Au Jardin Des Carmes — Restaurant in Avignon

Background: We dined at Au Jardin Des Carmes on a Saturday evening, 8pm (20h00) reservation. We made the reservation earlier that day.

Ambiance: 2 out of 5 We were looking forward to dining in the outdoor garden, but unfortunately the restaurant was not seating guests outside. Maybe it was due to possible rain in the forecast but who knows, we did not pursue it further. So if you want to sit outside, I recommend inquiring about that when you make your reservation.

Instead we were seated indoors under bright lights with a view of an even brighter wine fridge (looked like a giant vending machine). I would have rather sat on the couch in my Airbnb - at least there I can dim the lights so it doesn’t feel like dining in a cafeteria.

Wine: 4 out of 5 Selected a bottle of Viogner which was easily the best part of the meal.

Food: 1 out of 5 Could not have been more disappointed in the food experience. The only reason I’m not giving it a 0 out of 5 is because they included an allergen guide at the back of the menu, which was helpful since I have celiac (gluten allergy). The positives stop there. (Full transparency: there’s a chance that the dishes we ordered were adapted to meet my allergy needs, so maybe we did not get the traditional experience. Not that any information or guidance was provided by staff.)

We ordered “Tacos Guacamole” and “Artichauts à la barigoule” to start, followed by the “Risotto, asperge verte, parmesan & lard fumé” and “Filet de boeuf, crique à la provençale, jus de viande” as our main dishes.

Tacos Guacamole - while I wasn’t naive enough to expect tacos, I was disappointed that this was just whipped avocado (avocado mousse you might say), topped with off-brand Doritos. Best part of this dish was the couple cherry tomatoes included.

Artichauts à la barigoule - My fiancé described this as artichokes from a jar still sitting in the liquid from the jar. Also came with the grayest pancetta/bacon bits we’ve ever seen. Like actually the color gray.

Risotto, asperge verte, parmesan & lard fumé - I ordered this as my main dish as I was told it could be made gluten free. Best part of this dish were the two pieces of asparagus on top of the risotto. The risotto itself was green mush (basically I had two servings of green mush for dinner, ha). I used the table salt to season the dish because with the exception of those two pieces of asparagus, the dish was flavorless.

Filet de boeuf, crique à la provençale, jus de viande - This was my fiancé’s main dish. The filet of beef was lackluster. It was definitely not a “filet” and instead just a random cut of beef (easily the worst cut of beef either of us have had during the duration of our trip so far). The potato pancake that it was served with was another pile of green mush. I wish I was kidding. And my fiancé, who is willing to try any dish at least once, was visibly surprised with how bad the mush was.

Service: 2 out of 5 Honestly if you don’t want to have more people in your restaurant, then just say you don’t have any reservations available. I’m rating service a 2 because at least the hostess was quick to take our drink order.

In summary: Would not recommend unless you’re in the market for some flavorless mush. Seriously. I’m stunned that this restaurant has earned awards for its food. Also - don’t just rely on Google Reviews - the more recent reviews on Trip Advisor note a similarly...

It looked like a nice place but we ended up having a very unpleasant experience. We had asked if they could do gluten free food before we booked and they assured us that they would are able to cater for allergies. The starter took an hour to arrive. The main course arrived 1 hour 35 minutes after we had ordered. And there were croutons (gluten) all over both dishes. We pointed out the problem and they took it back and brought it out after removing the gluten. The problem was there was still crumbs embedded in the food. This kind of carelessness is a nightmare for soneone with an allergy. We had no option but to pay for our starters and leave. The problem is it reflects a bit of lazy attitude to cooking if you can't get the order the rights after 1 hour 45 minutes. We are always sympathetic to the restaurant owners, knowing how tough the business is. But, we also feel like we should call out the lazy restaurants so that the restaurants that work hard for their customers get their due credit. The photos of the mains with crutons are attached...

We had great hopes for this place having read previous reviews. However, the food was really average. The beef was chewy and inedible and the risotto salty and bland. For the majority of the meal we were the only the table there, so there wasn’t much atmosphere, which is not what you’d expect for a Friday night. I had to get up and find the waiter to order wine with my meal.

I don’t normally like to leave bad reviews like this as I would rather talk with the staff in person. I know that sometimes it can just be an off night and maybe we were just unlucky. I did try to talk to them about our experience with the food but they weren’t at all interested and just shrugged and handed me the bill.

There’s a lot of choice in Avignon so considering the prices they are charging I would expect a much...