Le Bistrot du Paradou Restaurant - Review

The Bistro’s success is perhaps due to the fact it has found a winning formula and it sticks to it. It offers a daily set menu only, but it does this brilliantly and with the sort of generous-spirited hospitality that makes you want to return again and again. The set menu costs €45 at lunch and €51 in the evening, and includes starter, main course, cheese, choice of desserts, wine and coffee. The menu varies; at the time of writing the dishes of the day included tête de veau, lamb, spit roast Bresse chicken, cassoulet and aioli.

The restaurant is located in a handsome, traditional building, shaded by ancient plane trees. The terrace is a pleasant place to enjoy an aperitif or coffee after your meal, and there is convenient, CCTV-protected car park next door.

The dining room is traditional in style: stone walls, zinc-topped tables, a large bar and black and white photos of celebrities on the walls. The atmosphere is convivial – it is the sort of place that you strike up conversation with diners on the next table – and there is even one long table which, if not used by a large party, may be shared with other people.

On our last visit, a Wednesday lunch in low season, the restaurant was full. Wednesday is cassoulet day and people come from miles around. Today there was a choice of starter; snails or a bacon and egg frisée salad. The nutty-flavoured snails were truly excellent, and the salad vinaigrette was absolutely spot-on. This is what le Bistrot du Paradou excels at: simple food, done really well.

The cassoulet arrived in an enormous earthenware dish, from which you help yourself. I have had bad experiences with this dish in other restaurants: too often it is grey, solid and uninspiring. This cassoulet was rich and delicious with the pork and duck grilled crisp on top. Despite the fact that this is the world’s most filling dish, we all ate second and then third helpings.

Although we were all extremely full by now, we gave into the temptations of the cheese course and were left to tuck into a tray of oozing, ripe local cheeses.

Normally I wouldn’t eat pudding after ingesting such large quantities of food, but there is something about a set menu that encourages greed. Desserts included apple or walnut tarts, quality ice creams and a few French classics. The chocolate mousse was good, the raspberry ice cream delicious and the rum baba arrived with a full bottle of rum and instructions to help ourselves.

The service couldn’t have been more affable or helpful. One of our party asked (in advance) for an alternative to cassoulet, and they rustled her up a chicken supreme instead. A mention of an invalided friend elicited an offer of take-away dishes for her. It is this genuine friendliness that brings people back to le Bistrot du Paradou year after year.

Although the Bistrot changed managers a couple of years ago, it has retained all those qualities which made it so popular. If you want to come in high season, book well in advance. And of course, remember to choose when to come according to what’s on the menu that day.

Positives:
Great atmosphere
Good value if you eat and drink well
Friendly, hospitable staff
Hearty, tasty cooking

Negatives:
Not great value if you don’t eat or drink much
Little choice

Opening Hours:

Winter (Oct – May): open Tues – Fri lunch, Fri & Sat & dinner.
Summer (May – Sept): closed Sun & Mon, open lunch and dinner every other day.

(No website).