Le César

We enjoyed the food at Restaurant Cesar but not the service. The wait between our appetizer and main dish was almost an hour, but having lived in France for two years we could live with it and would have given them four stars. It was the waiter’s inappropriate behavior and the owner’s total lack of apology that ruined the evening. My wife wasn’t sure what «charolais» meant and asked me whether it was filet mignon. The waiter overheard her and started laughing to himself and commenting to other French guests. We were shocked and told the owner. The owner, without knowing what happened (he was quite far from us and could not have overheard), flatly denied that it could have happened and was completely unapologetic. My wife spoke French well and we had a French friend with us, and all of us were taken back by the owner’s attitude.
After we walked out, our children, who spoke fluent French, told us that the owner used a number of dirty French slangs when talking to us, e.g., engueler, as in «you cannot shout in my restaurant with your dog mouth.» Though we were upset, we never shouted at the owner and would have never imagined that a proprietor would direct such words to his customers.
If we didn’t understand French, we would not have caught the waiter or the owner’s rudeness. There are a number of nice restaurants in Bonnieux with equally good food but without the unpleasantness. We recommend Fournil and l’Arome.

This restaurant is special; intimate, cozy, a great ambience, a spectacular view (if you’re lucky enough to get one of the few tables next to a window), and this is accompanied by soft music and warm, friendly service. But of course none of this matters if the food isn’t up to par. But it is. And then some. As a bonus, the very friendly server (who is also the owner) had no problem supplementing our poor French with his much better English. My husband and I both had the 3-​course menu. I started with the carpaccio of smoked duck with salad. There was no shortage of delicately sliced and perfectly seasoned duck on this plate. My husband’s starter, and the only slight miss of the evening, was a broth of fish soup. The plating was overly complicated and my husband wasn’t sure how to eat it. But I let him eat some of my duck salad and all was well; he loved it even more than I did. For my main I chose the shank of lamb served atop white beans and roasted vegetables. I’ve had lamb before but this… this was amazing. This was like the filet mignon of lamb. As delicious as it was, somehow it was slightly surpassed by my husband’s Camargue bull. My lamb was a 10/​10, but his bull was a 10+. No bull (ha! Couldn’t help myself). I have never even seen bull on a menu. When I was trying to translate the French menu to my husband and told him that particular dish was beef, the owner overheard and said, «No, it’s not beef it’s bull». «Same thing?» I asked. «No, it’s different», he replied. I love how seriously the French take food. But it’s justified. This was like no beef I’ve ever tasted. I can’t describe it properly, but I can tell you it’s something you must try once in your life. I’m guessing this bull was extra special because it’s from Camargue, but if you love meat, if you love food, and if you love to dream about the meals you’ve had in the past, come here and order this. We weren’t going to order wine with the meal because we had been drinking wine every day between wine tasting and eating out, but as soon as we took a bite of our mains we asked the owner for the wine list. He offered to bring us a wine that would complement our meals. We trusted him and it was to our benefit. He brought us a beautiful organic and local red wine that stood up perfectly to the rich meats we were eating. For dessert we both had the chocolate moulleaux, or chocolate lava cake, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and surrounded by poached green grapes. A perfect ending to one of the most memorable meals we had in France.

Très bon restaurant avec vue sur le Luberon et le village de Bonnieux Prix abordable menu a 38 euros. Une belle carte des mets et des vins. A conseiller