La Mirande

84000 AVIGNON

17/20
Prestige Restaurant

BOOK

18 PHOTOS

Chef Florent Pietravalle

Cooking Gastronomic

Price Indicative price per person (excl. drinks)

85€ à 195€

Gault&Millau's review

17/20

Prestige Restaurant There's a lot of talk about Florent Pietravalle in the rising stars category. And rightly so. Discreet, gifted and curious, the chef of this Avignon institution has all the qualities required for growth. Admittedly, La Mirande is not a global brand, not a palace with limitless resources, and not yet one of those beacons dazzling and splashing the food world. It is, however, a superb historic house, with a charm preserved by a decoration very faithful to the spirit of these secular stones facing the Palace of the Popes. The terrace is exquisite, and the young staff are very supportive, taking their role seriously and dynamically. As for the dishes, they demonstrate the chef's commitment to a virtuous cuisine, close to his region, and very meticulous in its execution. With a predilection for sweet and sour dishes, which are evident right from the welcome kombucha, a setting that already leaves you with a hint of sweet tooth. A little later, the lily with fig leaf and coriander, and its second course like a pancake, sea cucumber with pig fat and oxalis, the spider crab with grapefruit caramel and kimchi, and even the large langoustine with honey and pollen, tripe, carrot and miso. All this sweetness sometimes overshadows the taste message of the original product (when you'd like to preserve the iodine, acid or bitterness), but it has the merit of a thorough research that corresponds well to the chef's universe (in any case, you have no choice, the menu is imposed, in six or eight courses). We have to wait for the red mullet to express its primal taste: beef marrow with harissa and red mullet liver is a beautiful and powerful transitional dish, leading through its meaty side to a delight of pigeon and Camargue rice with a sabayon of rice and yellow wine, pigeon juice and a note of orange blossom. The lovely creamy apricot dessert shows off the pastry chef's palette and its continuity with the chef's cuisine. The cellar is unifying, with fine labels in all regions, without major risk, with a real strength in Châteauneuf and the lower Rhône Valley, and the overall prices, too, don't approach the extravagance of the Côte d'Azur or Paris, with the whole menu at €155 the price of a dish at some neighboring restaurants...