There is no doubt
that
Auberge de L’Eridan (Marc Veyrat)
Boyer
(les Crayeres), Champagne
Le Cagnard, Hautes de Cagnes, Cagnes sur
Mer, near Nice (00 33 4 93 20 73 21)
Cotes St Jacques (Michel Lorain)
Michel
Guerard, Eugenie les Bains
Moulins de Mougins (Roger Verge), near
Nice
Louix XV (
For a real treat, try
Ducasse, now installed at Plaza Athenee.
Alain Ducasse also owns the magnificent Louis XV in
Le Taillevant 15 Rue Lamennais - 00 31 (0)1 44 95 15 01 –
is a doyen of 3 star Michelin food in
|
Restaurant |
L’Ambroisie
|
|
Food
rating |
10/10 |
|
Address |
9 Places des Vosges, Paris 4e |
|
Phone
Number |
00 33 1 42 78 51 45 |
|
Open |
Tuesday
– Saturday |
|
Price |
£160
a head with drinks |
Set in a
beautiful square which has cloisters, or at least something looking like
cloisters, the dining room is similarly elegant. There is a main room, and two smaller rooms,
all very pretty and peaceful. The restaurant
has perhaps only 36 covers. For amuse
guele we had a creamy gazpacho soup, at the bottom of which were finely chopped
vegetables with a blob of courgette cream as a garnish floating on top of the
soup, which had great depth of flavour (10/10). Bread was either white (9/10) or (even better)
country bread with excellent sourdough taste, a lovely texture and a fine crust
(10/10). For starter I had four
langoustines on a bed of spinach served in between sesame tuiles with a light
curry sauce (very light on the curry).
These were superb, strikingly fresh and perfectly cooked (10/10). Crayfish with char-grilled asparagus was
served on a bed of cream mousse with mixed green leaves, and a sauce that was
supposedly of walnut oil but tasted more like a meat reduction with olive
oil. All very good, though not to the
standard of the langoustines (8/10).
For main
course, Stella had ultra-fresh sea bass, very nicely timed, served with plain
asparagus, a tapenade of green and black olives and a cream sauce. Though the sea bass was perfect, Stella felt
the dish overall was a 9/10 as she was unconvinced about how the other elements
of the dish went together. I had (with
food expert Michael Jonsson) a stunning poulet bresse, a whole chicken cooked
and then carved at the table. Both lag
and breast of chicken had greta flavour, served with a remarkable gnocci
(10/10).
We skipped
cheese, as according to Michael, a regular here, Pacaud unaccountably uses a
mediocre cheese supplier. Pre-dessert
was a fine dish of poached cherries, cherry soup and cherry mousse, with a
pistachio and almond Florentine (10/10).
A very light and fluffy chocolate cake was interesting, yet did not have
great depth of flavour – presumably aiming for the originality of it being so
light (8/10); this was served with a fine vanilla ice cream. A dacquiose of praline was basically an
almond meringue served with wild strawberries (8/10). Coffee was excellent (9/10), served with a
nice tray of petit fours: a lovely tart of wild strawberries, an excellent
almond tuile, a choux bun with raspberry and vanilla cream, a sponge and
chocolate discs with roasted almonds (9/10).
Overall a
very fine meal, with some dishes that would be hard to improve upon. Last visited June 2004.
|
Restaurant |
Arpege
|
|
Food
rating |
10/10 |
|
Address |
84 rue Varenne, Paris 7e |
|
Phone
Number |
00 33 1 45 51 47 33 |
|
Open |
Weekdays |
|
Price |
£180
a head with drinks |
Chef Alain Passard made
headlines when he declared that he was not going to cook meat any more. If this was ever entirely true it is no
longer so, with a short mixed menu involving fish and meat, but there is a wide
selection of ten pure vegetarian starters in addition to the other choices, and
you can order a pure vegetarian meal.
The dining room is modern, fairly small with Lalique dancing figures as
insets to match the Lalique display plates.
An amuse bouche was the least interesting element of the meal, a poached
egg served in its shell with balsamic vinegar: nice but nothing
remarkable. There is just one kind of
bread, but it is superb: a country bread with great
crust, perfect seasoning and fine texture, using a sourdough (10/10). My starter was four langoustines cooked and
served in their shell, each split in half and coked to perfection, served with
a spicy sauce which had remarkably clean taste of ginger: the langoustines were
simple but stunning (10/10). Stella had
two kinds of smoked potatoes, utterly superb and served with a subtle
horseradish cream – I have never eaten potatoes that tasted like this
(10/10). Next was a rather superfluous
gelee of beetroot and tomato, and then the main course arrived. Passard like to cook things slowly (“artisan
style”) and my pheasant had been cooked for an hour and a half in a basket with
hay, covered with pastry so the flavour and aroma was entirely contained. The meat was superbly tender, having great
depth of flavour, served with a simple cooking jus flavoured with 25 year old
balsamic vinegar; this worked well but the star was the pheasant itself, which
tasted divine (10/10). Stella’s turbot
was also cooked very slowly for two hours, also tasting great, served with a
simple butter sauce (9/10). Cheese was
in very fine condition: here they go for a smaller board than many places, but
everything is perfect. The cheese is
sourced from
|
Restaurant |
Atelier
Robuchon
|
|
Food
rating |
8/10 |
|
Address |
Hôtel Pont Royal 7, rue |
|
Phone
Number |
+33 (0) 1 42 22
56 56 |
|
Open |
Weekdays |
|
Price |
£60
a head with drinks |
When Joel Robuchon ran
Jamin and later Robuchon, he was without doubt the best chef in the world, and
served the best food I have ever tasted.
He retired at age 50 and has not opened a place under his own name until
2003, with this simple “tapas” style place on the left bank. Here you sit at bar stools and order from an
appealing menu of “small dishes” (at around EUR 12) as well as starters and
main courses. Perhaps three or four
small dishes would be good for lunch.
Although he is not cooking here himself he shows the same gift for
training he had at his earlier restaurants, and the dishes that appear are very
fine indeed. A red mullet was stunning,
served with a little jus of saffron sauce, and would have been at home in a top
3 Michelin star restaurant (10/10). A
single scallop was perfectly cooked, though merely excellent compared to the
divine red mullet (7/10). Spaghetti with
black truffle was superb, the pasta firm and yet having creamy taste
(9/10). A poached egg on a bed of pureed
parsley, topped with girolles in a creamy sauce and finely chopped chives also
worked very well (8/10). For dessert the
star was six mini tarts all featuring dazzling pastry: chocolate, cinnamon,
pear, apple. There was a stunning passion fruit and raspberry clafoutis (10/10)
while a green apple sorbet was even better than a fine chocolate ice cream
(8/10). The great thing is that you sit
here eating food that would shame all but a tiny number of top restaurants, and
yet the prices are less than half that of one of the grand dining rooms of
On a second visit things
were also good. A single langoustine in
batter with a little pool of basil sauce was exceptionally tender (9/10). A pork chop was cooked simply but was enjoyably
moist (7/10). A
langoustine ravioli on a bed of cabbage with a shellfish sauce had
tender pasta (8/10). Egg cocotte with
baby morels with cream sauce was very pleasant (6/10) but better was a gazpacho
with croutons, a sprig of basil and balsamic vinegar (8/10). Best dish was a piece of perfectly tender
monkfish, with a julienne of courgette, tomatoes and peppers and a light,
creamy sauce. This was as good a piece
of monkfish as I have tasted (10/10). A
chocolate tarte with a pistachio and almond ice cream had excellent texture
(7/10). Coffee was very good.
Please note that, contrary
to popular belief, they do take reservations here, but only for the first
sitting at lunch (
|
Restaurant |
Cinq
|
|
Food
rating |
10/10 |
|
Address |
George
V Hotel, 31 Avenue George V, Paris 75008 |
|
Phone
Number |
00
33 1 49 52 73 54 |
|
Open |
all
week except Sunday |
|
Price |
£175
a head with drinks |
A magnificent, opulent
dining room in the recently refurbished George V hotel, all marble pillars and
spectacular flower displays. An amuse
guele of diced tomatoes in olive oil was most impressive, the fine taste
belying its simplicity, while the selection of breads were each superb e.g. a
crusty baguette, a light, airy olive bread or a tangy sourdough roll. I started with langoustine and peas served
with truffled vinaigrette, which featured the most perfect langoustines I have
ever tasted. A savoury tart of
artichokes and Perigord truffle has meltingly delicate pastry and artichokes of
great flavour, perfectly enhanced by the black truffle (10/10). Lobster smoked in its shell and then roasted
was extremely tender, served with superb creamy morel mushrooms in a buttery
yet light sauce. Turbot with baby
vegetables was also very fine. Cheese was in superb condition, a wide selection
that went beyond the classics into interesting (though of course only French)
regional territory. A pre-dessert of
sugar tart had delicate pastry, while dessert of chocolate fondant featured a
perfect liquid centre and rich coating.
