La Vague d’Or – Cheval Blanc St-Tropez

83990 SAINT-TROPEZ

19/20
Exceptional Restaurant

BOOK

15 PHOTOS

Chef Arnaud Donckele

Cooking French | Gastronomic | specialty

Services For people with disabilities | Private parking | Valet parking

Price Indicative price per person (excl. drinks)

415€ à 450€

Gault&Millau's review

19/20

Exceptional Restaurant That's what high level is all about! You think you've seen it all, tasted a multitude of refined dishes, daring interpretations, varied "immersive experiences" offered by spirited young roosters, and then one day you sit down on that peaceful terrace facing the citadel across the bay. Suddenly, you're confronted with another world where everything is bigger, deeper and more moving. When Arnaud Donckele talks about tomatoes, you suddenly forget all the laborious variations you've enjoyed on the same theme. The plate is magnificent, the work on acidity, texture and harmony making it a unique work of art, like the "red mullet grape harvester" that comes to seek "in the rocky faults" its profound nature as a sea woodcock. A sabayon, a toast, a "charcuterie of red mullet and bottarga"... What's the point of detailing what makes a dish so unique and original? The chef knows all the ins and outs, as do his lieutenants, his close-knit guard, who can execute to the millimeter plates so constructed to touch, shake and spill. Like a diabolical aigo-sau on bass with mona lisa gnocchi with rock juices, so powerful and expressive while highlighting the finesse of the fish. This house and this five-toque cuisine are of course from another world, one that cannot really be compared or measured. Rabbit wants to flirt with lobster? Let them, with the first porcini mushrooms, the tomato confit, the shoulder as an extra delicacy with a full-bodied jus in salmis style, they enter well into this amorous dance that gives a vertigo of pleasure right up to the desserts full of fantasy and lightness like citrus and camomile or strawberry and bigarade. On the magnificent terrace, Thierry Di Tullio regulates this choreography with all his dedication, skill and ability to decipher each table and interpret the chef's cuisine in the right version. He is supported by a young, energetic service team and a sommelier who knows how to navigate this large and interesting cellar, obviously of prestige, but not only: many choices over €1,000, but also some accessible, well-sorted flasks.