La Privadiere

What an amazing place! We had a wonderful evening at Maison Lavandet, restaurant Gastronomique, with our daughter for our 25th anniversary. The food was just exceptional! We've been traveling around the world and experiencing high end restaurants but yesterday was the best ever. We've been following Julien since 2013 and after moving to Canada 4 years ago we were longing to try his new place. He has definitely reached another level using top products with so much creativity! Every bite is an explosion of savours! The place is beautiful with an outstanding view on the vineyard. Everybody is incredibly friendly from the owner, Maxime and Jerome took great care of us, perfectly pairing our dinner with wines from the area, giving us tips for vineyards visits. If you're in the south of France, it's clearly worth driving a bit you will discover a hidden gem and have an experience of a life time!

We 've known and liked the cooking of chef Julien Lavandet for a longtime, but our first experience of his comeback after a two=year hiatus was very very disappointing. For started, the hotel where he 's located is still pretty much of a building site, and then when we arrived the young woman at reception didn 't say, Bonsoir or Bienvenue, but Vous avez reserve? She was cold and wooden, as were the two men in ill-fitting suits who run the dining room (this is a real shame, because Lavandet 's wife did such a charming job at the maitresse d 'hotel at his last restaurant, La Table de Julien). The ligting in the modern dining room is too bright, and the automatic kitchen door doesn 't close quickly enough, so a meal is regularly punctuated by bursts of kitchen noise. The idea of putting cotton balls on the tables is clearly to save money on real flowers, but is both sad and unhygienic. Re the food, portions are very stingy and the flavours in the cooking were often bland. It seemed to us that Lavandet has sort of gotten stuck, or stopped growing and evolving as a chef, right done to the Kylie Minogue style styling of a strawberry sable. Given the fact that a meal here cost more than double what it did at La Maison 2 Julien, this place offers poor value for money, little atmosphere and a rather underwhelming gastronomic experience overall. I very much doubt we 'd go back, especially since the cooking at the Chateau de Collias in Collias is simply outstanding for the same prices.

Very welcoming staff made us feel comfortable from the moment we arrived. Our host spoke excellent English so we did not need to inflict our rusty French on him. Each course was well prepared, presented and a delight to eat with a variety of original and interesting flavours.

We have enjoyed Chef Julien’s cooking for many years having been a lover of his previous restaurant (Table 2) in Montarens. From the internet, we had gathered that he was going to take charge of the restaurant at the Domaine de Privadiere, and we have been waiting impatiently for this to open. This summer we had to wait no longer, and we made the first of what I hope will be many visits, and we were certainly not disappointed. Obviously like everywhere the price is somewhat more than in the past – we had the €60 menu – but the quality was superb. I would not usually attach photos as they only tell part of the story but in this case, they do help to illustrate the professionalism of the kitchen. It was extremely hot when we were there, but the room was beautifully air-conditioned so we could enjoy the food and wine in comfort. We very much look forward to going back during our next visit to the area.

Chef Julian created wonderful dishes from the amuse bouche through to the dessert. We all had the €60 menu and could fault any of it. The photos will speak louder than my words can!