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We eat at Le Pistou whenever we visit Cannes.
It is located at 53 Rue Félix Faure, right in the centre of town along with all the classic seafood restaurants.
Pistou is the Provençal version of pesto. Pistou lacks the pine nuts but makes up for it with more grated hard cheese.
We first had Le Pistou’s tasting menu, the menu dégustation — or, menu dég (their term) — in 2015.
What follows are our dinners there in 2017 and 2019.
2017 — first visit
We chose the €38 prix fixe menu.
Starters
My far better half (FBH) chose the foie gras mi-cuit (i.e. pâté, not lobe). It was a generous, thick slice. The foie gras was made in house.
I chose the jumbo shrimp — gambas — in tempura. They were sublime — crunchy to the last bite.
Mains
We both had the Mediterranean sea bass — filet de loup.
This is always beautifully plated. It comes with pea velouté (pea purée sauce), fine French green beans and two small boiled potatoes. The potatoes are turned; each side is peeled lengthwise for a total of seven sides. Peeled into a slim barrel shape, they look very elegant on the plate.
The loup was moist and flavoursome. This is always a winning dish.
Wine
We enjoyed a bottle of Cassis: Clos d’Albizzi 2014. The estate, now run by F. Dumont, has been producing wine since 1523. Cassis has three grape varieties: marsanne, clairette and ugny blanc. The grapes are grown in the native Cassiden terroir, which adds a refreshing mineral taste. It was the perfect complement to our dinner.
Desserts
We both had their crème brulée with cinnamon.
It had just the right amount of cinnamon: enough for flavour but not overpowering.
2017 — second visit
We returned later during our stay for the seven-course menu dég, which we loved in 2015.
This has to be booked in advance. We made reservations a couple of days beforehand.
First course
We began with a delightful tian — i.e. a raised disc — of layered crab, sliced scallop and smoked salmon on a base of avocado. It was heavenly.
Second course
This was an amazing tarte tatin of diced apple and sautéed lobe of foie gras in puff pastry. Words cannot describe how unctuous this was.
Third course
We had lobster ravioli, probably three small ones — a perfect portion size.
The filling and the accompanying lobster sauce were perfect. However, the pasta could have been rolled out more thinly.
Fourth course
This was a palate cleanser: an apple and rum sorbet with plenty of rum. Delightful!
Fifth course
We had a generous fillet of beef with wild mushroom sauce. It came with creamy potatoes dauphinoise.
End of the road
Unfortunately, we could only eat half of the beef fillet.
We were so full by that time, that we were unable to proceed to the cheese course and dessert.
It took some explaining to the caring staff that the food was great, but our eyes were bigger than our stomachs.
The bill, wine included, came to €174, which included the full price the menu dég: fair enough.
Wine
With our first two courses, we had Cassis: Clos d’Albizzi 2014 (as above).
With the next three courses we enjoyed a Bandol Rosé: Domaine des Baguiers 2013, which won a Medaille d’Or (Gold Medal) in Paris in 2016. The estate, located in Var, has been run by the Jourdan family for several generations.
2019
We put our menu dég defeat of 2017 down to our age. Obviously, our appetites are decreasing as the years advance.
However, we could not miss having a three-course dinner at Le Pistou.
Our bill came to €102.
As I noted in an earlier post last month, Rue Felix Faure has been pedestrianised. We found this somewhat disconcerting, as we were used to the recycling bins in the esplanade across the street. All of that has been removed. The traffic is gone. The levelled, new look esplanade took some getting used to.
Starters
Both of us enjoyed the gambas in tempura (see ‘2017 — first visit’ above).
Mains
One cannot have a more reliable course than the filet de loup (again, see ‘2017 — first visit’).
Wine
We enjoyed another bottle of Cassis, Clos d’Albizzi.
Dessert
FBH opted for the chocolate and vanilla millefeuille.
I could hardly wait to have the cinnamon crème brulée again. I was not disappointed!
Additional notes
Le Pistou’s website has their current menu. Their dishes are always reasonably priced, particularly with the prix fixe menu, and great value for money.
TripAdvisor has customer reviews. I particularly liked this one from 2018, excerpted:
Le Pistou’s menu is a bit more creative and so it stands out from the others on the street. Because the menu was so different, we ate there twice during our recent stay in Cannes and were not disappointed. We each had the €23.50 Menu du Marche. I had the Duet of asparagus and parma ham with pesto, mixed salad, roast quail and foie gras, I’m not sure that it held together as a coherent dish but the components were delicious. My wife had the avocado and crab salad and she loved it.
