Thank Friday it’s Lunchtime – l’Authentic, Caseneuve

There’s a fabulous (and expensive) restaurant in Caseneuve called Le Sanglier Paresseux – The Lazy Boar. Friends of ours heard that the owner had opened a second, bistro-style (read : cheaper!) restaurant in Caseneuve. Ooh, how about giving it the TFIL treatment? I suggested.

Great! said my friend, Leah. Leah is a semi-retired journalist/travel writer. She keeps a blog, too. Have a look – it’s called Tales and Travel, and she has some really good recipes as well as travelling tales to tell.

So Leah and her other half BB picked us up and off we went. Caseneuve is yet another ancient, stone, hill-top village, with superb views from three sides looking towards Saignon, Apt or les Monts de Vaucluse. Unfortunately. our destination turned out to be in a modern building, just on the outskirts of the fourth, boring side. We had a view across the road to a warehouse.

A third friend, Lynn, joined us and Madame la proprietaire brought the board listing the Formule du jour, the special all-in set menu.

What was this?? Starter, main course, dessert, coffee AND 25cl of wine for €13.90? A bargain, but would it live up to expectations?

We were all boring and ordered the same starter – Panacotta Faisselle de Chèvre au jambon. I mentioned faisselle a couple of weeks ago, when we were at Les Coupoles in St Michel l’Obervatoire. It’s a sort of cream cheese, but very light, almost like set yoghurt in texture. So this was panacotta made from faisselle which came from goat’s milk.

The jambon (ham) was finally chopped and mixed through it and it was served with a green salad. Yeah. It was good – not mind-blowing, but good.

Our wine arrived, too – a half litre each of white and rosè. Here is a photo of a glass of each, set against a backdrop of the LSH’s very classy Californian wine label shirt. How he gets away with wearing that in France, I will never know…

I opted for the blanquette de veau. Cringe. Sorry. This is the second time recently that I’ve ordered veal out… I think I will just have to accept that I am a hypocrite. I won’t buy it in a supermarket but I’ll eat it in a restaurant…

It was top class. Tender but not dry. Nice and tasty, served with a lovely creamy sauce, rice and ratatouille.

Leah, Lynn and BB all went for the coquelet de Caseneuve. Lynn and Leah were taking their rôle as restaurant reviewers very seriously now, and started a serious discussion on the merits of the ratatouille and the rice. The verdict was that it was well all cooked, well presented simple French country food.

The LSH had a craving for hamburger.

Why, LSH, why? You want hamburger, you go to McDonalds!

Anyhow, his burger was good. Cooked medium rare – gasp! Health & Safety has not yet hit France…

Portion sizes were good – not huge, like last week in Le Gargantua. We all had room for dessert. Four of us went for Creme Caramel and the LSH went for Diplomat Creme Anglais, just because we were all wondering what it was. “I bet it’ll be a kind of bread pudding,” he said.

He was right! It was good, too, nice and mushy, with lots of raisins through it.

The Creme Caramel was disappointing. I reckon it came in a packet and the chef just had to rip foil off the top and spray it with chantilly cream.

So overall, what did we think? Leah hit the nail on the head. “Would you go back there?” she asked. Truthfully, although there wasn’t much wrong with our meal, I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat there again. If I was in the area and it was lunchtime, sure, I’d pop in and know I’d get a good, basic food at a great price.

Star Rating (out of 5) :

Service : ✮✮✮✮✮
Food : ✮✮✮
Value : ✮✮✮✮✮
Ambiance : ✮✮✮