Le Seize

Le Seize belongs to a growing category of Provençal restaurants that reject both formality and casualness in favour of something more exacting: a small room, a focused menu and a direct relationship with local producers. Opened in 2023 by Sarah and Julien Richard in the old town of Arles, it marks the couple’s first independent address after years spent inside more established houses.

Julien Richard’s background gives the restaurant its discipline. His career has included work in starred kitchens and senior roles at the Grand Hôtel de Saint-Jean-de-Luz, La Mère Germaine in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and the Arlatan in Arles. At Le Seize, that experience is not used to reproduce gastronomic ceremony. It is reduced into a bistro format where technique supports the ingredient rather than overwhelming it.

The cooking is seasonal, market-led and closely tied to the surrounding region. Camargue rice, Mediterranean fish, Alpilles lamb, vegetables, herbs and flowers from the kitchen garden appear in dishes that are precise but not decorative for their own sake. Michelin describes the restaurant as a small Provençal bistro in old Arles, while Gault & Millau notes its serious place within the city’s dining landscape.

The address matters because Arles is often better known for its monuments, museums and summer cultural calendar than for quietly ambitious everyday tables. Le Seize offers another measure of the city: local, contemporary, disciplined and still intimate. NOTES includes Le Seize for the clarity of its chef-owner model, its intelligent use of Provençal and Camargue produce, and its role as one of the most convincing small tables in contemporary Arles.