Coffee is excellent, accompanied by a chariot bearing various
chocolates, nougat and other offerings.
Service was faultless. The
artichoke tart and the langoustine dishes were two of the finest things I have
eaten for years. I would unhesitatingly
recommend this.
On my last visit: I had
another fine meal. Breads were
baguette, excellent crusty country bread, and superb slices of bacon
bread. An amuse bouche was remarkable:
parfait of artichokes with aged Comte, served with a few salad leaves; this
sounds bizarre yet was silky smooth with a fascinating blend of tastes
(10/10). Starter of fricassee of
langoustines featured perfect langousines in a shellfish broth and surrounding
a little puree of root vegetable (10/10).
Venison was extremely tender, served with superb
Last
visited March 2006.
|
Restaurant |
Plaza Athenee (Alain
Ducasse)
|
|
Food
rating |
10/10 |
|
Address |
|
|
Phone
Number |
00 33 1 53 67 65 00 |
|
Open |
Weekdays
|
|
Price |
£250
a head with drinks |
The Plaza
Athenee was featured in the concluding episode of Sex and the City, and it is
interesting to know how even a successful artist could afford a suite
here. To give you a sense of scale, a
beer is EUR 12, a glass of champagne EUR 18, and to add insult to injury it is
not even a proper sized glass.
The dining
room has a high ceiling and had tall windows looking out onto the hotel
terrace. Bizarrely, the lovely
chandeliers are obscured by hideous grey plastic cylinders, so that they are
only partly visible. One might hope that
this was some sort of building work going on, but sadly I think that is the
effect they intend. We began with a
delicate spinach puff (8/10) an a partly cooked
langoustine with caviar and lemon sauce, served cold (7/10). Raw and cooked asparagus, morels and an
asparagus mousse all featured fine ingredients (8/10). We actually went for a menu involving the
spring ingredients of morels and asparagus.
Next up was lobster cooked with asparagus and morels (8/10), served with
a cup of utterly wonderful morel juice with a little cream on top (10/10).
The next
dish for Stella was sole on a bed of perfect spinach, with three baby leaves, a
tiny crayfish and more morels. My main
course was breast of poulet Bresse, absolutely superb, cooked with morels,
crayfish and a light chicken jus (10/10).
Cheese was generally superb, with fine St maure,
Brie, aged Comte, Camembert,
For
dessert there was a chocolate crisp with chocolate ice cream, peanuts and lemon
cream, together with a bowl of chocolate ice cream; this dish could have done
with a contrast (9/10). I had a perfect
rum baba, the sponge even better than the fine version served at Louis XV in
Last visited June 2004.
|
Restaurant |
Grand
Vefour
|
|
Food
rating |
7/10 |
|
Address |
17
Rue de Beaujolais |
|
Phone
Number |
00
33 1 01 42 96 56 27 |
|
Open |
Weekdays
|
|
Price |
£190
a head with drinks |
Grand Vefour is an
institution as much as a restaurant, on this site since the 18th
Century in one form or another. The
dining room is snug, as in airline economy class snug: the tables are crammed
in and you will soon have an opportunity to share in the conversations of your
neighbouring diners. There is red
banquette seating and pretty tiling on the walls and ceiling – it looks more
like an old bistro than a grand dining room.
A starter of four scallops had excellent scallops cooked well, though
the mustard sauce with them was a rather sad brown sludge with only a faint
hint of mustard (8/10 for the scallops).
Lobster from
|
Restaurant |
Guy
Savoy
|
|
Food
rating |
9/10 |
|
Address |
8 rue Troyon, |
|
Phone
Number |
+33 (0) 1 43 80 40 61 |
|
Open |
Weekdays |
|
Price |
£180
a head with drinks |
The dining room is
modern, split into several smaller areas each with a handful of tables. Service is faultless, and we even had a waiter,
Gregory, who we used to know from Chez Nico in
This two Michelin star establishment in a mock Corinthian building in
leafy surroundings is blessed with a very pretty terrace where the tables are
placed in clement weather. It is a large
place, seating around 100 people, and the service on the lovely summer’s night
we dined there was a little stretched.
We began with an excellent caramelised onion tart, and then I had
langoustines that were cooked in a light batter and served very simply, just
with a few drops of basil sauce (6/10).
Stella’s summer salad was pleasant but really had nothing to lift it
above the ordinary (5/10 at best). For
main course I had very good Bresse chicken, for once available for one person
rather than having to be shared, served with a simple reduced stock of the
cooking juices and a rather disconcerting herb salad that was overwhelmed by
mint (7/10). Stella’s John Dory was
pleasantly cooked, with an orange sauce with a hint of ginger (5/10). The cheeses were in good condition (7/10), a
wide selection of the classics of
|
Restaurant |
Ledoyen
|
|
Food
rating |
8/10 |
|
Address |
Carre Champs Elysee (1st
floor) |
|
Phone
Number |
00 33 1 55 05 10 01 |
|
Open |
Weekdays
|
|
Price |
£175
a head with drinks |
An airy
upstairs room overlooking a green area with trees, though there was also some traffic
and building work when we visited. It
has apparently been open since 1792.
There is an elegant ornate ceiling.
Service, as so often at the top French places, was faultless, with not a
slip in sight and effortless topping up of water, wine and bread. Amuse guele was a sliver of foie gras pate in
a couple of sesame tuiles (7/10). A
vegetarian spring roll was stunning – the lightest pastry and the vegetables
cooked beautifully (9/10). There was
also a cube of beetroot (6/10) and a deep-fried piece of goat’s cheese with
sesame seed (7/10). Later there was a
second stage of nibble, a tomato gazpacho with mustard ice cream, which may
sound odd but it added just a little spice to the intense tomato taste and worked
very well (10/10). Bread was a choice of
either cereal, which was almost croissant-like (9/10),
crusty bacon (6/10), shrimp in rye (a weird idea that did not work) and some
mediocre white bread (3/10).
I started
with langoustines, served partly in their shells, partly wrapped in angel-hair
pasta. These were very fresh and cooked
to perfection, served with a citrus sauce that gave a suitable edge to the dish
(10/10). Stella has lobster with
asparagus and girolles with a cheese sauce, surrounded by a pool of light meat
jus and garnished with a nice savoury crisp (7/10).
For main
course I had four slices of beef that were disappointingly chewy – they tasted
as if the beef was of good quality, but it was hard work cutting and chewing
the slices. This was served with a
truffle sauce and a creamy mash that was far too creamy – it was almost cream
with a little potato dropped in (3/10).
Much better was Stella’s turbot, lightly cooked and sprinkled with black
truffles, on a bed of crushed potato with truffles (7/10).
Cheese was
in excellent condition, with Tonne de Savoie, Brie, Camembert, Epoisses,
Beaufort and Comte all in fine fettle (9/10). This was served with walnut bread
made from dark rye. A pre-dessert was an hibiscus jelly with raspberries, topped with a “milky
mess” and pistachio (7/10).
Stella had
cherries steeped in amaretto on a bed of cherry jelly that was less spnngy that
one might expect. This was topped with a
yoghurt sorbet, cherry mousse, amaretto biscuit and a garnish of fresh cherries
(8/10). Even better was a millefeuille
of grapefruit, two layers of perfect grapefruit segments sandwiching a fine
grapefruit sorbet, the layers separated by fine tuiles, and the whole thing
resting on a layer of orange jelly. This
had wonderful freshness and was also rather original (10/10).
Coffee was
superb, a decent amount served in a cup adequate for a double espresso (10/10)
served with a little slice of soft chocolate cake. Petit fours were an overcooked sponge,
marshmallow topped with apricot, a fruit and mint tart where the mint
overwhelmed everything else, a plate of nougat and a green apple toffee apple
(perhaps 5/10 for the petit fours).
