Ferme-Auberge A Pignata — Restaurant in Sartène

I am reviewing the restaurant at A Pignata, where we had an excellent lunch.||From where we were staying a journey of 1h15 on windy and uneven roads felt like a long one. But it was worth it. ||A Pignata has a covered outdoor restaurant area with wide and outstanding views of the surrounding countryside. Booking is essential, as is knowing that what you’ll get is a fixed price menu with five courses of Corsican cooking. There is virtually no choice, but I question whether you’d need it unless you’re vegetarian…in which case choose a different restaurant.||For the first course there was an alternative, Butternut squash soup or the charcuterie. The helpful chap in charge suggested that we have two bowls for one portion of soup then we could share the charcuterie, and sample both. The soup was excellent, and the home made charcuterie the best I’ve had.||For the next course again an alternative. Each ‘main’ was accompanied by cheese filled cannelloni, and haricot beans in a sauce that contained meat. The alternative mains were 7 hour slow cooked lamb shank, or what I can best describe as a savoury meatloaf in a rich mushroom sauce. We ordered one of each of the mains and shared. All delicious, and copious in quantity. ||Next was cheese and fruit. Local goats and sheep’s cheese, as much as you want, and a fruit basket to accompany. Next doughnuts with grappa. Tear with your fingers, soak in grappa, and just enjoy! Then finally coffee.||I can see why the have rooms here, you would naturally want to lie down after all that.||At 60 Euro a head this was exceptional value. All the dishes are made from produce grown on the farm, and all are beautifully cooked.||A great experience, and...

I am reviewing the restaurant at A Pignata, where we had an excellent lunch.||From where we were staying a journey of 1h15 on windy and uneven roads felt like a long one. But it was worth it. ||A Pignata has a covered outdoor restaurant area with wide and outstanding views of the surrounding countryside. Booking is essential, as is knowing that what you’ll get is a fixed price menu with five courses of Corsican cooking. There is virtually no choice, but I question whether you’d need it unless you’re vegetarian…in which case choose a different restaurant.||For the first course there was an alternative, Butternut squash soup or the charcuterie. The helpful chap in charge suggested that we have two bowls for one portion of soup then we could share the charcuterie, and sample both. The soup was excellent, and the home made charcuterie the best I’ve had.||For the next course again an alternative. Each ‘main’ was accompanied by cheese filled cannelloni, and haricot beans in a sauce that contained meat. The alternative mains were 7 hour slow cooked lamb shank, or what I can best describe as a savoury meatloaf in a rich mushroom sauce. We ordered one of each of the mains and shared. All delicious, and copious in quantity. ||Next was cheese and fruit. Local goats and sheep’s cheese, as much as you want, and a fruit basket to accompany. Next doughnuts with grappa. Tear with your fingers, soak in grappa, and just enjoy! Then finally coffee.||I can see why the have rooms here, you would naturally want to lie down after all that.||At 60 Euro a head this was exceptional value. All the dishes are made from produce grown on the farm, and all are beautifully cooked.||A great experience, and...

Under no circumstances stay here. This story needs hearing so strap in - after having booked this place especially for my 50th birthday we arrived with a gift of a bottle of red wine from friends to drink with our dinner. We asked the waitress if we could drink this and she said that she would need to referr to the "owner" who approached us in, let's say, an "unfriendly" manner.

When explaining that we had come to his establishment especially and that we would be unable to to take the wine home to England the following day his response after a curt interchange was, incredibly, that we "could leave now". Remember, this is a place in the mountains, it was 8pm and we had had a couple of glasses of wine... His waitress was extremely embarassed by his manner and given the difficulty in finding somewhere else at that late hour we decided to let it go with regards to the wine. Bear in mind however that we in fact had offered to pay a corkage fee the equivalent to a full bottle of his house wine so we could drink our gift. No matter, in this guys mind - his "policy" was no outside wine...

Such was the attitude of the owner was that he (a) didn't care that he ruined what should have been a momentous evening with my wife, (b) was prepared to have us drive off without alernate accommodation on said day late in the eve and (c) illustrated the hardest of hearts and an attitude that is most certainly not conducive to running a hostelry I would posit. This latter point is what should perturb and warn other guests considering staying here. Avoid...