Le Jardin de la Bastide – Saint-Tropez's reinvented garden table

Le Jardin de la Bastide is the evening gastronomic table of La Bastide de Saint-Tropez, a five-star Relais & Châteaux hotel set among pine and olive grounds just a few minutes from the beaches of Ramatuelle and the port of Saint-Tropez. It is here, once the pool-side Trattoria closes for the day, that Italian chef Luca Binaschi stages his serious proposition: a single evening composition served as five or seven courses under the title 'Essenza e Impronta', a dinner taken intimately beneath a glass ceiling. The kitchen's register runs to dishes such as rabbit bottoni, small button-shaped ravioli dressed with Taggiasca olives, marjoram and lardo di Colonnata, or John Dory cooked on the binchotan grill and finished with anchovy butter. The address is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, a distinction the inspectors tie to a peaceful terrace and Mediterranean garden that foster an intimate, romantic setting, and the table also carries one Gault&Millau toque.

01The room and the setting

La Bastide de Saint-Tropez occupies four Provençal mas arranged around an elegant manor house inside a lush, exotic-planted park, a setting that feels genuinely removed from the performance of central Saint-Tropez despite sitting minutes from it. Dinner at Le Jardin de la Bastide happens apart from the poolside bustle of the hotel's other table, served as an intimate dinner under a glass ceiling rather than in the open-air trattoria.

For the 2026 season the dining room itself was reworked, with new décor intended to give the space more softness and character to match the kitchen's more considered evening register — a deliberate contrast with La Trattoria's sunnier, poolside mood next door.

02The chef

Luca Binaschi is the young Italian chef MICHELIN credits with giving the cuisine of the South of France a distinctly Italian twist. By day he leads La Trattoria, revisiting the traditional cuisine of the north of Italy with fresh pasta, unmissable antipasti and the day's catch.

Insider tip

Dinner only, Tuesday–Saturday, 7.30–9.30pm; closed mid-October to mid-April.

By night, under Le Jardin de la Bastide's glass roof, he shifts register toward a more composed Mediterranean cooking built around seasonal produce. Even off-season, he keeps refining the house repertoire for its own channels, including the restaurant's signature risotto, a dish the hotel has shared as representative of his style.

03The cooking

The dinner menu, 'Essenza e Impronta', is conceived as a poem to the Mediterranean art de vivre, built in two lengths — five or seven courses — around exceptional seasonal produce. Rather than a sprawling carte, it is a single tasting narrative, built dish by dish through the evening under the restaurant's glass roof.

The style favours precise technique over flourish: delicate textures and bold, clearly stated pairings rather than elaborate garnish, with Binaschi's Italian training showing through in pasta shapes and grilling technique applied to Mediterranean produce.

04What to order

Among the dishes MICHELIN singles out are rabbit bottoni — small, button-shaped ravioli — dressed with Taggiasca olives, marjoram and lardo di Colonnata, and John Dory cooked on the binchotan grill and finished with anchovy butter. Both sit comfortably within the five- or seven-course 'Essenza e Impronta' format, which is how the kitchen prefers guests to experience the evening rather than through individual plates.

05When to go and booking

The gastronomic table seats guests Tuesday to Saturday, dinner from 7.30pm to 9.30pm.

La Bastide de Saint-Tropez closes for a winter interlude from 10 October 2026, reopening for the new season on 15 April 2027, with 2027 bookings already open — worth bearing in mind for anyone planning a visit outside the summer months.

06The neighbourhood

The bastide stands apart from the village centre — a world away from the bustle of Saint-Tropez in summer — while remaining only minutes from the harbour and the beaches of Ramatuelle, making it as suited to a quiet dinner after a day on Pampelonne sand as to a special-occasion evening away from the port's crowds.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.