Restaurant suggestions Côte d'Azur/Var

Courses 9 and 10 sound like they were supposed to be made for me! Yum! It all sounds wonderful.

Al,

The address is 20, rue Comte de Cessole, in la Turbie. Telephone: 4 92 41 51 51

Michelin gives the restaurant 2 stars, and there are only 5 rooms ranging from 89 to 136 Euros (2004 Michelin Guide; don't have 2005 yet).

Now we'll have a new place to consider when wanting a great meal and a terrific view.

And where does one find this fantastic restaurant? Any address and street number, town, telephone??? Think it would help???

This review is by Mike, who posted a few requests for restaurant recommendations back in the spring.

If you're traveling in the Cote D'Azur, and even if for some crazy reason you don't want to eat at Hostellerie Jerome, I strongly suggest you visit the tiny village of la Turbie. From atop the Trophy of Augustus, commissioned in 5 B.C., you get the most spectacular panoramic view of Monte Carlo, and, on a clear day, the coast of Italy.

Hostellerie Jerome served the best meal I had ever eaten -- only to be topped by Le Meurice the very next night. I don't know how to say this, but my description of the food is going to be even worse than usual -- and for this I blame my wife. I was so enamored with the cuisine that I left the note-taking to her (except for the wines) and just kept eating and oohing and ahhing. In fact, the only words I spoke at dinner were, "Can you believe this?" The menu is of no help , because Chef Bruno prepares the food differently each night. As a result, the menu degustation simply reads: hommard, ecrivesses, canard, etc.

A word about the chef...When we arrived on a steaming hot afternoon, we found the restaurant easily enough, but we couldn't find the entrance. The streets are so narrow that after a dinner at Hostellerie Jerome, two people can't walk down them side by side. Anyway, we saw these two scruffy looking characters outside the restaurant, and the scruffiest one pointed to the entrance. He looked like a character in a Sergio Leone movie -- and I don't mean Clint. Anyway, it wasn't until the next day that I learned he was the chef.

So... here's the glorious ten-course menu with my wife's skimpy notes. All I remember was that I...loved...this...food.

Amuse bouche: a pissaladière:open-faced onion tart with veal, black olives, spinach, and paremesan

First course:
FIlet of duck en croutte, with chantrelles

S econd course:
Salad with crayfish and parmesan, asparagus, fava beans and green beans

Third course:
Cream of new pea soup

Fourth course:
Fois gras with roasted orange and asparagus

Fifth course:
Gamberoni (the best!) with roasted lemon and baby artichokes

Sixth course:
Lobster with homemade pasta

Seventh course:
Sole with asparagus and asparagus cream (one of the best courses on our trip and clearly one of the best fish courses!)

Eighth course:
Lamb with with cocoa beans and cepes from Spain

Ninth course:
Strawberries Napoleon with white cheese sorbet

Tenth course:
Dark chocolate tart and coffe ice cream

White: 2001 Clos St. Vincent -- pale god, sweet gasoline (does petrol sound better?), mineral and tropical fruit. It's a verementino, produced in extremely small quantities in Bellet near Nice.

Red: 2003 Clos St. Vincent -- from the Folle noir grape (??): red fruit, primarily che rries, nicely integrated tannins with a hint of oak

Before the women reading this get ready to shoot, I was only kidding about my wife's notes. I was the one who dropped the ball here by not writing down my impressions minute by minute. Well, I have only one review to go, and I think my career as a restaurant critic is short-lived at best. But please, take a leap of faith and trust me on Hostelleire Jerome. It's fantastic!

Jean, I am not saying that this is the case with all restaurants. I found this to be particularly true with Hotel Restaurants in Nice along the Promenade des Anglais. One of the Maitre de..told me that in many hotel (even 4**** ones) there is relatively little business in winter, and they us a sous-Chef or one of lower reputation. Naturally this is not the case with places like the Chevre d'Or, etc.

BP Chuck

on the contrary, chuck--there are restaurants on the côte d-'azur to which we return every visit: le feu follet in mougins, l'écurie in vieux nice, café turin in nice, and quite a few others. the same chefs have been there for years, the restaurants being family-run places. that's probably why we keep going back.

I think it is not easy to suggest a good restaurant on the Cote d'Azur, as many places are fairly seazonal, and hire the Chefs for the seazon only, and nex seazon hire a new one (or rather a different one. I remember in Nice the Westminter Concorde had an excellent restaurant, the next year ist was good, but not quite as good as the previous year, and also different. This is when I inquired about the reason when I found this out.

BP Chuck

the hotel restaurant was just a good, ordinary place. i think les palmiers is up along the main street of the village; the menu looked interesting.

Merci beaucoup, BP Jean.

The one in Bormes, could it be Les Palmiers? It seems to be a gastromic restaurant.

I know Le Lavandou isn't exactly the Côte d'Azur, it's in the Var but that name doesn't ring a bell with most people.

Myriam

we had two good meals in bormes-les-mimosas, in the hills above le lavandou. one was at the hotel/restaurant right at the front of the village--nice view down to the mediterranean, and a friendly (and appreciative), gourmand house cat. the other was an italian restaurant the name of which i can't recall. but b-l-m has quite a few good restaurants, and the village is charming. btw, i don't think le lavandou is actualy on the cote d'azur--that region is farther to the east (st-tropez, cannes, nice). it's a historical distinction rather than a geographic one.

Hi all,

After more than 20 years of absence we will go back to the Côte d'Azur (Le Lavandou more precisely) this June. Any good places to eat - at affordable prices bien sûr! - in the area Toulon - Grimaud (and inland)?

Thanks for any suggestions you might have.

Myriam