Who doesn’t want to say they’ve eaten in an underground cavern located practically underneath the seating of a Roman Amphitheater?
It was an Italian restaurant in the south of France, recommended by the concierge at Hôtel Arène. Since we were in town for 5 days, we figured this would be an excellent spot to go to as one of our “nights out”. They typically require reservations (like Le Forum). It was off-season, so it wasn’t as big of a deal to get a reservation too far ahead.
Finding La Cantina is fairly easy, even though it’s on a side street (more of a one lane alley), . There’s parking across the street in a public lot. From there it’s a short walk across the street and up the yellow cobblestone alley. If you walk like we did from the hotel, you can walk up the alley with the traditional red brick cobblestone.
With signs off the main road to guide (in either direction), it was easy. There’s also a sign and menu outside.
Then you walk through a small staging hall. To the right of the hall is some outdoor seating. Once inside the restaurant door, you’re officially underground!
The Restaurant
When you walk into La Cantina itself, the first thing you can’t help but notice is that the walls and ceiling are of the original cavern. The ambiance is quite intriguing. Of course there’s no natural light, so the lighting is critical. That said, it’s well lit and properly lit throughout so doesn’t feel dark.
There’s seating for around 40 people and they have a small bar for serving alcoholic drinks. Considering the central location of the piano we’re thinking that it must get used from time to time for entertaining patrons.
At the back (beyond where we were seated), is an enclosed wall of Plexiglas where the “wine cellar” is.
The outdoor section seats another 20 people for when the weather is nice.
As it’s inside a hill, there’s no cell service. They have free WiFi that works well. We did use it to check-in on Facebook while we were there.
The Food
You always tell what you’re going to get when you go to a restaurant whose style is from a different country. We once ordered quiche in Argentina that didn’t look anything like a normal quiche. It was still delicious, but it wasn’t what you would expect.
Based on our experience at Le Forum in Orange, France, preferred restaurants in the town were going to be good. La Cantina did not disappoint.
The menu was typical of an Italian restaurant with some nice specials offered. It’s in Italian and they didn’t speak a lot of English (they speak French or Italian). Anyone who doesn’t speak Italian should either carry an Italian-English book, use a smart phone, or happily muddle through. We used the WiFi for translation as well. They did have some cool specials that neither of us were willing to try that night as we were both in the mood for comfort food.
We started with the house salad.
For the main course, we chose the Lasagna and Fettuccine Alfredo. And of course we needed a good bottle of red to accompany the food.
We finished up with a plate of cheese for dessert. We actually ordered it as an appetizer, but in Europe cheese is dessert so that’s when they brought it. Blame that on the language barrier. Or maybe they were encouraging us to enjoy their culture the way they do. Either way, we didn’t mind, and it was really good cheese. It went perfect with the wine.
The Wrap Up
We found it quiet, although we imagine the piano livens things up a bit on the nights its played. It’s cozy with a great ambiance, after all, eating underground is pretty novel.