St Tropez - Pan Dei Palais

Just off Place des Lices in St Tropez, this luxury hotel, which opened in 2007, has an intriguing entrance, adorned with Buddhas, lanterns and sumptious rich coloured fabrics, a mixture of Indian, Thai and Moroccan.  The staff are very friendly and attentive. We are visiting weeks after the hotel opens so I hope this continues.

The Food is sublime. Delicious.  The menu is an eclectic mix of Thai, French, Moroccan, Italian … Sashimi, dim sum de crevettes, parma ham and melon, raviolis, risotto, tagine d’agneau aux fruits secs, filet de Saint-Pierre en croute de mozzarella, to name a few.  With starters at around 20 Euros and main courses at 30 Euros it wasn’t cheap but it really was worth every Euro.

There was a significant pause between each course, fifteen or twenty minutes, but the food really tasted freshly prepared.  The puddings, which did take about half an hour to materialise, were so worth the wait; melon soup and melon ice cream or the spectacular chocolate filo rolls with caramel sauce. 

The pauses between courses gave us time to observe the mandatory Eastern European demi blonde hooker (clearly out earning to finish off the bleach hair job) with her Eurotrash client, seated two tables away. Having said that, the rest of the clientele seemed fairly evolved and sophisticated.

The restrooms were a triumph. Marble, dimmed lighting with Bulgari soap.  A lot of money has been spent on this venue, so as we left we asked the charming receptionist who owned the hotel.

“Oh, he lives in Paris.”  she replied evasively.

“And his name?”  we persisted.

“He runs the company Endemol.”  She proudly announced.

At last something good comes out of Big Brother.

Return Visit (one month later)

Sadly it is often the case that hotels and restaurants rarely maintain the high standards they set during their opening / launch period. On this visit the food was still good but not outstanding. Whilst the bouillibaise "soup" was very good the accompaniment of a lump of fish and sliced potato was disappointing.  However, the pasta with truffles was excellent as were the Dim Sum crevettes again.  A ploy restaurants seem to use is a delay in bringing the bill when the restaurant is quiet, presumably because they don't want passers by to see empty tables.  We asked for the bill so many times, it was only when we "semi jokingly" threatened to leave without paying that it emerged.

Still worth a visit.

Pan Dei Palais
52 rue Gambetta
St Tropez

 +33 4 94 17 71 71

http://www.pandei.com