Overall this was a very pleasant experience, with touches of class but
also worrying errors in the cooking. Last visited June 2004.
|
Restaurant |
Les Ambassadeurs
|
|
Food
rating |
10/10 |
|
Address |
Crillon Hotel, 10 Place de la Concorde |
|
Phone
Number |
00
33 1 44 71 16 16 |
|
Open |
All
week |
|
Price |
£140
a head with drinks |
The dining room is as imposing as any you will see- thirty foot
ceilings, marble walls and floor, fine decorations. The waiters wear tail coats and the wine list
comes in a huge ledger. Breads, just
white and brown rolls, are excellent. We
started with a very delicate amuse guele of yellow pepper soup containing a
single quail’s egg (9/10). We both began
with roasted langoustines served on a bed of diced tomatoes, garnished with a
deep fried basil leaf. The langoustines
were stunningly tender, the tomato very fresh and having deep flavour, hard to
improve upon (10/10). My main course was
an excellent slab of John Dory, resting on a bed of couscous and served with an
intense shellfish sauce; on the side were baby carrots, turnips, tiny turned
potatoes and a few morels, the vegetables all very fresh and delicately cooked
(8/10). Stella’s main course was even
better – perfect sea bass topped with a delicious bread crust, served with a
thick chicken stock, capers and a clever touch: a little finely sliced grapefruit
to give balancing acidity to the stock (10/10).
The cheese board was superb, with the usual classics: Brie, Camembert,
Reblochon, St Nectaire, Comte, Faurme d’Ambert and several goats
cheeses, all in excellent condition (9/10).
For dessert a delicate almond brioche was served with seasonal fruits
(raspberries and greengages) and fresh almonds.
I had two thin pieces of rich chocolate tart with superb texture, served
with as good a chocolate ice cream as I have ever eaten (10/10). We washed down the desserts with some
stunning Kracher Trockenbeerenauslese.
Excellent coffee was accompanied by almond tuiles, a raspberry
Madeleine, a mini apple tart, a choux bun with sugar and chopped almond crust
and a chocolate cream on a biscuit base (9/10 for the petit fours). Service was impeccable throughout, and it is
hard to understand why this got just two Michelin stars in 2000 – I have had
worse meals at several three star places.
. Note that another Michelin star
was lost in 2003 but there is a new chef, Piege, who started in 2004 and was
previously head chef at Alain Ducasse in
Under the new chef the food is magnificent. An amuse bouche of salt cod nrandade was the
best I have had, a little soup of crayfish having great intensity, while a roll
of foie gras was delicate. My starter of
hot and cole crayfish was technically excellent and inventive, the hot crayfish
being served with little slivers of grapefruit, the cold crayfish wrapped in
Granny Smith apple slices. This sounds
odd, but the acidity of the fruit worked well with the subtle richness of the
crayfish. My main course of fillet of
venison was magnificent, served with rot vegetables and a dark sauce
diable. Cheese is from Bernard Antony
and in perfect condition, while my dessert was a layer of perfect pastry on top
of which was delicate apple compote and topped with little scoops of green
apple sorbet. Even the coffee was
perfect. Last visited November 2005
Alain Senderens has been established for a long time in this centrally
located early 1900s building near foodie heaven Fauchon. The décor is mainly wood panelling with
extensive mirrors, the banquette seating and clever use of screens adding a
cosy feel to the dining room. Service is
as smooth as you would expect, friendly and efficient. I was greeted with an
initial amuse guele of “chicken wing”, a little piece of chicken cooking on the
bone, with a little dish of intense chicken stock flavoured with herbs
(8/10. This was followed by a raviolo of
scallop topped with strips of green apple, which had very tender pasta but in
which the flavour of the scallop was hardly present (6/10). Bread was crusty rolls, very fresh and
regularly topped up throughout the evening (7/10). My starter was two langoustines, wrapped in
crisp vermicelli which acted as a batter, offered with a dip of shellfish
bisque flavoured with chives. This was very tasty and an unusual idea
(8/10) though at a price of EUR 95 for this dish alone, so it should be. Bresse chicken was served as four pieces,
each topped with a slice of ceps, and served with a ceps risotto and a creamy
jus of the cooking stock. The chicken
was very tender and had the excellent flavour that only Bresse chicken possesses,
while the stock was pleasant – the dish lacked any vegetables, and was crying
out in particular for a green vegetable (7/10).
Cheese was in very good condition, as ever in France where the turnover
is so much higher than UK restaurants.
There was excellent Brie and Camembert, young Epoisses and
Dessert was unusual – a chocolate “cake” that was actually just a ring
of pure chocolate cooked directly onto a plate, with a texture that was liquid
but just thick enough to hang together in a ring shape on the plate. The chocolate was intense, of the very finest
quality, and it was an interesting sensation to be eating liquid chocolate with
no visible means of support (9/10).
Coffee and petit fours were good, with a delicate tuile, a chocolate
macaroon and a little lychee on a biscuit base.
So far, so good, until it comes to the tricky subject of the bill. I had three courses plus cheese, with three
glasses of house wine (in a nice touch, each dish on the menu has a recommended
pairing of a particular glass of wine).
This came to a little matter of EUR 345.
The set tasting menu was EUR 255, or EUR 380 with accompanying
wine. These are pretty shocking numbers,
significantly more than Ducasse in Monaco for example. All for food, which, while
very pleasant and certainly very good, was at no stage dazzling. It is hard to recommend the restaurant given
these prices. Last
visited October 2003.
|
Restaurant |
Pierre
Gagnaire
|
|
Food
rating |
9/10 |
|
Address |
Hotel Balzac, 6 Rue Balzac,
|
|
Phone
Number |
00 33 1 58 36 12 50 |
|
Open |
Weekdays
|
|
Price |
£170
a head with drinks |
A modern
dining room with light wood panelling and some rather odd grey in the décor e.g.
grey chairs, which doesn’t do anything for me.
The menu is unusual, in that you select the thing you want e.g. beef,
and are then presented with four or five variations on that. In this was Gagniare is trying to show off
the range of flavours that the core ingredient can generate, which is an
interesting concept. It is a much better
idea that the aimless shock flavour combinations done by El Bulli and its
imitators. There are three types of
bread, a sourdough, a dark rye that somehow tasted slightly sweet, and a
brioche, together with a crisp-bread.
Apparently the exact ingredients on the menu can vary daily according to
what takes Gagnaire’s mood, and so this would be an interesting place to return
to.
Amuse
guele also took the form of several little dishes: best was a fine smoked
haddock topped with a delicate pasta square flavoured
with dill (10/10). A veal gelee had
strong flavour and a single white haricot bean (7/10) while maize was cooked in
a consommé and served with egg yolk and a slice of melon (6/10). There was a strawberry (why?) with a sugar
glaze with stewed mango and a caramelised hazelnut, topped with a chorizo crisp
(7/10 for execution). Finally there was
a marshmallow with red pepper puree and raw red onion (6/10). Prior to this were further nibbles: a frozen
pink grapefruit ice cream topped with a radish, tuiles with sesame seeds, chives inside filo pastry, puff pastry served with goat’s
cheese and seaweed and a wholemeal bread stick.
Langoustine
was served raw in apple jelly (9/10), grilled to perfection (10/10), roasted
with slightly spicy courgette strips (10/10), in a gelatinous form with a veal
stock (8/10) and cooked in a creamy herb sauce (9/10). The langoustines were superbly fresh and
beautifully cooked. Stella had a warm
pea mousse topped with pea puree with mint (8/10), a bowl of gelee of crab with
assorted seafood and herbs (6/10), a plate of shreds of bak choy served with a
ring of carrot and a few tiny broad beans and morels (7/10). Other variations were three little tarts
including utterly stunning morels (10/10) from
For main
course Stella explored sole, an ultra fresh piece cooked to perfection (10/10)
with apple and pink grapefruit. This was
served with braised lettuce, turnip, spring onion, peas and cream sauce. In addition there was a bland shellfish
consommé and five very tender crayfish with a cream sauce. I had duck cooked in small pieces in a gravy of the cooking juices, along with a wonderful dish
of potato with a crisp outside and laced with foie gras and girolles (8/10 for
the duck, more for the potato).
