L'Oustau Camarguais - Aigues-Mortes

Excellent eating, fine gourmet refined. very friendly. we're really good. everything we wanted with a lot of character and the owner. a joy.

Stopped in on a Monday when other highly reviewed restaurants were closed. Really glad we did. Had an excellent meal. Warmly greeted by the owner and his son who speaks English. Tried 3 mains: the fresh dorade fish which I picked from a choice of...5 they showed us. Grilled with lemon, very fresh and served with nutty whole grain rice. Excellent! Others had magret and filet de bouef. Magret served with a tart fruit sauce. Best magret we’ve had. Filet was also excellent. All in all one of the best meals we’ve had.

OK, so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. But one of the treats of eating there is that the Madame is so undeniably enchanting, along with the rustic inside and the nicely covered terrace. She coddled us, pushed at us, laughed with us, and...generally made us feel that we were her best guests ever. She took me to the wine fridge and asked me about our tastes, then talked me through the large selection of roses. Dinner matched the atmosphere. It's food with a camarguais twist. All told, it was one of the best meals we had on a two week trip through Provence

Wandering grumpily around the town, having missed the apparently obligatory 3pm lunchtime curfew, we came upon this vine-covered place on a side-street. It was this, the Indian, or nothing, so with no expectations we took a seat. Now, to be frank, we struck lucky with...the service, because an extremely nice bloke was on hand immediately, and eager to help; it turned out he 's the son of the owner, and a chef in his own right, but helping out the family over Easter. (If I could remember his name I 'd give him a plug! The waitress who helped out was movie-star gorgeous and super friendly. Her dad owns a shop 100 metres away! The first promising sign was that it 's a short menu. The second being the fact that the 'usual ' camargue dishes hardly featured. Cutting to the chase, the food was brilliant and creative (mussels with seaweed was a revelation! . Reading the other reviews I have a certain sympathy, because the second visit we were served by the daughter of the house, who really should demand a refund from her charm-school. Mum is a Miriam Margolies lookalike, and I imagine, a toughie. But the star of the show is Papa. A simply lovely bloke, and totally committed to his calling. Shy and diffident by nature, but full of charm when warmed-up. He 's the image of his equally charming but well-traveled aforementioned son! This place is 'real ', and not a tourist trap. That and papa 's cooking make it special.

Highly recommended ! Everything is fresh, the flavor combinations are original and successful, the sauces wonderfully complex. Even the vinaigrette on the salad is special, the taste lightened with a touch of sesame oil. We had the saint pierre, served with an excellent citronny curry...sauce and the tournedos de toro equally delicious. We finished with a goat cheese drenched in the most delicious thyme infused olive oil. I refused the honey which normally goes with this dish due to blood sugar issues, and the Patronne was extremely accommodating for that and any other substitutions we asked for. It’s a 2 minute walk from the main plaza. Don’t miss this place !