Saint-Tropez: La Régalade

For all its glamour, Saint-Tropez has always been a curiously challenging place to find a good meal. It might be because so many habitués of the jet-setty port are manically calorie-counting, or more interested in see-and-be-seen scenes than great food, and/or heedlessly willing to spend €50 on a mediocre pizza, or all of the above, but one way or another, it hasn’t encouraged local restaurateurs to excel. There are exceptions, of course—the very expensive restaurant at La Résidence de la Pinède is outstanding. But anyone in search of a reasonably priced, good quality bistrot meal with a Provençal accent has been pretty much out of luck, until this summer. It’s not new for Saint-Tropez hotels to recruit headliner chefs, but the arrival of Bruno Doucet at the Hôtel Benkiraï is fantastic news for gourmet glamour hunters. Doucet—who runs two excellent restaurants in Paris, La Régalade and La Régalade Saint Honoré—is offering a €45 three-course dinner-only menu that will evolve during the summer, but which so far has included such brilliant dishes as pea-and-asparagus bouillon garnished with crabmeat dressed with olive oil and lemon; fresh cod poached in lemongrass-spiked chicken bouillon with sautéed spinach; and lemon tart with strawberries and homemade sorbet. A terrific setting—a quiet terrace overlooking the hotel pool—and an appealing wine list will make this the hottest table in Saint-Tropez this summer.

Hôtel Benkiraï, 11 Chemin du Pinet, 04.94.97.04.37.

Fixed price menu €45; wine starting at €28. Prices are approximate, per person without wine.

Alexander Lobrano’s book Hungry for Paris is published by Random House. www.hungryforparis.com. Find Hungry for Paris and more in the France Today Bookstore.

Originally published in the July/August 2012 issue of France Today