First on our list of restaurant contenders in Arles was Le Galoubet. The woman at the front desk of…read moreour hotel happily made a reservation for us, since pretty much everyone says you need a reservation to get a table there. She seemed to be on a first name basis with whomever it was on the other end of the line.
It was warm enough to sit outside, and we were given the last table on the patio out front. The starters were a mixed bag. I ordered the octopus salad, which was bland and uneventful. My wife ordered an incredibly tasty leek salad with sardines and hazelnuts, which she happily devoured.
But the highlight was the mains. I ordered what was basically a New York strip cooked medium rare in a morel mushroom sauce. The steak was cooked to perfection - and on the rarer side - while the sauce was very subtle, but you could still get a bit of that earthy, mushroomy flavor. I'd been craving a dish like this for several days, and it totally hit the spot.
My wife's dish may have been even better: cornish hen bathed in a creamy, herb-infused sauce with freshly sautéed shitake mushrooms. My god this was delicious. The hen was amazingly juicy and tender, and generous amounts of rosemary and flat-leaf parsley made this dish explosively flavorful. The potent shitakes were rich and earthy, and perfectly suited/melded with everything else.
For dessert, I had this chocolate thing with nougat inside and a nice caramel sauce, while my wife had this thing that was a pile of whipped cream and broken pieces of meringue with raspberries, raspberry coulis, and red currants. I liked mine better, but the wife's was light and refreshing, which suited the summer-like weather.
And before we were halfway through our meal, the place was full. We saw the hostess turn away at least a dozen people, so good call on the reservation.
