L'Amici — Restaurant in Avignon

Short review: excellent pizza in the heart of Avignon! Slow and bumbling service, but it's worth it.

In-depth review: we happened upon L'Osteria at the tail end of a holiday in Provence. We were both craving a pizza but did not want to stop at a place that sold it by the slice in the street. The place was rather empty, at lunch time, which worried us a bit - but then we saw a wood-burning oven and an Italian Pizzaioilo and we decided to stay there.

Ordering was easy enough, the restaurant was only dealing with 3 or 4 tables at the time, so they saw to us immediately. We ordered a couple of pizzas, a Spritz and some water. The Spritz came in about 5 minutes, and it was excellent, but they forgot to bring the water until we reminded them.

In the meantime the table next to us had finished their food and ordered dessert. This will become relevant later.

We got our pizzas. They were absolutely divine. Pizza-you-can-only-have-in-Italy kind of divine. Super thin base cooked to perfection (Neapolitan style, so thin and floppy), a lovely home-made sauce and the right amount of cheese. I asked them to add chevre to my Margherita and it was one of the better decisions I've made in my life. My Fiancée had the Bufalina, which was delicious, too.

When we finished our pizzas our friends on the table next to us still hadn't received their dessert. They had reminded them a couple of times but the Panna cottas only came out as we finished off.

Then we asked for a coffee and the bill and the guy came to us with a bill with 4 items on it. Including 2 kids menus. Hmm. We don't have kids. Anyway, it took him and the boss about three tries to get our bill right. They were super apologetic and even removed the coffee from the bill for us, but I don't want to think about how they'd cope with the administration of running the restaurant when it's really busy.

Bottom line, though: I'd go back if I was in the area. The pizza is worth...

We happened by chance onto this charming restaurant while walking around Avignon. We have been staying here for the week and have experienced many very nice restaurants. This one looked particularly cozy and inviting. When we went in we were greeted enthusiastically and shown to our table. This stood out to us. While we were used to cordial service, we have not felt that the other restaurants welcomed us as warmly and authentically as L’Amici. That was a big plus! Also the food was excellent: I had the lasagne and my wife ordered a pizza. Both were delicious! We plan on coming back...

Poor.. given the competition in the area we were very disappointed. Pretty much the first people there, service was poor, young sullen looking waitress who really couldn't be bothered either way. When asked for the bill, sat 10 mins waiting while she chatted with random people seemingly in the street. Finally had to go up to the counter myself to pay the bill. Pizzas just OK, am sure there ate other Pizza type places with a better customer experience and pizzas, personally, wouldn't spend my money there again or anyone else's money...