Restaurant LES CAVES HENRI IV — Restaurant in Aix-en-Provence

Once up on a time a young man decided to learn to cook. He studied and studied hard, learned all the technique, and his dishes looks almost as good as a fine dining restaurant. The taste? He's not sure because his tongue is insensitive, he literally couldn't tell how the food actually tastes like. One day the luck strike, his influential sponspor made all the arrangement for him to open a restaurant in the center of the town with lots of visitor traffic...

This is how I imagine how this restaurant came to be. It's probably not literally what happened, but how else can a restaurant became so well known yet tastes so miserable?

They only offer tasting menu for dinner, no customization options.

The little starters look alright but rather bland.

The 1st main dish turbot came with an emulasion that feels greasy from overdoing the butter. I think a plain turbot pan fried will most likely taste better. It came with a side of tartare of fish with jelly, which tastes ok but doesn't really salvage the dish.

The second main dish is the veal, pretty bland but ok. The side sweatbread actually tastes decent, I guess because the chef pretty much kept its original flavor.

Then the tasteless goat cheese with sweet jam. Then the dessert, usually the highlight of a fine dinner in France, somehow just tastes like canned pineapple with sweet not very creamy cream.

Overall a very underwhelming dinner. Chef tried very hard to make up the appearance of a fine dining restaurant but its taste is anything but.

I gave this place 2 stars, 1 for tryimg, at least the food look alright. 1 for the underground cellar looking interior, good for a date or to be close to be someone you care and love (no wifi or cellular signal is a bonus in this regard).

I seriously don't understand this type of quality can still be in business. Perhaps even my culinary heave France has more FOMO and insensitive tongue people than I thought?

The strange thing is even my AirBnB host has this place on the recommendation list. What...

Very creative! We had the 3 course selection meal and you'll have an adventure just by viewing each of dishes. I had the foie gras, seafood dish (tobart..?) and cheese selection. Foie gras melts inside your mouth beautifully with its citrus jam combo. The seafood dish was delightful to see, the king prawn somehow manages to melt in your mouth too. Scallop was well cooked but the crayfish (that's only half) may leave you thinking it's more for decoration than substance. The base of white fish and potato was a balanced combo too.

By the time for the cheese selection I was too full, but I can say that the goat's cheese was the best part because it was prepared with a crispy parcel (kinda like a wonton) and the cheese fluffy and actually very light.

If you feeling adventurous and don't mind spending a bit of cash for the experience, then it's a good entry to French contemporary dining.

By the way, the chef seems to favour watercress for all the garnishes if you...

I have had the pleasure of eating at a lot of beautiful places and this restaurant was simply divine. I am so surprised at the select reviews with something negative to say as this was the best place I’ve been to in awhile. Every dish was so interesting in terms of the combination of flavours and textures, and the wine pairing was sensational. This was a true experience, not just a meal, and the ambience was beautiful as well. I cannot recommend enough!!!!!!!!! Thank you thank you!!!!!!!! C’était...