Le Vigneron — Restaurant in Arvier

One-liner review: delicious yet expensive food in a cosy place with good enough service.

Detailed review:

Location and atmosphere:

Just off the main road in this little town. Very easy to miss the turn if you're not using navigation so pay attention.

There is free parking but there was almost no spots on a Friday, mid-February night. Summertime must be packed so do book a table in advance anytime a year.

The place is self seems very nice, warm, relaxed and welcoming. Background Music didn't really match that vibe as it was some king or Rock.

The main thing that bothered me was that next to us was a table with a toddler and his parents played with him at the table. I have nothing against kids of course but I was kinda hoping for a romantic, chilled dinner and it ended up being a bit noisy.

I think that there should either be an area for families or at least tell the clients in advance that it might be noisy.

Again - not against kids, it's a matter of expectations and I guess I wasn't expecting that...

Service:

The staff at the counter were very friendly but the waiter seemed a bit tired, as if she wanted to go home already. It makes sense as it was 21:30, but other waiters seemed fine and smiling. not the end of the world but could be nice to have some better energy...

After we say down we ordered water. It took 10 min to arrive. Another 5 min more the waiter came to take the order.

I saw the place was packed but still, customers dont need to wait so long for water or to order.

Food: Really good and very Interesting, delicious dishes .We were surprised with the prices as we looked at probably old photos of the Menu in which the prices were lower than they are now (see menu in the photos below).

The positions were also a bit small (portions-wise) compared to the price, so we ended up with around 35 Eur per person, for a shared meal of 2 firsts, 1 main and 2 glasses of red wine.

It's still cheaper than what you'd pay in other countries like mine, but we expected it to be less.

To conclude: Overall a very nice experience despite the noise from the nearby table, the long wait and the (a bit) expensive food.

If I came knowing all these things in advance, I suppose I'd give a 5 star...

The menu and the chef’s skills are great. We truly enjoyed our food. Can’t say the same about the service. There were three waitresses, one boy and two girls. The girl with the purple hair was really (how they say in Italian) “sgarbata”, ie no manners whatsoever. Didn’t bring a right knife for my meat, didn’t change any of our cutlery after the starter. We had the table until 21:15 and I was well aware of this. We were about to stand up when she comes up at 21:06 and says “she needs the table”. Never in our experience of eating out we were told blandly by a waiter to “get out” practically. The moment my daughter stands up, the waitress with the purple hair pulls out the chair from under her and pushes it to the table next to us. All this without saying a word to us, not even “scusi, posso prendere la sua sedia”. Appalling behaviour… The other waiters were fine and very courteous. Avoid the “purple...

Stellar little place! Staff was nice enough to squeeze me in solo at one of the last two tables for lunch. Kind and helped with some English translations.

Had a surprise of some little amuse-bouche style snacks and a whole platter of bread after ordering. The pistachio colored salted butter was incredible!

Didn’t see wines by the glass but the waitress gave me a nice local red that was tremendous - wish I had gotten a picture of the bottle.

Risotto was cooked to perfection and the veal ossobucco...