For our last meal on this particular trip to France (in October 2014), we wanted one of those…read more"we'll remember this 'til the day we die" meals. We researched dozens of places, and even asked the guy at our hotel for recommendations (and he suggested the god-awful Caveau du Theatre, the worst, most vile meal of the entire trip!), but we weren't aware of Le Petit Gourmand until strolling by it early in the afternoon. The menu looked promising, so we rushed back to the hotel to make a reservation.
Housed in a small space with relatively spartan decor, the dining area and kitchen both shared the same space in the front, separated only by a modular counter. There was only room for about 18 people inside, and that's after cramming everyone in with a shoehorn. The place appeared to be run by a super friendly couple: the woman cooks and the dude is the host/waiter. She had two younger assistants helping out in her tiny kitchen.
The chef and the waiter both spoke decent English, making the ordering process smooth. For the starter my wife had the foie gras, which came with toasts and apple chutney. The quality was superb, and we both thoroughly dug it. I had what was basically like a cannelloni stuffed with a very tasty mixture of warm chèvre, pine nuts, and various herbs, but wrapped in thinly sliced zucchini instead of pasta, and served over a bed of greens in a sweetened dressing with two poached figs. A thoroughly enjoyable and perfectly seasoned plate of food.
For the main dish, I ordered the foie gras-stuffed ravioli in a porcini sauce. The ravioli were tender, delicious, and perfectly cooked, though the sauce, while good, could have used a stronger porcini flavor, and maybe a bit more herbs. But otherwise, it was a very good and flavorful dish.
But my wife's dish was the star of the evening: fresh tagliatelle with black truffles and a very light truffle oil-infused sauce. This was the best truffle dish either of us had ever had. The truffles themselves were super fresh and bursting with their characteristic rich, earthy flavor. And the chef was fairly generous with the amount of truffle shavings in the dish. This is a good example of a well-made, dead-simple dish that doesn't need any messing with because the star flavors are allowed to stand on their own. Just good, honest cooking, which had us clenching our eyes shut in ecstasy as we savored every single bite.
For dessert we split the chocolate macaron, which was sublimely gooey and rich, and came in a powerful chocolate sauce with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream. Insanely good!
Throughout the service the chef would occasionally step out into the dining area and chat with guests, which, after a group of six loud Americans left, consisted solely of French-speaking locals.
On our way out, the waiter shook our hands and thanked us, and we told him that was the best food we had in Avignon. He seemed genuinely moved and appreciative. Too bad we weren't staying longer, because we would go back in a heartbeat. The scallop risotto that some people were ordering that night looked and smelled really good.
Of course, the irony that this excellent final meal in France consisted mostly of Italian dishes didn't escape us! But who cares. We wanted a really good and memorable final meal in France, and that's what we got.