Cheese is
supplied by Mr Antony, so was excellent.
Camembert, Beaufort, aged
Coffee was
strangely ordinary (4/10) and was served with petit fours: an almond
Florentine, a white chocolate with a cream centre, a dark chocolate with an
orange centre, a pastry with five chocolate-coated peanuts, orange peel steeped
in rose syrup and a kiwi fruit jelly with a caramel and sesame square, plus
some more chocolates e.g. a whisky and orange one.
Last visited June 2004.
Much of the notes that follow are based on a culinary tour of
Monday 17/6/96 (dinner).
This is a modern hotel, just
opposite the railway station in Roanne, a grim little town with no obvious
redeeming features - when asked what there was to do in Roanne, the hotel staff
looked at each other thoughtfully and then said “have you been to
The menu presented to Stella
was without prices, which is still common in
Breads were: country bread,
white, rye with sesame seeds, pistachio and a raisin bread to go with the
cheese (3*/5 overall). A vast selection
of cheese was brought, of which we tried: a magnificent local fresh goat (5/5),
Camembert (3/5), Epoisses (5/5), Brie de Meaux (3/5), a Brillat-Savarin like
cheese (3*/5), a local ewes milk cheese (4/5) and a garlic and pepper cheese
(4*/5). Overall 4/5
for the cheese.
Next was a lovely idea - a trolley of summer fruits rather like a cheeseboard., but with fruits instead. We tried prunes, dried apricots, pear,
banana, strawberry, kiwi fruit, cherries, pineapple, oranges, melon, sultanas,
all served with a strawberry coulis prettily interwoven with cream. This was all truly magnificent, the fruits in
perfect condition (5/5).
The dessert chariot was a fine affair.
We tried a chocolate mousse cake with sponge, a little vanilla custard
and chocolate mousse (5/5), a bitter chocolate tart (5/5), a strawberry tart
with puff pastry (4*/5), bread and b8utter pudding with a burnt sugar top (5/5)
and a raspberry cake with layers of sponge, raspberry and chocolate (5/5). A grapefruit sorbet as a breath freshener was
truly remarkable, with utterly perfect texture and fabulous balanced flavour
(5*/5).
Coffee was very good (4/5),
offered with crystallised orange peel, and a whole plate of tuiles - almond,
spiral almond biscuit and glazed puff pastry (5/5). With the meal we had Puligny Montrachet
Etienne Sauzet 1988 at a very fair 340 FF, and a glass of excellent 1990
Justice (second wine of Gillette) dessert wine.
The set menu was 690 FF, the restaurant bill overall 1,928 FF for two,
the room a modest 1000 FF (list price 1200FF).
Thursday 18/9/2003 (dinner).
Chagny is a village in
Tuesday
18/6/96 (dinner).
Mionnay is a tiny,
unprepossessing town, somewhat hard to find.
To get there, come off the motorway A46, take the exit marked “les
Echets”, then take the N83 towards Villars-les-Dombes, and follow the signs to
Mionnay. The hotel is in an old coaching
inn, where the former stables are now the garages, which I thought rather
sweet. The setting is most attractive,
the tables being spread out along two sides of a sheltered courtyard,
reminiscent of cloisters and overlooking the garden, dominated by a spectacular
weeping willow. There is also an indoor
dining room and a private room for 12-16 people, both overlooking the garden. The rooms are small and dowdy, furnished with
traditional French furniture and decor.
The bed was tiny, with a solid wooden headboard and footboard. There was no air-conditioning and the window
shutters were difficult to open. These
factors, combined with the seemingly incessant (and very nearby) church bells,
made for a very poor night’s sleep. When
you drive into the courtyard, no-one appeared for several minutes, and on the
way out the fairly waif-like maid was dispatched to lug our heavy cases, which
she did for a short while only to abandon them (can’t say I blame her). Overall, hotel service was pretty mediocre.
The meal itself started with a
glass of champagne, together with a huge Campari and soda which would have
finished off Hurricane Higgins. Canapes
arrived a tasteless chicken mousse, good herrings and well-cooked mussels, all
served on a deep fried bread base (which was poor and chewy). These were collectively only 2/5. Bread was a no-choice set of rolls which were
rather chewy and distantly reminiscent of sourdough, but only distantly
(1/5). I tried a starter of pan-fried
foie gras, served on a bed of puy lentils, with a salad including herbs and
lardons (3*/5). Stella had turbot,
served with asparagus and morels (which were beautiful and plentiful), in a
rich mushroom stock. This was 4/5
(originally a main course, adapted since there were essentially no vegetarian
or fish starters). For main course we
both had langoustines served with ravioli containing soft cheese and tomato,
with a sauce of coriander and lemon. The
langoustines were very tender and the sauce a good match (4/5).
Cheese included Epoisses way
past its best (practically a soup) at 1*/5, St Marcellin (4/5),Beaufort (3*/5),
Camembert (5/5), Fourme d’Ambert (4/5), Livarot (3/5), St Nectaire (2/5) - overall
3/5 for the cheese. For desserts, there were a selection of strawberries: strawberry (2/5),
pineapple (4/5), caramel ice cream (a tasteless 2/5), pistachio (3/5),
chocolate (4/5) and a wafer tuile (4/5).
In addition, from a trolley we sampled: strawberry mousse cake (3/5),
pineapple gateau (4/5), chocolate cake with uneven icing (4/5), fresh fruit
tart with strawberries, cherries and raspberries (3/5), cherry clafoutis -
easily the best dish (4*/5), though with cherries not pitted, an odd omission.
For petit fours, we had a
soggy tuile, strawberry tart (3/5), an eclair (3/5), meringues with vanilla ice
cream, sugared almonds (3/5), crystallised orange peel (1.5) and a Madeleine
(3*/5). Overall around
3*/5. Coffee was good (4/5). For wine we had a Tokay Pinot Gris from
Grossmann at 390 francs, while the prices for the set menu were FF 595, room FF
800, while our total restaurant bill came to FF 1793. The wine list was expensive - much more than
Troisgros.
Overall, a difficult menu,
with many choices only for two people (and no flexibility for vegetarians),
with patchy service that veers between occasional errors and difficulty in
getting attention to completely over the top grovelling. The food was generally a fairly solid performance,
but with some slips and very much lacking in any excitement. Really only 3*/5 overall.
Wednesday 19/6/96 (dinner).
To get there, take
the A7 from
For starter I had a cod
terrine with layers of pimento - this dish was truly sublime, with remarkable
flavour and texture, with little pools of
pimento sauce, basil sauce and sweet garlic puree, served with a wafer with
basil leaves and a little salad of green leaves (5*/5). Stella had langoustines, booth plain and
coated with cereal seeds, divinely cooked and served with an avocado mousse
topped with smoked fish, Both starters were truly
stunning.
For main course, a sea bass
was dismally filleted by a very obviously trainee waiter, who just hacked in to
the fish and scooped a pile of flesh and bones on to the plate. What was left of it after he had finished was
beautifully cooked, however, served with amazing courgettes, caramelised onion,
a round of sliced courgettes and red pepper, and a butter and basil sauce
(4/5). Red mullet was served on a bed of
red peppers, green beans, black beans, mixed herbs, all with a crusty pastry
base with rollmops and a black olive tapenade (4*/5). Cheese were: Brillat Savarin (4*/5),
Camembert (4/5), fresh goat (2/50, St Michellin (4/5), Epoisses(4*/5),
Beaufort (4*/5), Reblochon (4*/5) and a local cheese (4/5). Easily 4/5 overall.
A pre-dessert was coffee
flavoured creme brulee, which was just about perfect (5/5). My dessert was apples in custard with almond
cake and vanilla ice cream - this was all rather tasteless (3/5). A cherry clafoutis
had cherries which were pitted but sadly lacking in flavour, also rather burnt
at the edges (2/5), though accompanied by a very fine almond ice cream
(5/5). Petit fours consisted of:
strawberry tart (2/5), Madeleine (1*/5), macaroon with lemon filling (4*/5), a
tuile (2/5) and sugared redcurrants (2/5), with a nice chocolate (4/5). Coffee featured a little menu, with several
options for country and blend - we tried
For wine we had Torres Black
label at a very fair FF 230, and a botrytis affected Tokay Pinot Gris at FF 50
for a glass. Service, other than the
filleting debacle, was impeccable (5/5).
