Le Cafe du Soleil - Maillane

We enjoyed a leasurely Sunday lunch. The food was extremely good, inspired and creative. Just delicious! Worth a visit! We'll be back.

Maillane only has three restaurants and we chose Le Bistrot, except it wasn't called Le Bistrot. It seemed to have three names but the proprietor assured us we were at the right place. Eight of us thoroughly confused the waitress with our bad French, but she smiled charmingly and when our food arrived it was excellent. The stuffed Zucchini flowers were brilliant, the tomato salad with bocconcini featured the largest most succulent tomatoes ever bred, and the duck was really good. If you're near Saint Remy and want to eat out of town you could do a lot worse.

We had high hopes for the Bistro and a recommendation from our host in Tarascon. Unfortunately the meal didn't live up to expectations. The starters, asparagus with tete de veau and artichoke with carrots were both bland and uninteresting. The main course of braised beef, although tender had absolutely no flavour of beef in either the meet or the sauce, you wouldn't have known at all what you were eating. The waiter was clearly uninterested in our views of the food and was unhelpful and curt. All in all for the high price paid we were disappointed with the service and the food. I doubt the kitchen would have heard a word if our critique,which is a shame as I am a chef and the only way a good chef can improve is to listen and learn. I wouldn't recommend the Bistro and would advise them to go back to basics and check the quality of their produce.

'Bistronomy' is sometimes new speak for excusable mistakes in gastronomy. Not here in Maillane! The food is what a true bistrot should serve: not too complex dishes (with creative combinations though) in hearty portions, no set menus but only à la (pretty short) carte, in a typical Provençal setting. The only two less applauding comments : the wine is expensive (over 130 EUR for a Télégraphe CdP is overpriced!), and the service could be somewhat less assertive.

Another bistrot in the alpilles neighbourhood, clearly a few around and the one in Paradou leading by example. This one is much more about quality of food than the "buzz", albeit clearly there is a feel good place about the Bistrot, but what stands out is the food. I had tried to book it few times before and was turned down with "of course we are full tonight" last summer, and was a bit worried about the idea of a "celebrity chef" who is famous for a few stints at Michelin starred hotels and an Instagram account full of pictures of food.Well food was amazing and deserts were literally insane. At first looking at price almost seemed out of place with the location - 27-32 Eur for a main course but portions were good, even starters on their own big enough as a main course, service was awesome and place was fullLet us hope this place puts Maillanne back on the map as it is clearly a beautiful square for dinner and cannot wait for those summer evening dinners outsideWell done...