Aix Restaurants to Check Out & Why

Yes, I know we have about 40 days to fill up with eating out but I want to make sure we don’t miss any of the typical Provençal dishes and not all the restaurants in Aix offer them.  

Having said that, my first restaurant, Le Saint Jean, isn’t particularly Provençal and is rather heavy on the meats, but we usually don’t do steaks at home and who wants to grill in an aparthotel?  Their steaks look cooked just right  and they come with French fries.  It’s a relatively new restaurant (2 years?) and offers an extensive menu of beef cuts and several choices for lamb, pork, veal, and poultry (magret de canard for instance).  There is also pasta and a good selection of fish dishes for those who cringe at the thought of eating red meat (yum!).  The mixed charcuterie and cheese board looks great but for two people it wouldn’t leave much room for the plat, much less the dessert. 

 But maybe we could just order that with a Salade Saint Jean:  Salade du marché, Jarret de Boeuf confit, pomme de terre, tomate, croutons à  l’ail, vinaigrette moutarde.

The second restaurant, La Brocherie, has a wood-burning hearth where they grill their meats and fish.  The ambiance is a little less sophisticated but it looks like a lot of fun.  Their menu offers two typical soups: soupe de poisson and soupe au pistou (roughly a fish soup and a minestrone) and they also offer a bouillabaise at a reasonable price (26€).    They also have classic French dishes like Magret de Canard, lamb chops, veal kidneys and andouillette. 

Camila and the boys might like it since they feature both pasta and fish. Lots of dessert choices and for Silas they have l’Assiette Gourmand with pavé au chocolat, crème brûlée à la lavande, glace verveine, glace calisson, soufflé glacé à l’anis, or variations thereof.

The third restaurant for this post is Les Galinas - La Table Provençale, a little more sophisticated and upscale than La Brocherie with a more limited menu and a more careful presentation of the food, even if they don’t have tablecloths and are trying to recreate grandmother’s provençal cooking.  It is a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant so we can probably expect smaller portions and because the menu changes, one should probably check the menu before making a reservation, which is pretty much required for all these places.  Les Galinas always seem to have lamb tripe, sardines in oil, and oeufs mimosas on the menu and usually offer a meat dish, a pasta and a fish among their plats.  There are photos of an octopus appetizer, head cheese, and someone mentioned rabbit so it will be interesting to see what they have the day we go.

Until the next episode, Bon Appétit!