The story
Drum Café, at 35 avenue Victor Hugo in Arles, is a seasonal bistro inside the LUMA Arles campus in the Parc des Ateliers. Le Fooding listed it in 2026, and Michelin recommended it the same year.
The open kitchen is led by visiting chef Céline Pham, whose earlier posts include Carousel in London, Providence in Guéthary and Tontine in Paris. Her plates draw on Vietnamese and Camargue heritage. Sriracha, XO sauce and shiso appear alongside Camargue influences, so the bistro cooking reads both familiar and unexpected.
The lunch menu described by Le Fooding included electric ox steak tataki with preserved lemon, charred eggplant and shiso. Roasted carrots arrive with browned butter and XO sauce, and fried ravioli hold cochon noir pork, leeks and ginger under a sriracha-date sauce. For dessert, a rice milk pudding comes with figs and fig oil, or a coconut mousse made with aquafaba, dukkah and a spelt milk reduction.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
After a monumental seven-year construction project, billionaire Maja Hoffmann’s dream has finally sprung forth from the land in Arles! At the foot of the sparkling tower designed by Frank Gehry, the Luma Foundation boasts an impressive restaurant for chefs in residency. This summer, hidden behind twisted metal, Drum Café’s open kitchen welcomes the nomadic chef Céline Pham (ex-Carousel in London, Providence in Guéthary, Tontine in Paris…), who sends out audacious dishes that blend Vietnamese and Camargue heritage. The day we went for lunch, we had: an electric ox steak tataki with preserved lemon and charred eggplant and shiso condiments; lovely roasted carrots with browned butter and XO sauce – or plump fried ravioli filled with cochon noir pork, leeks and ginger, served with a sriracha-date sauce; before a sweet rice milk pudding paired with figs and a fig oil – unless you’d prefer the striking coconut mousse made with aquafaba, dukkah and a spelt milk reduction.
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