Hiely Lucullus - Avignon - France - review

Name: Hiely Lucullus
Address: 5 Rue de la République
84000 Avignon,
France

04 90 86 17 07

Food: French, Modern French

Average price: $

Complimentary: Bread roll

The roll was warm and soft but there was no butter to eat with it.

Melon three ways with ham

The sorbet, melon and melon juice were all sweet - and therefore this dish was overly sweet. The sorbet had a wonderful texture though.

We ordered:

Entree: Artichoke and lettuce 

This was bland, bland, bland. The soup was just stock with a few pieces of tough artichoke with wilted soggy lettuce on top, barely ate it despite my hunger.

Les escargots petits gris des Alpilles

R said the snails tasted like mushrooms and he didn't find the dish particularly tasty.

Main: Duck with cherry

R loved this, he said cherries went beautifully

Asparagus risotto

The rice was still chalky and needed lots of seasoning. Some asparagus spears were brown and unattractive. I did not like this dish.

 Dessert: Fig tart with vanilla icecream and lavender

I adored the addition of lavender. The ice cream was smooth and full of fragrant vanilla. The figs were sweet but crunchy. The biscuit base let the rest of the tart down, so basically this was just figs with ice cream.

Raspberry tart with lemon verbena

The herbs were languid and bruised. The raspberries were nice but the syrup was too sweet even for their tanginess and the acidity of the lemon curd. Once again the biscuit base, the same as above, was below par.


Cost: $85Euro for two entrees, two mains and two desserts.



Service: Bad/Inexperienced. At a Michelin starred restaurant I was hoping at least one of the waiters would know how to speak English, unfortunately only one knew about as much English as I knew French, which isn't much. Language barrier aside, our water was rarely topped up and the food was painfully slow to arrive and to be taken away. Towards the end of the meal I got a stomach pain and wanted to get the check to leave, despite asking for the check four times it took 30mins and us walking to the door before someone came with it.


Atmosphere: Golden hued elegance. I really loved the combination of warm woods and sunburnt hues with flourishes of jade green, it gave the room warmth and life. The windows that looked over the main street allowed light to flood in and gave the room a feeling of even more space. There are very few tables and they are spaced far apart so that it does feel at times you are the only ones eating.

Parking: Risky. There are even less car parks in Avignon town which is geared towards pedestrians so take the bus or train and leg it.

Website: http://www.hiely-lucullus.com/

Hours:  Open Daily 12pm-2pm, 7pm-10pm

Would I return: No.