Did you know that Vincent van Gogh had a lover who owned a cafe named Le Tambourin in Arles? I thought it was pretty clever that the cafe located in the Vincent van Gogh Museum got its namesake from just that. So, as a van Gogh fan and a starving museum visitor after four hours of seeing all of van Gogh's paintwork, I had to eat at Le Tambourin.
I will say that it's food served in a prime tourist destination, so it's never spectacular, right? I did like that it was more of a cafeteria style, where you picked up a tray and selected your own food from the assortment. The food ranged from small items like soups of the day and pastries, to hot entrees like beef sirloin with potatoes and veggies. It is nice that you have a lot of options here.
I selected a cobb salad with a berry smoothie. At check-out, you get a free cookie. Heck yeah! The food was A-OK. It wasn't terrible, but was overpriced for what it was. The cobb salad had lots of lettuce, which was nice; but the other items that make up a cobb salad were meager, including the much-needed dressing. The berry smoothie wasn't bad, but it wasn't as chilled as it should've been, so the taste was compromised.
The setting was actually quite nice, with large windows that look out to Museum Quarter. Several tables and seats were available and I sat at a large community table where you can skim through the several different art books for diners. It was inviting and you got the impression that people weren't here to just eat and leave, but spent a lot of time just hanging out. I dig that.
Overall, it's nice there's a cafe here at the van Gogh Museum, which has a good selection that you can choose from in a cafeteria setting. But don't expect the food to be anything worth coming back for. It's certainly convenient for hungry museum visitors, which is exactly just that. read more