we had parked in the nearby "submersible" car park (it's a car park that's prone to flooding if there's heavy rain, there are warning signs all over the place, apparently it can flood in a mere twenty minutes!).  Not knowing what to expect of the Auberge le Luberon, we were pleasantly surprised to find a welcoming reception area and a small, bright and nicely decorated dining area which opened onto a terrace.  There was a neatly pruned platane (plane tree) at the side of the terrace, which must give very welcome shade in hot weather and we immediately said "This must be lovely in summer, we'll have to come back!"

Our first impression was that it was definitely a bit posh, but actually, the menu wasn't a ridiculously posh price at all!

We both had the same starter, Feuillette de Chèvre and Tapenade - goat's cheese and olive pâté wrapped in filo pastry, with a little salad on the side.

It was nice except it could have done without the tapenade - it was too salty and clashed with the goat's cheese rather than complemented it.

Hmm.  Ok so far, how were the main courses going to be?  

Going with the Menu du Jour, we had a choice of Duck Confit or Salmon.  I went for the Duck and the LSH went for the Salmon.  Both came with a little square of mashed potato, with a bay leaf sticking out of it at a jaunty angle.  The duck had a garnish of choucroute/sauerkraut made with red cabbage, which gave made a nice contrast to the fattiness of the duck.

The salmon was dressed with a slightly mustardy sauce, with the LSH felt was superfluous.  The salmon was cooked to perfection - not an easy thing to do - and he thought it would have been perfectly fine on its own! 

He still had room for dessert - Chocolate Mousse Cake! It looked amazing - the gooey inside oozed out when he broke into it with his fork, I wish I could eat chocolate!

I had to settle for coffee. 

Go on, you feel sorry for me, admit it!

It was a really good meal, very well cooked and presented, but in our humble opinion, the chef could have toned down on the contrasting accompaniments a bit - less would be more!

Value wise, pretty good for town dining in a place with a "posh" ambiance.  We'd be very happy to take visitors there any time we're looking for lunch in Apt.

We'll definitely be back.

Star Rating (out of 5) :

Service : ✮✮✮✮✮ (faultless, despite there being a very large table of diners who came in just before us)

Food : ✮✮✮✮ 

Value : ✮✮✮✮ 

Ambiance : ✮✮✮✮ 

Thank Friday it's Lunchtime - Le Chante de l'Heure, Apt

This week, we went to Apt - dear old slightly shabby Apt, home of one of the best Saturday markets in Provençe.

Our destination was a small restaurant called Le Chante de l'Heure, tucked away off the main pedestrian thoroughfare in Apt, the Rue St Pierre.  The name "Chant de l'Heure" has something to do with pancakes and Candlemas day (Feb 2nd) which is the traditional day for pancake eating in France.  Forget your Mardi Gras moveable feast, the French do it on Feb 2nd every year!



Anyway, the rather unprepossessing entrance does not prepare you for the cosy, homely interior.  Exposed stone walls, decked with an eclectic mix of bits and pieces all add to a very friendly, welcoming atmosphere, and the wood-burning stove glowing brightly in the corner made it nice and cosy on a cold Winter's day.    We liked the fact that the dresser on the left is not just a showpiece - it stores glasses and crockery for the restaurant.  The waiter showed us to our seats and left us alone while we admired the room - I guess they're used to it.  We were a bit surprised that there was only one other diner present - I would have thought that a Friday lunchtime would be busier than that.

Perhaps the prices put the canny local residents off, as it was a bit more expensive than what we've found recently.

There was no "Menu du Midi" and the Plat du Jour on offer was Souris d'Agneau - stewed lamb hocks - at a price of €12.00.  A far cry from the €14 we paid for five courses last week, but it's a very different setting.  There's no way I'd come into this place in muddy boots!

The LSH went for the Souris d'Agneau, but I wasn't feeling very hungry, so I chose "Mont d'Or" described as a baked cheese, baked potato, salad and charcuterie.

I could feel my arteries clogging even as I looked at it - it was enormous!

Not only was it enormous, but it was delicious, and I had lots of fun dipping the different cold meats, potato and pieces of bread into the melted cheese.  Despite that, and despite help from the LSH, I just couldn't finish it - there was enough there for two people with my appetite.

The LSH was meanwhile working his way through the Souris d'Agneau - one of his favourite dishes, since we were first introduced to it in our friend Anne's house many years ago.

This was also served with baked potato and a salad.  Maybe salad was a strange choice to accompany a winter dish, but we both enjoyed it.

I couldn't even contemplate dessert after my Mont d'Or, but there was Café Gourmand on the menu, and the LSH wasn't going to turn that down. 

It wasn't the best Café Gourmand we've seen - clockwise, from the back right corner, there's a slim chocolate mousse with vanilla ice cream, a macaron (which I nabbed - they're light!), a creme brulée slathered with chantilly cream and the coffee itself.  The white square in the middle is a square of chocolate that came with my coffee, which I swapped for the macaron!

So, to the nitty-gritty - was it value for money?

Well, my plate of charcuterie, salad, potato and cheese was a pretty stiff €18.  I think if I went again, I would know that I'd like to share it with someone, which would make it great value.  The total cost of the meal was €40.50 - probably par for the course for lunch in a town restaurant, but there's better value to be had out in the little village cafés if you're prepared to forego some ambiance.

Star Rating (out of 5) :

Service : ✮✮✮✮✮ 

Food : ✮✮✮✮

Value : ✮✮✮

Ambiance : ✮✮✮✮