Recently, Chéri and I visited Sète as I wanted to see the Saint-Louis Lighthouse (read previous post here). However, the lighthouse wasn’t the only reason I wanted to go to Sète. I had also heard about a wonderful restaurant, opened by young chef Jordan Yuste. So I had two reasons to go to this Southern French fishing village. And Chef Yuste’s restaurant L’Arrivage didn’t let us down. In fact, it was a pure delight!
Local and fresh
L’Arrivage resides in a small street just behind the town hall. As soon as we entered the restaurant, I immediately loved the industrial atmosphere. The chef stood right in front of us and prepared all the local, fresh ingredients on the spot. While taking our order- the lunch menu for 27 euros including three courses- the friendly waitress told us that there is more room downstairs, for tastings and groups. So I had a peek and could only conclude that the vaulted cave is perfectly suitable for many merry nights. Once back at my seat, our feast began with some beautiful fresh bread that we could dip in a very tasty and grassy olive oil combined with smoked sea salt flakes. Then two oysters, served with apple tartare, boudin noir (black pudding) and espuma followed for Chéri. While I started with pieces of mackerel, marinated in soy sauce and served on three-coloured quinoa and kasha.
Organic and seasonal
L’Arrivage’s creative cuisine uses organic and seasonal products, including a selection of natural wines. The lunch menu proposes two options for each course and for our main dishes we, again, each opted for something different. Chéri loved his locally farmed pork tenderloin served with a truffle cream. Whereas I had the fish of the day, which was a fillet of lieu noir with seasonal vegetables. I also got three fried semolina salmon cubes that just tasted divine!
L’Arrivage
Even the pastries and ice creams are homemade by the chefs at L’Arrivage. As I have more of a sweet tooth, I went for the only dessert on the menu (the other option was a cheese platter). Chéri isn’t that big of a fan of cheese, so he opted for the same. The coconut financier with vanilla and carambar (yes, the candy) cream undoubtedly topped off our perfect lunch in style. No wonder the Guide Gault et Millau rewarded L’Arrivage and chef Jordan Yuste as a young talent for 2019.