As a main course the monkfish and turbot duo was spectacular. As advertised, the sauce was a curry sauce but light enough that it didn’t overpower the delicate fish. The filet de loup in a pea sauce was didn’t impress me quite as much but was very good nonetheless. My wife loved the gambas and said that the daurade was excellent. Most of the fish dishes were served with a small portion of ratatouille.
Call me insane (my wife does) but for me des[s]ert is the least interesting part of a meal. Pistou’s roast pineapple and mango spring roll with two sorbets in a sauce flavoured with mandarine impériale was very creative and delicious.
Le Pistou has been good for years. With the current menu it moves out ahead of the others on the street. Well worth a visit.
If you’re ever in Cannes, don’t miss Le Pistou.
Le Pistou, along with Maître Renard and Astoux (tomorrow’s post), is one of our favourite restaurants in Cannes.
Pistou, incidentally, is the Provençal version of pesto, although without pine nuts.
(Photo credit: TripAdvisor)
Pascal and Patricia Flavel own Le Pistou, located at 53 Rue Félix Faure, where the classic seafood restaurants are.
Pascal Flavel is the chef we’ve never seen. He spends his time in the kitchen, creating ‘gastronomy at gentle prices’.
We often eat here twice during our stay. We did so once again in June 2015.
Our first dinner this year cost a very reasonable €79 for two, including a bottle of regional rosé, Château Minuty.
On that occasion, SpouseMouse enjoyed crispy, unctuous deep fried prawns — gambas — in light batter. I had the traditional fish soup, which was rather bland on its own until one added the regional aioli, rouille — full of crushed garlic and just the right amount of saffron. The soup came with the traditional baguette croutons and finely grated cheese.
For our main course, SpouseMouse had maigret de canard (duck) and I tucked into a plate of gambas. No trip to Cannes is complete without having gambas at least once.
Our desserts were delightful. SpouseMouse had a baba rhum with plenty of rum and I loved the cinnamon flavoured crème brulée. It is unusual for the French to cook with cinnamon, so this was a real treat.
Our second visit this year was for the seven-course menu dégustation, our final dinner and a memorable one, indeed. We’d had the ‘menu dég’, as Le Pistou wait staff call it, two years ago. We talked about it for months afterward.
As we were eating on a Saturday, we decided to reserve a table the day before and told the maitre d’ that we would be having the menu dég. Judging from his facial expression, we’d made his day.
When we arrived the following evening, he seated us at a table for two just off the terrace. He asked us for a wine choice — Château Sainte Roseline — and our evening took off.
Flavel has changed the menu slightly, but it still titillates the taste buds.
We started with lobster in tomato-parsley coulis with grated carrots and orange ginger sauce on the side. It shouldn’t work but it does — brilliantly!
The next course was tatin au foie gras. This must be unique to Le Pistou. What a revelation! It is two panfried pieces of lobe of foie gras resting on a small tarte tatin: thin apple slices baked in Calvados resting on light, buttery puff pastry. How Flavel came up with this combination, we’ll never know. Yet, it is a highly flavoursome dish.
Afterward, we had langouste with rice and a light cream sauce enhanced with lemon grass and parsley. It was delightful.
Then came the palate cleanser, green apple sorbet flavoured with Calvados. It was perfect in every way. We could taste plenty of apple and identify the Calvados.
The fillet of beef was the main course. It arrived rare, as ordered, with a tasty morel sauce. Flavel’s heavenly potatoes dauphinoise — wafer thin slices in light cream sauce — made an ideal accompaniment to the tender, yielding beef.
Our cheese plates — a generous assortment of four on each plate — came next. By the time I’d finished, I wondered if I’d have room for dessert.
The wait staff knowingly gave us a bit of a pause prior to presenting SpouseMouse with baba au rhum and me with a tangy lemon tartlet.
We finished everything. We were members of the Clean Plate Club!
The bill came to €158.30. Compare this to the menu dégustations at the grand hotels on the Croisette and this would be the cost per person. Le Pistou really does offer gastronomy at gentle prices.
We highly recommend Le Pistou. It will be among the first places we visit on our next trip.
Churchmouse Campanologist 