Le Greenstronome

Rating: 17
Author: Gault&Millau

13200 ARLES

17/20
Prestige Restaurant

BOOK

1 PHOTOS

Chef: Jean-Luc Rabanel
Cooking: Gastronomic | Healthy cooking | Signature cuisine
Services: Access for people with disabilities | Accomodation | Cooking lessons | Pets allowed | Terrace
Style: Elegant | Romantic

Price Indicative price per person (excl. drinks)

145 € to 185 €

Gault&Millau's review 2026

What chic! What bravery! What panache! In the worst of storms, Captain Rabanel would be at the helm, defying the swell, his eyes on course. Yes, these are complicated times for the independent restaurant business, especially the kind that doesn't make concessions, that doesn't sell itself short, that doesn't betray itself. When tourists want an all-inclusive menu at €29.90, thinking they're getting fish or even fresh peas, and someone to cook them, the chef bites his head off. Yet he never concedes, never abdicates. In his small, miracle-working kitchen, he works two tables at once, serving both bistro and gastro dishes on the terrace overlooking the pedestrian alleyway or in the small dining room in the historic heart of the town, with the same energy and knowledge. Today, connoisseurs come for him, for this philosophy, this commitment, this culinary poetry that starts with the appetizers, velvety gazpacho and tomato tartlet, celery tempura and muge carpaccio, and his personal compositions, yellow beet in ajo blanco salt crust with mertensia girolles ice cream, red mullet on onion bed and tomato bisque, roast sea bass and cocos in fennel broth. The four toques aren't everywhere, but they're still very much alive on this very fresh monkfish, served generously with fennel and chanterelle mushrooms, with a favouilles emulsion that reveals the carnivorous power of the fish, as on the emblematic filet de taureau artichoke reduction thym. A moment at Jean-Luc Rabanel's is always the right moment, one of celebration and sharing, and one can only feel respect and benevolence for this rare performance, as far removed from palaces as from gargotes, aided by the faithful accomplice, Elmahdi Rachid, who conveys the message with commitment and enthusiasm, and advises on the wine list, always focused on the Languedoc and at very reasonable prices (the Bruguière at €58 is a good idea), aided by a young service full of dedication.