St Tropez - Joseph L'Escale

St Tropez does not have one restaurant which comes vaguely close to being ‘world class’.

What makes this surprising is the amount of ostentatious wealth flaunted around this Provencal port each summer.

Perhaps, serious restaurateurs are only interested in restaurants with year round business.  St Tropez is fairly deserted for all but five months of the year.  Indeed, a winter’s day in St Tropez can be very bleak.

Off season, finding an open restaurant is a problem.  In peak season, finding a restaurant with a vacant table is a nightmare, unless you book well in advance.

A local entrepreneur named Joseph has identified an opportunity and, over the last few years, has opened two restaurants and a bar, all modestly called Joseph.

Joseph L’Escale is perfectly positioned on the port, by the biggest boats, and offers the best people watching through its fully glazed front. The menu looks interesting and the ambience attractive.

We will never darken the glass of this restaurant again.

Two visits have resulted in two appalling experiences.  On the first occasion the waiter got the order completely wrong, and blamed the camel.

Presented with either half a sheep, or a T Bone steak, I turned to the waiter,  “We ordered lamb.”

The garcon studied his hand held ordering device and retorted that the camel’s companion had definitely ordered a T bone steak.

The skies darkened.

Finally he agreed that perhaps lamb had been ordered and removed the offending cow from the table.

It is always difficult when one diner is facing food, which is cooling by the second, whilst awaiting the arrival of the other diner’s meal.  The result is morsels chewed painstakingly slowly in the hope that the other “plat” is just a moment away.

Eventually lamb was delivered to the table with the apologetic charisma of Basil Fawlty.'

The lamb was raw. Not pink. Raw, and cold.

“Manuel” was summoned and insisted the lamb was fine.

Six months later, back in St Tropez, and looking for lunch, we were drawn, once again to Joseph L’Escale.  The sun was shining, lightning doesn’t strike twice and time can be a healer.  Also, at this time of year (March) there aren’t many alternatives.

The fish soup arrived with croutons, aioli and grated cheese - mouldy grated cheese.  The soup went back, the garcon grovelled.

A few minutes later, another serving arrived – cold.  Clearly when this restaurant gets it wrong they rush out a replacement with zero quality control.

Nervously subscribing to the view that when a customer complains, for whatever reason, the kitchen takes revenge, the camel’s companion was all for wiping the slate clean and moving on to the main.

Whilst this soap was ongoing, I had taken delivery of mussels steamed with herbs – very dry mussels.

We had been persuaded to order loup - sea bass for two.  It was good, but when l’addition arrived we decided it wasn’t that good - €162 for a grilled fish.

This was almost on a par with La Maison de Catherine in Mykonos who charged €240 for two bowls of bouillabaisse.

Joseph L’Escale has failed miserably twice. Once may be a mistake, but twice?

The Who pledged “Won’t get fooled again’.

We were.

 
Joseph L;Escale
Port de St Tropez

+33 4 94 97 00 63