Overall the bill was FF 1755 for a stunning meal except for the desserts
- however this is clearly a chef of real talent.
We stayed the nights of
A remarkable hotel. It is approached from the west bank of the
The concierges (Gerard and
Francois at the time of writing) are outstanding, the best I have ever
encountered in a hotel, so make full use of them to get tips on where to walk,
shops to go etc - they will show you the wine cellar in the hotel itself. Valet parking (thank goodness - I cannot
imagine what it would be like to park here) is very good, and the car will
always be ready for you at an appointed time if you ask in advance, or of
course will be brought around from the garage on request. There was even a free Financial Times
available.
Thursday 20/6/96 (dinner).
To get here, follow the west
bank of the
Nibbles were a little tuna,
grilled (and quite well-done: semi-raw Japanese touches here), served hot on a
bed of cold Provencal aubergines, tomatoes and peppers, drizzled with olive oil
(3/5). Bread was simply either a white rolls
or a white bread, served cold (practically all the breads on the trip were
served cold rather than warmed up).
Bread was very good quality and texture (4/5). To start with, I had a truffle soup, with the
top of the bowl covered in a pastry case to seal the flavour. This all looked rather better than it tasted,
with plenty of truffle flavour but rather one-dimensional (2*/5). A vegetable soup was in fact better,
consisting of leeks and potatoes, finely chopped, with some herbs and croutons
(3*/5).
Next course for me was lobster
Americaine, grilled with lobster sauce - all very competent (3*/5). For the main course Stella had a very nicely
cooked turbot with garlic butter sauce and capers, served with some grilled
chanterelles (4/5). I had a beef fillet,
actually a little overcooked and suffering from a few bits of gristle served with a
nice reduction of the juices and red wine, with only ordinary roast potatoes to
accompany it (3/5). There followed a
blackcurrant sorbet, with good flavour and reasonable texture (3/5).
Cheese tried were: fresh goat
(4/5), Reblochon (4/5), Camembert (4/5), Brillat Savarin (4/5), a wonderful
Faurme d’Ambert (5/5), and a fairly mild local cheese with an orange rind
(3*/5). Overall a solid 4/5, with the
cheeses well kept. After
this a little pre-dessert of creme brulee arrived - this was rather ordinary,
with decent texture but lacking sufficient vanilla and also rather too sweet
(3/5 at best). The desserts
arrive on a veritable convoy of trolleys, for which an extra table was drawn up
to accommodate. We tried chocolate
gateaux (bought in from the famous Bernachon chocolate shop in
Petit fours consisted of:
toasted flaked almonds in bitter chocolate (5/5), toasted almond tuile (5/5),
chocolate truffle (4/5), strawberry tart with pistachios (4/5), raspberry tart
(4/5), pistachios in pastry (4/5), macaroon (3/5) and a choux bun with caramel
topping (4/5). Coffee was only 3/5. For wine, we had a Rhone Jaboulet Aine 1992
at FF 260, and a glass of the excellent justice (second wine of Gillette) at FF
50. The restaurant bill was FF 1626, the
set menu FF710. Unusually, both menus
had prices on, and the menu had an appealing selection. Crockery was modern, and service superb. There was a weird tasteless touch: an organ
grinder, an Algerian in an absurd costume who hung around hoping for a tip - a
completely incongruous element which defied belief. Overall 4/5, a solid performance but one
completely lacking in excitement - I imagine that the identical food would have
been served here 20 years ago.
Vonnas is 50 miles from
Friday
21/6/96 (dinner).
This establishment is in
Veyrier du Lac to the east of
We began with nibbles: gratin
dauphinoise, sausage terrine and snails a sauce of black truffles - these were
stunning in the intensity of their flavours (5/5). A white roll and a sesame seed roll were
already laid out on the table on arrival.
For starters Stella had a vegetable “ravioli” (made without pasta), with
carrots, herbs and turnips scented with black truffle (5/5). I had a startlingly good rosti with smoked
salmon and an in indeterminate green sauce - perfect rosti (5/5). My menu next featured fera, a local fish lake
fish, filleted and served simply with a vegetable bouillon with a filo package
of courgettes and a local herb which allegedly tasted like mushrooms. The fish was simply divine - perfectly timed
and simply one f the best dishes I have ever tasted (5*/5). Langoustines were beautifully tender, steamed
and served with wild celery (5/50. Yet
these were accompanied by a dish of ridiculously overcooked vegetables (barely
1/5).
I had Bresse chicken, cooked
on pine bark and served with chanterelles and gratin dauphinoise with a green
sauce (with the ingredients Veyrat uses, I would hesitate to guess the
constituents of the sauce). Chicken was
beautifully cooked and full of flavour (5/5).
Things went downhill from here on.
Instead of a sorbet, we were offered a chicken gelee with a herb mousse,
which I guess objectively as good as chicken gelee could reasonably be expected
to b, but was an experiment too far for me (3/5 for execution but 0/5 for the
idea). There was a vast cheeseboard
displayed on a huge but just about movable bureaux-like object - most cheeses
were from the Savoie area. We tried:
Reblochon (4*/5), Reblochon chevre (5/5), Fresh goat (5/5), Tonne de Savoie
(4/5), Beaufort (4/5), a local blue (2/5), a grape-covered scented local cheese
(5/5 and a local soft cheese (4/5). This
was served with a mini-bakery of freshly made loaves with its very own bread
waitress- of which we sampled just a fraction: sourdough, nut and raisin, 5
grain, country and white (average 4/5).
A pre-dessert was citrus
fruits in a fennel jelly, which despite the odd flavour idea tasted
surprisingly good (3*/5). I had a
selection of chocolate desserts: a cold chocolate mousse, a cold
coffee/chocolate cake, a chocolate cake with warm dark chocolate oozing from
its centre, all with some typically weird sauces - carrot sauce, gentian violet
ice cream in a caramel cage. Despite the
bizarre sauces, the handling of the chocolate elements could not be faulted
(5/5). A rum baba was stuffed with
alcohol and vanilla cream, with five sticks of angelica, the whole thing
sitting on pools of various sauces: a strawberry sauce, indeterminate orange
and green sauces, garnished with some wild strawberries but also a baby tomato
(?!?), a truly bizarre aberration. Overall
3/5.
There were three creme brulees
brought next: lavender (0/5), verbena tea (3/5) and coffee (5/5) - the marks
reflect the concept as much as the texture.
Coffees tried from a fairly wide choice were “cosi” and “cappriciosa”,
which in fact were both superb (5/5).
Accompanying the coffee were some more fairly eccentric nibbles: a
violet cream, a chocolate and pistachio cream, a raspberry tart, cornflakes in
bitter chocolate, a strawberry tart with pistachios - while untried were a
cameroon and a mushroom (read it again and weep - yes a mushroom) tart. Overall 3/5, with varying
quality of execution.
Service was flawless
(5/5). Mr Veyrat wanders around in a
black hat and cap (eccentric - moi?). Wines tried were a local wine: Marestel,
Roussette de Savoie, Domaine Dupasquoir at FF 330, in a list of fairly
frighteningly priced wines - we chatted to the wine waiter for a while about
wine and were pointed to this excellent and fairly priced wine, while the loud
Americans on the next table were duly recommended an outrageously expensive
Puligny Montrachet, so perhaps there is justice in the world after all. The restaurant bill was FF 2155 with an
outrageous FF 195 for breakfast for one - nothing cooked mind, just some
breads, a little fruit and some admittedly lovely jams. The room was a steep FF 1650. Overall a fairly intriguing experience, with
a seriously talented though barely sane chef, but the prices here are very high
indeed and would tend to put me off coming back (postscript: the place closed down a few months after our visit, so it
looks as though other people found tomatoes in their rum baba a bit of a
problem also).
