What to Eat in Avignon: Our Top Food Recommendations
A chocolate class with Aline Géhant at Le Mirande’s cooking school. Avignon, France. March 5, 2022.
Avignon punches well above its small-town weight with what it delivers in terms of food. The bakeries, patisseries, restaurants, chocolatiers, and cafes impressed us over and over again.
And that’s during a visit during the off season, which meant that many places hadn’t yet reopened from their winter breaks.
Can you imagine, then, what we’ll find when we go back (because we will return!) with everything open and humming?
Our Favorite Avignon Restaurants
We enjoyed restaurants for lunch and for dinner—and at more places than made the list here!
You will note a preference for eating out at lunch more than at dinner in my notes below; I’ve found that indulging more at midday helps me avoid turning in for the night after a robust meal and gives me the opportunity to move around a bit more after eating than dinner times allow. And it doesn’t hurt that what restaurants serve for lunch often has a lighter profile—and a more reasonable cost, which makes eating out more often more possible.
Seeking a casual dinner with friends, we received a recommendation for 46, a cozy neighborhood restaurant packed with local families chatting over a convivial meal paired with wines from a robust list. The restaurant refreshes its menu of hearty fare regularly. Come here for a solid, well-prepared meal in a welcoming environment.
We had lunch on a weekday afternoon at L’Agape, a cozy restaurant with relaxed décor yet elegant service. Shortly after we arrived, the restaurant filled every table with a delighted lunch crowd of all ages enjoying food à la carte and on the menus. We opted for the three-course menu rather than the day’s lunch menu and I delighted in house-made bread, a chicken and mushroom starter, a fresh fish filet, and a deconstructed, cracker-style dessert. My mouth waters just writing about it.
On our first visit to Avignon, we had a memorable meal at L’Essentiel, which you’ll find tucked into a courtyard not far from the Palais des Papes. (You can find more detail on the restaurant and its food in my post about food in Provence.) If you seek a lovely, fresh lunch in a serene setting close to the action, you can’t go wrong with a stop here.
In terms of “calm and serene,” no French covered market qualifies—but the food sure stuns in many of them. Such is the case at Les Halles in Avignon. This covered market, in terms of food variety and quality, rises above most in my experience. Though you can certainly visit to take treats to go, the market has tables and booths tucked in the center where you can sit and eat what you’ve purchased or have had made by the market venders—often in the company of other happy and chatty Avignois.
La Mirande had one Michelin star at our visit, though the rumor around town is that it will soon have two—which corresponds with what we’d thought during our lunch one weekday. The restaurant, at the back of the ground floor of the same-named luxury boutique hotel, is very spacious, with the style of an elegant country estate. The warm yet well-orchestrated ballet of service presents a tasting menu of food prepared served at the chef’s discretion of the day (with consideration for number of courses desired and any allergies, of course). A memorable meal for the dining experience and the truly indescribably delicious food, with each course perfectly complementing the ones before and the ones after it.
Sevin has a single Michelin star and felt much more aligned with its level. That’s not to say it doesn’t fully deserve its star! I feasted on a weekday lunch from the three-course menu plus the optional cheese course (recommended!), which included a fish starter, a main course of beef, a cheese course that I selected with the help of a server from a richly provisioned cheese cart that they wheeled up to our table, and a light and fruity dessert.
Choosing our lunch just before the rest of the tables filled at L‘Agape in Avignon, France. March 2, 2022.
A friendly note for everyone seeking the best possible experience in a French restaurant: The French have a dining culture with its own rules. For the scoop, read my article on how to have the best restaurant experience in France.
Don’t-Miss Bakeries and Patisseries in Avignon
I don’t have to convince you—in a post about food in France, no less—to eat the bread and the pastries in Avignon, do I?
When the line out front only disappears when the place has sold everything it offers, you know you need to try it: Hence our discovery of Bella Ciao. We loved the whole-grain breads and the brioche—and the crackers (when not sold out) will disappear almost before you realize you had them. That I only managed to snag the crackers once means we need to go back to Avignon soon for more.
We found the best Avignon-specialty sacristan pastry at Lisette. The Lisette sacristans come crispy and messy while being fresh, tender, and light, dusted with powdered sugar and slivered almonds. If in Avignon, you must try the sacristan (and preferably the one sold here). And don’t stop at the sacristan at Lisette: We found the best chocolate croissants and fougasse (another regional food must) in town here. Even better? The staff at Lisette was above-and-beyond warm, welcoming, and positive, no matter how busy or crowded the café.
You’ll find Le Saint Chocolat busy at every opening hour, and for good reason: The food and the drink and the ambiance are delicious. You can eat inside in the cozy space at the back of the restaurant or sit in the sun-drenched square—or you can take your treats to go. We had coffee and desserts one afternoon and returned several times during our visit for macarons; the macarons here topped all the others we tried in Avignon.
Violette has several locations in Avignon, all with a slightly different balance of options between breads and pastries. (Some locations focused more on the former and some on the latter.) We tried several treats from several locations and settled on a multigrain bread cut to size and priced by weight as our favorite for daily eating.
One of the Violette boutiques in Avignon, France. February 26, 2022.
Chocolatiers and Chocolate Boutiques in Avignon
We spied several chocolate boutiques and chocolatiers creating house-made chocolate confections in Avignon. As you can imagine, we tried a handful.
Of the ones we’ve tried so far, we had two favorites to highly recommend:
I had read about Avignon chocolatier Aline Géhant before our trip and planned to visit her shop while in town, so imagine my delight to discover that she taught the half-day chocolate-making class I’d signed us up to take at La Mirande one Saturday. Though we had chocolate galore after the class, we so loved everything we’d eaten that we still needed to visit her store before we left town. We bought a box of truffles we selected from her case; each one had a perfectly balanced, delicate, unique flavor and perfume.
We visited Puyricard as part of a walking tour focused on gastronomy in Avignon. The dark and milk chocolates we tried (even for this dark-chocolate fan) had a lovely flavor and subtlety and the brand’s house-made calisson, from its unique recipe, did have more nuance than the others I’ve tried. (Readers know my opinions on calissons!) Puyricard has a boutique in Avignon and stores elsewhere across Provence, the south of France, and even one in Paris.
Feast with Impunity
Fortunately, I had a little project milestone to celebrate while in Avignon, which I decided gave me permission to eat all the deliciousness with a measure of impunity.
I don’t think I can wait all the way to another project-related milestone for another visit—I loved Avignon too much—so I’ll just have to find another reason to feast when I return.
Or perhaps just spending time in Avignon is reason enough to celebrate?