Casa Castagno in Avignon

It is quite rare for me to recommend a restaurant that isn't fully vegetarian, but with Casa Castagno I'll have to make an exception. Casa Castagno is a pizzeria and pasteria in the centre of Avignon and they serve fresh pastas and artisan pizzas with loads of ambience and good humour. I believe at least one of the daily specials is always vegetarian and there is a selection of vegetarian pizzas and salads on the regular menu. You can also have a half a pizza and the other half of the plate is then covered with salad. 

I went to this restaurant twice during my holiday as I had such a good night the first time around. On the first night I ate possibly the best bowl of pasta that I've ever had. It was fresh pasta with local tomatoes, intense buffalo mozzarella and a drizzle of basil, olive oil and garlic – simply heavenly! The portion was huge, but I still tasted their mandarin sorbet as a dessert, which was very refreshing. All this was served with exquisite wines. 

The staff there is very friendly and they tend to joke around, which makes it all nicely informal. The chef occasionally pops out of the kitchen to have a chat with the guests. We tried to converse with him with our limited French and it was very nice.

On the first night I already saw that there were several vegetarian pizza options, and they all sounded very tempting, so on the second night after a long consideration I ended up having a pizza with fresh mushrooms, mozzarella, emmental and local vegetables (courgettes and aubergines). It was a very tasty pizza with a thin crispy crust and the vegetables were full of flavour. You could also add spicy chilli oil on the top of the pizza, if you were brave enough for it. As a dessert on that day I had lemon sorbet with limoncello liqueur, which was also a very nice dessert.

I can warmly recommend this place to any hungry traveller and I really want to go back there as soon as I can.

Hopefully I'll see you soon, Casa Castagno!

East Side Burgers in Paris

Here's another veggie restaurant review from Paris. I was reluctant at first going to a place called East Side Burgers, as it doesn't sound very Parisian of course. But I'm glad that I went, because the experience was just delightful.

East Side Burgers was a small vegetarian fast food restaurant, a nice looking place, which was easy to find. There was a small queue when we got there, but it moved very quickly. Before we knew it, I was trying to shout out my s'il vous plaîts and mercis. The service was very friendly, but the language was soon switched to English due to my slowness in French.

Me and my friend both decided to have Le Basque burger, which is a basque style tofu steak burger with lettuce, cheddar cheese, caramelised and spicy red pepper, tomato and grilled bun. Otherwise I might have chosen Le Forestier burger, but they didn't have any on that day. However Le Basque turned out to be a spectacular veggie burger, one of the best I've ever had with its intense tasting char-grilled peppers. The portion was large and we also had some tasty organic cheese nuggets, Nuggets du fromage, on the side. This whole thing was enjoyed with a couple of Gallia Paris beers.

The interior of the restaurant is interesting, and it's nice and cosy. The price is very good for Paris, or elsewhere, for a good quality burger.

If I'll ever be in Paris again, this is where I'll definitely be eating again. Go there and see for yourself what the craze is about!

Votre hérisson des légumes