Stayed
This old chateau is in the
town of
This would get my vote as the prettiest setting for any restaurant. Nestling on a bank of the river
The first warning sign was when they were completely unable to deal with
my request for a glass of dessert wine with my foie gras starter (hardly a
bizarre idea in
My starter was one of the specialities of the place, a goose foie gras
terrine with truffle. This took
simplicity in presentation to a new level, with just three slabs of roughly
served pate and a slice of brioche. The
terrine was fine with a rough texture and certainly had some truffles, but this
was really only 6/10. Stella had red
mullet with three nicely cooked langoustines each resting on a slice of
artichoke. The mullet was timed well but
was a pale imitation of the fine mullet we had just eaten in
The main course was shared, and had wild turbot filleted at the table
and presented in a pool of remarkable dully, watery red pepper sauce, plus a
half pepper hollowed out and filled with chewy squid and some finely chopped
Mediterranean vegetables, garnished with a sprig of Rosemary. I would mark the sauce as about 1/10, the
fish as perhaps 6/10, correctly cooked but having no great flavour The vegetables were the best element of the
dish, which was overall again very weak for food at these prices.
Cheese was also below par, by no means all in perfect condition; they
even made the unforgivable error of putting out an unripe
Sunday 23/6/96 (dinner).
The little town of
For cheese we tried: Munster
(5/5), Epoisses (5/5), Brie de Meaux (4/5), chevre au ciboulettes (5/5), Fourme
d’Ambert (4/5), a garlic and pepper cheese (4*/5), Pont l’Eveque (4/5), all
with a fruit and nut bread (3/5). This
was one of the best cheese boards of the trip. We were then offered some fresh
cherries with cinnamon ice cream (4/5).
For dessert,,
my menu had a millefeuille of raspberries, but without any fuss they swapped
this for poached pear with champagne sabayon and pistachio ice cream
(4/5). Stella had a remarkable dessert:
crepes cooked in front of us on a little burner, stuffed with vanilla custard
and wild cherries, flambeéd with kirsch; this tasted quite incredible, perhaps
the dish of the trip (5*/5). Coffee was
superb (5/5). With this were: an éclair
(4/5), sugared pastry (3/5), a macaroon with lemon filling (5/5), a lemon
meringue tart (5/5), a milk chocolate nut cluster (5/5), chocolate and coffee
mousse (5/5), a Florentine (5/5), a tart with bitter chocolate (5/5) and an
almond tuile (5/5). These were
remarkably consistent, perhaps the best petit fours of the trip.
To accompany the meal we had
Zind Humbrecht Riesling Grand Cru 1992 at FF 250, and a glass of vendage
tardive Riesling Dopff (not that great) at FF 50 for a glass. The total bill was FF 180 and the set menu
was FF 720 Service
was wonderful throughout (5/5) and this was without doubt one of the very best
meals of the trip.
This was elevated to three
stars in March 2002, and it should be noted that it is a slightly tricky place
to get to. It is about 70km north-west of Strasburg 4km from a tiny village
called Braiersbronn. The restaurant has
no rooms, though you can stay in a simple 2 star place called the hotel
Kirchbourg in the village, which at least avoids a lengthy drive.
The restaurant has a pretty
rural setting, the modern dining room looking out over fields and woods. The chef here is definitely interested in
pushing the boundaries of cuisine, with bold use of flavour combinations that
will not suit everybody. However while
much of this type of thing seems gratuitous, here it mostly works: some of the
flavour experiments come off well, and there is a faultlessly high level of
technical execution. However if you want
a classic traditional 3 star meal then this would not be the place to come.
Amuse guele are numerous: a
simple oyster in a little meat stock, a Parmesan biscuit, some very delicate
beetroot with caviar, an anchovy with chopped celery and carrot and a
surprising but effective dish of cold pigeon soup. Perhaps 8/10 overall for amuse guele. We went for a tasting menu, which indeed
almost everyone seemed to. First we had
cold lobster and tomato, the lobster delicate and the tomato having great
flavour, a counter-flavour being a caramelised onion (10/10). Next was a very fine red mullet, beautifully
cooked, with a little oil of basil (10/10).
Next was a roast watermelon topped with a layer of tomato and herbs. As before, the
tomato was great, but was this really an idea that worked? I remain unconvinced (7/10) Better was foie gras with lemon oil, an
interesting idea since the lemon oil cuts through the richness of the liver –
again the ingredients were of the highest quality (10/10). Stella had superb potato pieces topped with
black truffle (9/10). Next we had
cappuccino of peas, the peas being rather oddly flavoured with almonds, the
soup topped with a little chocolate.
This is where I part company from the bold approach, as here these
flavours just are not harmonious (5/10).
A far better idea was pigeon breast in fine reduction with wasabe
mustard. The mustard was used sparingly
and added an excellent taste dimension to the classic pigeon, which was served
with little turned root vegetables (celeriac, beetroot, carrot and apple). This was unusual (I have seen this tried with
veal and wasabe at Tetsuya in
Cheese was superb, and
interestingly went off the beaten track.
I tried an excellent Livarot from
The best-rated
hotel in
The restaurant is set in a
park called l’Orangerie. The building ha
been a restaurant for the last one hundred years. The kitchens are on the ground floor and the
main dining rooms on the first floor with a lovely view over the park. There is a modern conservatory and two more
traditional smaller rooms. The set menu
of fish and shellfish was 680 FF per person, which we both had. Service was very professional, the only
jarring note being the wife of the chef, Vivienne Westerman, wafting around the
dining room with a ghastly and very prominent perfume. We even got a tour of the kitchens, which
actually featured a variety of cracked and chipped items.
The menu started with
aubergine tempura with sweet sauce 95/5), tomato stuffed with goats cheese and olives (3/5), liver pate tart (5/5),
mackerel on an indeterminate green sauce on a finger of toast (3/5). For bread, there was baguette (3/5), beer
bread (4/5), and stale country bread (1/5).
Next was mackerel with tortilla crisps and vegetable puree, with tiny
pieces of black olives, red peppers and chive vinaigrette. This was followed by red mullet (which oddly
differed wildly between our two plates, Stella’s being 4/5 but mine only 2/5,
in both our opinions), served on a bed of very tender baby squid, artichokes
and parsley (3/5). Next were goujons of
sole with girolles and mousselines in a thin, somewhat salty mushroom stock
(3/5).
Next up was lobster serve with
lukewarm, buttery, slightly soft carrots (2*/5); this dish allegedly contained
coriander and spice, but they were beyond detection even to Stella’s sensitive
nose. Main course was John Dory
(substituted for sea bass on the menu), served with a single roast clove of
garlic, caramelised onions, roast potatoes and a
slightly salty but otherwise good reduced fish stock (4/5).
Three goats cheeses were on
offer (2/5), plus Munster (5/50, Brie (3/5), Beaufort (4/5), Tomme de Savoie
(3/5) and Champagne cheese (4/5), all served with “caraway seeds”, which were
actually cumin seeds, and brown bread (3/5).
Dessert was cherry clafoutis (3/50, served with lovely cherry sauce
(5/5) and fresh cherries (4/5), as well as excellent pistachio ice cream
(4*/5). More desserts followed: red
fruit soup (3/5), chocolate mouse (5/5), bitter chocolate tart (4*/5),
chocolate sorbet (5/50, an oversweet vanilla ice cream (3/5) and some fresh
grapefruit (4/5). For petit fours we
had: a Madeleine (3/5), a chocolate sponge (3/50, cinnamon tuile (4/50, apricot
tart (3/5), redcurrent tart (untried), a sponge of ordinary texture (2/5),
chocolate with unfortunately stale almonds (1/5) and a good chocolate truffle
(4/5). Coffee was 4/5. For wine we had Trimbach tokay
pinot gris 1990 at FF 260, and a glass of sweet Gerwurtztraminer (but not
vendange tardive) at FF 60. Total bill
was FF 2075 for two. Overall score
3*/5. My very knowledgeable friend
Jeffrey Ng had an excellent meal here, so perhaps we just encountered an off
night.
In the centre of
To start with we had
langoustines on a bed of olive oil mash alternating with crisps of potato and
garnished with cucumber and a lemon and lobster sauce (I had this as a starter,
Stella as a main course). This was
4*/5. Stella’s starter was turbot salad on
a bed of lettuce in a wonderful vinaigrette, topped
with finely chopped vegetables and a set of deep fried vegetables, with slices
of tomato and herbs including dill (5/5).
I had a magnificent poussin, filleted and
flattened at the table, with a mixed herb crust. The breast was served first, followed by the
legs, with baby onions and green ravioli stuffed with vegetable puree
(5/5). This was accompanies just by a
simple but excellent jus of the cooking juices (5/5).
