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We've compiled the best of the best in St-Rémy-de-Provence - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Set in an 18th-century Provençal mas once owned by the grand-mère of one of the owners, this countrified restaurant is a short drive outside the city but well worth the effort. Sit inside at wooden tables or out under towering plane trees to enjoy delicious dishes made with locally sourced ingredients that mix classic recipes (yes, from Tata Simone) with modern touches. Everything, including the bread, warm from the oven, evokes the hearty home-cooked dishes of old Provence.
Named for its illustrious chef and pastry chef, this restaurant draws foodies who are keen to enjoy inventive, earthy, and refined cuisine that doesn't so much redefine Provençal cooking as expand it. With a laser focus on local, sustainable ingredients, Rey eschews all animal fats, salt, and other staples of French gastronomy in favor of rich, slow-cooked fish and vegetable broths steeped with herbs and seaweeds, olive oil, peppers, and edible leaves and flowers to complement fish and meat. Rey first gained notoriety as second runner-up in France's Top Chef 2011 and then shattered the culinary glass ceiling in 2017 with her first Michelin star. Her dishes are small works of art that leave diners satisfied without a hint of heaviness, even after 10 courses. Wahid, Rey's husband and the winner of France's Pastry Chef of the Year 2005, creates the desserts—small wonders as beautiful and complex as they are delicious.
A popular place for lunch or dinner, this modern bistro and terrace in the heart of the old town draws a lively mix of locals, expats, and tourists looking for authentic market-driven meals. A small but satisfying menu is generously laced with local delicacies—savory ragoût of wild boar, cod with pureed local vegetables and tapenade-laden croutons, and poached-egg cocotte with foie gras cream and turmeric-balsamic toast. A generous wine list offers plenty of local choices by the glass, and the dessert tray in the window—another big draw—features tantalizing concoctions, like a classic chantilly-topped baba al rhum (a small cake made with rum syrup) and creamy tarte au citron (a lemon tart). Service can be slow, but it's always friendly.
Claude and Dana Douard collaborated with some of the greatest chefs of our time before getting away from the big city lights to open this bistro–wine bar hot spot in the center of St-Rémy. The wine selection is magnificent, and so is the simple food—try the grilled sea bass with chorizo, mashed potatoes, and seasonal vegetables or the grilled Mont Ventoux spiced pork.
