Christian Etienne, Avignon

Christian Etienne is situated next door to the Palais des Papes and was built in 1180! We were seated in the outside seating area under a glass rough with a view of the square. The glass covered dining area was decorated with hundreds of plants which at closer inspection turned out to be all the herbs and vegetables used on the menu with aubergines, chilli and bell peppers amongst them. 

 Owner Christian Etienne pays homage to his native Provence's abundance and offers an array of high-quality dishes that change with the seasons. The fixed-price menus change seasonally and  focus on different themes, including one devoted entirely to lobster. In summer, the "tomato" menu is also on offer, while in winter you might find the "truffle" menu, which features the region's black diamond, truffles. There is an extensive wine list, which contains many Côtes du Rhône wines.

Watermelon with Dried olive and cucumber gazpacho

Tomato and olive bread with a basil and anchovy butter

We opted for different menus as I eat more because I'm a bit of a fatty.

Laura had the lunch menu with Squid with a chilli jelly..her favourite course of the meal.

My starter was a delicious but quite random with a foie gras and absinthe terrine with a cold creamed courgette soup, courgette ribbons and a courgette chutney.

My second course was a fillet of John Dory with sage, artichoke, tomato confit, spring onion and pine nuts.

This was a delicious course the fish was perfectly cooked and the sauce so rich and creamy, I really enjoyed this, probably the course of the meal.

The mains arrived and Laura had duck breast with a courgette tart, there was no sauce which was strange and a mistake as it was dry and rather bland the tart was however nice.

My main course was braised bull with fennel and a red wine sauce, I also found my main a touch bland but the shaved fennel was nice and fresh.

My main was followed by the cheese board I had a selection of goats cheeses with honey which were nice and the recommended honey was a perfect match.

The Cheeseboard

Pre-Dessert was a delicious blueberry tart with blueberry sorbet, almond tuille with a blueberry rice pudding. This was surprisingly pretty amazing, I'm not normally a fan of either rice pudding or fruit tarts but this was gooood!!

My main dessert was a trio of chocolate with milk chocolate sorbet, dark chocolate mouse and white chocolate meringue. This was delicious, the mouse was so rich and light, it was delicious.

  

 

 

Laura was served a fruit salad with mango sorbet, the fruit salad was nice but nothing exceptional as you would expect from a 1* but the sorbet was delicious and the Swiss roll a nice touch.

Petite fours were however really nice with a pistachio and raspberry macaroon which was immense and mini Madeline.

In all I really enjoyed my meal at christian Etienne, and liked the fact that the man himself came out and talked to all the tables, our conversation was short due to his lack of English and our lack of French but still a nice gesture. 

The food was awesome and the ingredient and flavour combinations regional. Highly recommended.