Pollen

84000 AVIGNON

15/20
Remarkable Restaurant

9 PHOTOS

Chef Mathieu Desmarest

Cooking Cuisine d'auteur | French | Gastronomic

Price Indicative price per person (excl. drinks)

60€ à 150€

Gault&Millau's review

15/20

Remarkable Restaurant Matthieu Desmarest has found his style and his karma in Avignon: the gastro here, the bistro at Bibendum, and soon the village café in Roquemaure, you can feel the chef blossoming and becoming increasingly confident in his approach. We quickly forget a few of his earlier jibes (hidden menus, "here, the concept is surprise"), to taste Pollen's true value: we eat very well here, and the energy deployed by an entire team shows legitimate confidence in the project. The room is beautiful in its soft, natural tones, the appetizers precise in their variety and coherent (the location, the season...) and a harmonious sequence of dishes: the beautiful composition of scallops, chestnut, voile de lard de noir de Bigorre, beard sauce and parsley, the grilled sea bream, clean and neat, carrot and sauce from the bones and fine herbs, or the good work on the veal chop with coffee juice and endive playing with bitterness, counterbalanced by the petit épeautre in mushroom and truffle risotto, form a very clear sequence which, at this level of gastronomy, from an independent table that is neither a palace nor a bistro, has little competition in the region. The result is a full and happy dining room, which spends a little (the evening menu starts at €120, the three-course lunch is €60) while enjoying itself, right down to the pretty desserts, like the cardamom crème brûlée, condiments, one of prune, the other of persimmon confit with Grand Marnier. The young team in the dining room is empathetic and enthusiastic, as are Claire Trimolet and Pierre Baud, the sommeliers, who share their favorites from a friendly, modern wine list.

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