For cheese we tried chive
chevre (5/5),
Coffee was superb, the bets of
the trip (5*/5). The petit fours were a
macaroon (3*/5), raspberry barquette (5/5), a tart with raspberry, kiwi fruit
and blackberry (5/5), a lacy almond tuile (5/5), a Chinese gooseberry dipped in
chocolate (4/5), pistachio and almond mousse (5/5), white chocolate biscuits
(3*/5), vanilla heart biscuit (5/5), choux bun (3/5), and chocolate truffles
with orange (5/5). A fantastic set of
petit fours to round off one of the very best meals of the trip.
For wine we had Madame Faller
Domaine Weinbach Cuvee Theo Riesling at FF 360, and a Gewurtzraminer vendange
tardives from Dopff. Total bill was FF
1770. Overall 5/5. Service was friendly and competent - the
cooking was remarkably polished and consistent, a restaurant at the peak of its
powers.
A magnificent
country house with huge lawns at the back. Drinks are served on the terrace, and a fine selection of
Nibbles were smoked sardine
with red and green peppers and onions (2*/5) and a thin slice of toasted French
bread. Bread rolls were warm, white, and
rather dull (2/5). One starter tried was
foie gras done in five styles, served on a gelee with a little lettuce salad
(3*/5). Another was haricot soup with
truffles (3/5). Another (the next night)
was mussel soup, packed with mussels in a lemon-flavoured broth (4/5). Main courses sampled were carefully timed
sea bass with vegetables and an allegedly coriander sauce, which appeared to be
minus the coriander (4/5). John Dory was
grilled with diced potatoes in a little olive oil and mashed potatoes
(4/5). I tried veal with artichokes and
bread sticks, with herbs but without any sauce (4/5).
Cheeses tried were:
Wines tried were Trimbach
Tokay Pinot Gris reserve 1990 at FF 304, two glasses of 1987 Chateau d’Yquem at
130 FF per glass. Service was very
courteous and efficient, though rather cold and remote (4*/5). Both menus offered featured prices. The total bill was FF 7801 for two nights,
with room at FF 1820 per night, and food and wine FF 1989 tonight.
On the second evening we tried
a bottle of Louis Roederer Cristal at just FF 606 (and some more Yquem), The same nibbles
arrived. This time I tried a fricassee
of girolles, a generous mound of girolles in a mushroom broth with chives. For main course I had lobster roaster with
spinach and chopped vegetables with a thin lobster sauce (3*/5). Stella
had John Dory on a bed of finely chopped Mediterranean vegetables with
olive oil, with finely sliced artichokes in a superfluous fennel butter in
breadcrumbs (a la Chicken Kiev) which was too greasy (2*/5).
We skipped cheese this evening
(such restraint) and tried apples croustillant, which were apples in filo
pastry. Brushed with orange marmalade and served with lemon sorbet in a thin
pastry shell (3*/5). Chocolate soufflé
with griottes, toasted pine nuts and vanilla ice cream was well made
(3*/5). For petit fours we tried a
Madeleine (3/5), almond biscuit with pistachio (2*/5), choux bun with chocolate
filling (3/5), chocolate cup with cream, raspberry, strawberry and pineapple
(3/5), a tuile (4/5) and chocolates as on the previous night. There was a coffee menu. Food and wine tonight was FF 2172.
Overall Boyer was a
disappointment, despite the wonderful setting.
It is costly (other than the very fairly priced wine list) and the food never
exceeded 4/5, and was really around 3/5 for most of the time. The room was very grand and had a nice
balcony, but then so should it at this price.
This is a lot of money for 3/5 cooking.
3 Michelin stars are just nonsense for a restaurant coasting along like
this, (and indeed Michelin finally realised this in 2003 and demoted it).
The best room of
the tour (number 21 for future reference). The hotel is in two parts. The reception and dining room and some
bedrooms are connected by an underground passage lined with Roman flagstones to
the remaining bedrooms, breakfast room, swimming pool and sauna, which are
across a road - breakfast room etc (and our bedroom) overlooked the river,
whereas the dining room is on the other side of the road, away from the
river. The room was vast, with a huge
stone fireplace, a balcony overlooking the river, a large bed and bathroom
including a proper shower with body jets, a Bang & Olafsen TV and a lovely
Chinese rug.
The dining room has pillars,
modern paintings, modern sculptures and overlooks a
tiny garden at the back. Nibbles were
marinated salmon with herbs and Chablis (3*/5), scrambled egg with duck liver
(4/5). Bread was either brown crunchy
bread (4/5) or white (also 4/5). To
start, Breton lobster was roasted with girolles and served with petit pois,
sweet garlic and Szechuan pepper (well hidden) and sadly the lobster was rather
overcooked (3/5 only). Langoustines were
better, tenderly cooked and served with a wide array of vegetables: baby
carrots, onions, spring onions, broad beans, peas, toasted sesame seeds,
asparagus, all in a spicy dressing (4*/5).
I ha a whole duckling roasted
with fruit (redcurrants, juniper, cherries), served with green vegetables,
spinach, broad beans, spring onion and carrots, and a little mixed leaf salad
(5/5). Stella had roast cod with finely
chopped Mediterranean vegetables in olive oil, with mashed potatoes, three
slices of tomato and some deep fried sage (4/5). Cheeses tried were: chevre (4/5), a St Marcan
(3*/5),
For dessert, I had passion
fruit soufflé (4*/5), Stella had vanilla cream, caramelised mango, mango
sorbet, wild strawberries and a mango sauce (4/5). There were also some lychee, strawberry and
passion fruit sorbets, which were all magnificent (5/5). Coffee was 4/5, and was accompanied by lemon
macaroon (4/5), fruit sponge (4/5), tart with raspberry, strawberry and
pineapple (4/5), chocolate cup with chocolate truffle and cherry in Kirsch
(4*/5), three types of chocolate (4/5), and a caramel chocolate (3/5). We drank Le Forest Chablis at FF 235, the
room cost FF 1,950, the Meal FF 2,034 and the total bill for two FF 4204. Service was very fine, with a friendly
waiter, and the second menu duly had prices.
A very fine meal in an excellent location.
Our (independently rated)
preferences for the restaurants tried on our tour were as follows:
|
Restaurant |
Andy
Ranking |
Stella
Ranking |
|
Troisgros |
3rd |
3rd |
|
Alain Chapel |
9th |
9th |
|
Pyramide |
4th |
6th |
|
Bocuse |
8th |
8th |
|
Auberge de l’Eridan/Veyrat |
5th |
5th |
|
Girardet |
7th |
10th |
|
Auberge de l’Ill |
2nd |
2nd |
|
Buerhiesel |
10th |
11th |
|
Crocodile |
1st |
1st |
|
Boyer |
11th |
7th |
|
Cotes St Jacques |
6th |
4th |
Visited September
1998.
Some of the best food I have
ever eaten. I can still taste the red
pepper soup and the simple dish of morels to this day. Guerard’s cooking is very unpretentious, with
simple flavours but bringing out the ultimate from the ingredients. The main building has beautiful gardens, but
the dining room is surprisingly simple and casual. Three very well deserved Michelin stars. If staying, you can fly to
The best hotel in town is the
Hotel de Paris, on the historic main square, just next to the Casino. The hotel has a lovely reception area with a
fine carved ceiling, and the rooms are of excellent quality. Naturally those with a sea view are most
costly, and many have little balconies where you can sit out and have
breakfast. The bar is dull and the
snacks there horribly expensive, but the garden restaurant is surprisingly good
(try the risotto), and of course there are the two Michelin-starred places, the
Grill and the Louis XV (see notes). Your
hotel card gets you free admission to the Casino (you need your passport to get
in, by the way) and also free entrance to the
Visits in 1986, 1999 (twice),
2000 (five visits), 2003 (three visits)
Perhaps the best
restaurant in
Highlight dishes include a
remarkable cheese and spinach amuse guele that
resembled a samosa, but had pastry that no Indian kitchen would ever be likely
to create. A risotto of courgette
flowers had perfect, fat Arborio rice richly flavoured with stock, but
containing surprises like a few baby girolles, and some tiny baby onions that
melted on the tongue. A perfect steak
was from Salers, and managed to have more flavour than any I have ever tasted,
accompanied by superb wild mushrooms, some artichokes and a rich
demi-glace. My favourite dessert is the
Louis XV croustillant, a simply hazelnut
biscuit covered with dark chocolate; sounds ordinary, but wait until you taste
the chocolate, which has so smooth a surface it appears solid, yet is actually
still soft and has an intensity of taste that makes me salivate just typing
this. Fish is exceptionally good here,
as in a
A great bargain is the set
lunch. This is EUR 90, which sounds
quite a bit until you discover what you get for that. There is an amuse guele,
a small starter (we had a perfect chilled cucumber soup poured over truffle
slices) then a starter of your choice: I had a simple dish of pasta with tomato
sauce, the pasta perfect, the tomatoes having depth of flavour that it is
impossible to describe. This is followed
by a main course, for which I had chicken simply cooked in a pot with a few
vegetables, the chicken so corn-fed that the skin was distinctly yellow even
after the cooking, the meat having great depth of taste – what was the last
time you said this of chicken? Then you
have cheese. There is a pre-dessert of
the perfect croustillant described above, and then a further dessert of your
choice e.g. an apricot tart to die for.
