Restaurant in Sabran, France
Six tables, one menu, book far ahead.
Le Cèdre de Montcaud holds a 2025 Michelin star and operates a surprise set menu for just six or seven tables in a Virginia creeper-covered courtyard at Château de Montcaud, Sabran. Chef Matthieu Hervé's cooking runs technically precise and sauce-forward at €€€€ pricing. Book well in advance — this is the strongest Michelin-credentialed option in the Gard, but seats are tight and demand is high.
Le Cèdre de Montcaud earns its 2025 Michelin star in a setting that rewards the kind of traveller who plans around the table rather than treating dinner as an afterthought. If you are staying at Château de Montcaud or exploring the Gard département, this is the restaurant to build a night around. It is a poor fit for large groups or anyone wanting flexibility — with only six or seven tables in the courtyard, every seat matters and booking difficulty is high. For solo diners or couples on a southern France itinerary, it belongs on the shortlist alongside Mirazur in Menton and La Table du Castellet in Le Castellet as a destination dining anchor for the region.
The restaurant sits within Château de Montcaud, a 19th-century property in Sabran, a village in the Gard that most visitors to Provence drive past without stopping. That obscurity is exactly the point. Chef Matthieu Hervé , whose background spans international kitchens , runs a surprise set menu format that changes with what is available. The Michelin inspectors note blue crab, jellied langoustine consommé, John Dory with romesco and rock fish soup, and a fillet of veal in a herb crust with chanterelle cream and hay espuma. These are not permanent fixtures, but they signal the register: technically demanding, sauce-forward, and rooted in produce from the surrounding south of France.
The courtyard is covered with Virginia creeper , in late spring and summer that canopy creates a setting that is genuinely distinct from a conventional dining room. Six or seven tables means your neighbour is close but the pace is unhurried, with service that has room to breathe. For the food-and-wine traveller who has already done Bras in Laguiole or Maison Lameloise in Chagny, Le Cèdre offers something those venues cannot: genuine remoteness combined with one-star precision.
A note on timing. The courtyard setting makes warm-weather evenings the obvious choice , late spring through early autumn, when the Virginia creeper is in leaf and evening temperatures in the Gard sit comfortably above 20°C after dark. Dining here in summer means you are often eating as the light fades, which shifts the atmosphere considerably from a conventional enclosed restaurant. This is not a late-night destination in the urban sense; the village of Sabran quiets early. The value of arriving at this table later in the evening is the shift from sunlit courtyard to candlelit enclosure , a different room, effectively, from the one you sat down in. If you are driving from Avignon or Nîmes, factor in a return journey on rural roads: post-dinner logistics require planning.
For context within France's broader fine dining map, Le Cèdre sits in similar territory to Les Prés d'Eugénie in Eugénie-les-Bains or Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern: château or estate-anchored, single-star precision in a deeply rural setting, priced at €€€€ but without the volume or infrastructure of a multi-star Paris operation. The comparison that matters most for the practical decision is not Paris but the southern France circuit , and on that circuit, Le Cèdre currently offers the strongest Michelin-credentialed option in its immediate geography.
The surprise set menu format removes the decision fatigue of à la carte but also removes choice. If dietary restrictions or strong aversions are a factor, contact the restaurant in advance , the format cannot absorb last-minute changes at a six-table operation. The €€€€ price tier places this at the higher end for the Gard, though it remains below the entry point for comparable Paris addresses. Google reviewers rate it 4.7 from 408 reviews, a signal that the experience is consistent rather than occasionally transcendent.
The on-site Bistro de Montcaud provides the casual alternative if a full tasting menu is not the priority on a given night , worth knowing if you are staying at the château for multiple nights. For a fuller picture of what Sabran offers, see our full Sabran restaurants guide, our Sabran hotels guide, our Sabran bars guide, our Sabran wineries guide, and our Sabran experiences guide.
Booking difficulty is high. With only six or seven tables, Le Cèdre fills quickly, particularly for warm-weather weekend evenings. Book as far ahead as possible , several weeks minimum if your dates are fixed. The surprise menu format means you need to communicate dietary requirements at time of booking, not on arrival. The address is Château de Montcaud, 30200 Sabran. Dress expectations at a Michelin-starred château restaurant in France run smart-casual to formal; err towards the former.
