La Pitchoune - Restaurant review

In any other circumstances we would have left immediately. All ten of us had sat down to Sunday lunch in La Pitchoune restaurant. The setting was peaceful - a calm courtyard set back from the bustle of Mausanne les Alpilles. Branches from the olive tree above dropped over my shoulder creating a patterned of dappled sunlight on the table.

It was 1 o’clock and the majority of the diners in the restaurant were already on to their mains, some as it turned out had made it all the way through the 4 course menu. We waited, and muttered the usual complaint about how high social charges meant that restaurants could never get enough staff. After ten minutes the menus finally arrived but the waitress proved too busy to take our drinks order.

We were already having our doubts, twitchingly eyeing the exit, when in the corner of the courtyard and old lady stood up and addressed the whole restaurant.

“They’re crooks I tell you crooks. The place is not correct,” she waggled her finger, “not correct at all.”

The owner a bald man, with the paunch of someone who spends too long counting the bills and not enough time moving between the tables, came over to deal with the situation. His presence incensed the woman.

“This is the way you treat your customers, you should be ashamed,” she jabbed her finger into his chest. Her husband joined in, and the complaint became a shouting match. All around the restaurant conversations stopped and people stared.

“This is the third time I’ve eaten here, and every time it’s the same. I have the menu, skip the dessert and order coffee instead. And when the bill comes you charge me for €2 for the coffee. It’s a disgrace.”

The owner managed to escort the lady to the exit and the argument carried on in the street. We’d not even ordered yet and the sensible option would have been to have left and found somewhere else. After all we were still waiting and the woman was probably right. She looked respectable enough in her sundress, jewellery and matching handbag. The type of nice middle class woman who might organise piano recitals in the long winter months. In any event she appeared a lot more trust worthy than the owner.

But outside in the streets of the village people were cavorting to disco music, downing litres of pastis and playing chicken with bulls. We’d arrived in the middle of the fete votive.

And so we stayed and as far as we were concerned the most remarkable thing happened (perhaps it was because our expectations were low) we ended up having the most delightful meal. The cooking was inventive family fair - my grilled fish salad starter came with shavings of foie gras, the lamb main course was encased in a filo wrap and served with a sweet broad bean gravy, the next course arrived on an enormous wooden platter piled high with an assortment of fifty or more goats cheeses and the dessert was a home made coffee ice cream with a cream surround. The waitresses, once they started serving us, were attentive and proud of every plate they presented. The pauses between courses were perfectly judged, and the afternoon slipped away in a convivial haze.

Nobody though made the error of asking to replace their dessert with a coffee.

La Pitchoune - Maussane Les Alpilles 04 90 54 34 84

Comments

[Celia]

I enjoyed the review of Pitchoune and have enjoyed many relaxed meals there when in Maussane. The Proprietor's cheese board is always a highlight. Many of the restaurants in Provence seem to be run by family concerns or with a small number of staff. Sometimes there is just one person cooking and one person serving and yet the service is well paced. Its also a pleasure to see the same people running restaurants year after year. It then comes as a surprise to be greeted with many serving staff back in UK restaurants. I feel that attitude to time changes in Provence and one becomes more relaxed and less clock-watching. I look forward to more of your reviews of Provencal restaurants.

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