| Venue | Location | Stars | Price | Booking Difficulty | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Le Cèdre de Montcaud | Sabran, Gard | 1 Michelin (2025) | €€€€ | Hard | Surprise set menu |
| Mirazur | Menton | 3 Michelin | €€€€ | Very Hard | Set menu |
| Bras | Laguiole | 3 Michelin | €€€€ | Hard | Set menu |
| La Table du Castellet | Le Castellet | 2 Michelin | €€€€ | Moderate | Set menu |
| Flocons de Sel | Megève | 3 Michelin | €€€€ | Hard | Set menu |
Yes, if you value technical cooking in an intimate setting over flexibility. The surprise set menu at Le Cèdre removes choice but delivers consistency , the Michelin committee awarded a star in 2025 on the strength of what Matthieu Hervé is putting on those plates. At €€€€ pricing in rural Gard, you are paying Paris-adjacent prices for a one-star experience; the trade-off is that the setting, scale, and lack of tourist-circuit crowds make the meal feel more personal than equivalent-priced venues in Lyon or Avignon. It is not worth it if dietary restrictions are extensive or if tasting menus are not your format.
The immediate on-site alternative is the Bistro de Montcaud, which offers traditional cuisine at a lower price point , useful if you want a lighter night or are staying multiple days at the château. Beyond Sabran, the nearest Michelin-credentialed southern France alternatives worth the drive are La Table du Castellet (two stars, Var) and Mirazur in Menton (three stars, though considerably further east). See our full Sabran restaurants guide for the complete local picture.
Smart-casual at minimum, leaning towards formal for dinner. A Michelin-starred restaurant inside a 19th-century château in southern France carries clear expectations , jacket for men is appropriate and unlikely to be overdressed. The courtyard setting in summer is warm, so avoid heavy layers, but do not interpret the outdoor element as an invitation to dress down. Trainers and shorts would be conspicuous.
Yes , this is one of the stronger special-occasion choices in the Gard and wider Provence-Languedoc region. The combination of a Michelin-starred surprise menu, a courtyard covered in Virginia creeper, and a château address gives the evening a structure and setting that marks it as distinct from a standard restaurant dinner. Six or seven tables means service attention is high. The surprise format adds an element of theatre without gimmick. For a milestone anniversary or birthday dinner in southern France, it is a sharper choice than a larger, more anonymous hotel restaurant.
At €€€€ pricing, the value calculation depends on what you are comparing it to. Against Paris one-stars of equivalent technical ambition, it is competitive , and the setting in rural Gard is something Paris cannot offer. Against three-star options like Bras or Mirazur, you are paying a similar price tier for one star's worth of recognition. The honest answer: Le Cèdre earns its price through intimacy and setting as much as through plate technique. If you are spending four figures on a dinner in southern France, this is a defensible choice , but if maximum culinary ambition per euro is the priority, the three-star options further afield offer more Michelin signal for similar outlay.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Le Cèdre de Montcaud | Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Hard |
| Plénitude | Contemporary French | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Pierre Gagnaire | French, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen | Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Kei | Contemporary French, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Le Cinq - Four Seasons Hôtel George V | French, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
Yes, if a surprise set menu format suits you. The Michelin-starred kitchen under Matthieu Hervé runs a single evolving menu — dishes cited by Michelin inspectors include jellied langoustine consommé and herb-crusted veal with chanterelle cream, each built around precise saucing. At €€€€ pricing with only six or seven tables, the experience is deliberately intimate rather than operationally grand. If you prefer choosing from a carte, this is the wrong format.
There are no other Michelin-starred restaurants in Sabran itself, so the nearest comparable fine dining is in Avignon or Nîmes, each roughly 40–50 minutes away. Within the Gard and lower Rhône corridor, options at this price tier are thin — which makes Le Cèdre the default destination for serious cooking in the area. If you want starred dining with more table availability and a full à la carte, Avignon is a more practical base.
The venue data does not specify a dress code, but a Michelin-starred château courtyard setting at €€€€ pricing signals smart dress as a reasonable baseline. Think neat, considered clothing rather than formal black tie — the courtyard setting under Virginia creeper is intimate rather than grand-ballroom formal. When in doubt, err toward a level above your usual smart casual.
It is well-suited to it. Six or seven tables in a Virginia creeper-covered courtyard, a single surprise menu, and a 2025 Michelin star add up to a dinner that feels considered rather than generic. The small scale means service attention is high — the risk is that the fixed menu format removes the flexibility some guests want for celebration meals. Confirm ahead whether dietary needs can be accommodated.
At €€€€, yes — provided the format fits your group. Michelin awarded the star in 2025 based on a menu that shows real technical ambition: langoustine consommé, romesco-sauced John Dory, hay espuma. For comparable investment in Paris you would be at a multi-star table competing for attention; here, one of six or seven tables in a quiet Gard courtyard gets you a different ratio of quality to crowd. The value case weakens if you are driving a significant distance solely for dinner rather than combining it with a château stay.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