You then get coffee and a dish of petit fours of the highest quality,
some divine chocolates and macaroons and lastly some freshly baked
Madeleines. Oh, and a bottle of wine
(several choices). Not too bad for EUR
90 after all.
Elsewhere in
La
Coupole, Mirabeau Hotel, 1 Avenue Princess Grace, Monaco – (00 377) 92 16 65 65
Visited
A low-ceilinged room on the
ground floor of the hotel, but prettily decorated in pink, and with generous
tables and spacing. Service was very
good (7/10) with water and wine topped up, though towards the end of the meal
the waiting staff would all saunter off somewhere for minutes at a time, or
just huddle in the corner having a chat.
An amuse guele of salted cod
was pleasant (5/10) though nothing as good as that at Zafferanos in
Visited
A ten minute taxi ride (about
110 FF) from the centre of
Grille de l’Hôtel de Paris, place
Casino, Monaco - (00 377) 92 16 29 66
Visited
The room has what is without
doubt the best view in
This has 1 Michelin star. I gave it 5/10 overall, so a Michelin star
seems a tad generous, but the food is certainly very good and the view is
spectacular, as are the prices. The problem
I have is that it is virtually no cheaper than the 3 star Louis XV downstairs,
so my slight concern is value for money.
The bill for two was £264, with a reasonable but hardly excessive wine. However, when compared to the alternatives in
Vistamar, Hotel Hermitage,
place Beaumarchais,
Visited
This dining room has a
somewhat detached view over the sea, though you have to look over a concrete
roof to see it, so this is nothing like the view at the Grill at the Hotel de
Paris (see separate note). After
initially appearing to lose our reservation (despite being the first entry in
the book) and hence escorted to a poor table until I suggested they re-read
their reservation book, the service went pretty much downhill. If you have ever seen the episode of Frasier
where the Crane brothers buy an old restaurant, you may recall a decrepit
waiter called Otto. Well, the Vistamar
seems to have been recruiting from the same stock, as the elderly gentleman who
served us was equally dopey but with extra attitude. When we ordered an
The best dish was a
well-flavoured risotto with a single large prawn, correctly cooked, a few
girolles and a series of mussels in their shells arranged prettily around the
dish. This was 5/10. However a large tomato stuffed with goats
cheese was much less good, the tomato served on a tapenade and surrounded by
slices of summer truffle, lettuce leaves, some finely diced tomatoes and an
allegedly lime vinaigrette (which did not taste remotely of any citrus
influence). The constituents were
reasonable, but the ingredients were not sufficiently good to lift this beyond
the ordinary (3/10). Sea bass was baked
in paper, and was rather watery. The
fish had to survive a gruesomely inept filleting by our favourite waiter. The fish was accompanied, inexplicably, by
three sauces that were served in separate little cups on the side, similar to
those used to serve mango chutney in Indian restaurants. They were of very low quality, and could
easily have come from a jar for all I know.
Overall 1/10 for the sea bass. We decided to stop there when we saw the
desserts being wheeled around on an un-refrigerated trolley. Not a good experience when paying serious
money, the two courses we had being £75 a head, with just a Weinbach Riesling
1992 at £45 i.e. the food etc was £50 a head for two courses. Michelin have inexplicably decided to grace
this with a star, which together with the Coupole cast considerable doubt on
the inspector in this area. Perhaps 2/10
overall, and yet this has a Michelin star?!?!?
Hostellerie
Jerome,
This
2 star Michelin restaurant is situated in a pretty mediaeval village (La Turbie)
on a hill above
Reserve de Bealieu, Beaulieu –
(00 33 4) 93 01 00 01
Visited
A short drive from
When in
Belle Otéro, Hotel Carlton, Le
Croisette, Cannes - 00 31 (0)4 92 99 51 10
Visited November
1996, summer 1999.
Excellent 2 star Michelin
food. In the summer you can sit outside
(the restaurant is several floors up) on a couple of tables which overlook the
sea, in addition to the main dining room.
The best place to eat in
Summer 1999. A lovely two star meal. There are not many top restaurants near Nice,
and this was somewhat dated, but terribly refined cooking. A pretty setting with
attractive gardens.
Jean Francois Issautier (Nice
Road, 00 31 (0)4 93 08 10 65)
Visited summer 1999
An unpromising
location just off a dual carriageway (the N202) a little way north of
Nice. Simply decorated in modern style,
the cooking was excellent, fully justifying the 2 Michelin stars it received at
the time. Moreover the bill was very low
indeed, the dinner menu being only just over £40 for all the food, including amuse geule etc.
January 2001. Le Cagnard is set in a beautiful 14th
Century building perched on a hillside overlooking Nice, a 15 minutes cab ride
from Nice airport, in the middle of a very well preserved mediaeval
village. If you are driving in your own
car be aware that the streets are extremely narrow, and judging by the various
marks on the very solid stone walls of the town, a number of drivers take the
corners too quickly. The dining room is
in two parts, the main room with a view overlooking a little terrace on which
you can eat in the summer. Service is very
friendly and relaxed. Warm slivers of
foie gras were excellent (8/10), a difficult dish to do well, and here it was
very well done indeed. A risotto of
langoustines had pleasantly cooked langoustines but a rather runny risotto
(6/10). The cheese board is extensive,
with a fairly conventional selection in generally good condition, though an
Epoisses was distinctly unripe (7/10). A
lemon soufflé was cooked a little too heavily and so had started to hint at
lumpiness, while the outside was just a little too stiff (4/10). Better was an excellent, simply cooked sea
bass that I sampled (8/10), while at lunch the following day there was an
excellent salad of langoustines. Culinary trends have reached even here, with a
variety of exotic flavours in the salad that worked well enough but were in
total too many to be harmonious (7/10, but would have been 8/10 if they had
just left some of the salad elements out).
A poulet Bresse was better, cooked to a lovely brown colour and carved
at table, served with a simple gravy of the cooking
juices and some root vegetables; as usual, less is more (8/10). A wine list features plenty of choice from
The
South West
The restaurant is situated on
the main street of the sleepy
Breads were mini loaves, a
white baguette with a delicious crust (10/10), a brown baguette with seeds, the
first one of which I have to say was a little burnt (9/10 for the non-burnt
version!) a soft potato bread (8/10) and breadsticks with Parmesan (8/10). In general the bread was well-seasoned and
had excellent texture and taste. Stella
started with cod brandade. This was
served as a piped mousse, arranged in three rows of six little pieces, the rows
separated by ultra-think potato crisps.
One row of the salt cod was topped with a little tomato sauce, one row
with basil sauce and the other with mango sauce. At one end of the plate was a pool of tomato
coulis, at the other end a pool of basil coulis, and a little jug on the side
with mango coulis. The salt cod was most
impressive, light and fluffy yet retaining its true flavour (10/10). I had the signature dish, which I should war
you was a very absurd 95 euros. It was a
combination of pieces of potato and mashed potato wrapped in a cabbage leaf and
cooked with slivers of black truffle, the potato resting in a pool of black
truffle sauce. The potato was very fine
and the earthy taste of the truffles permeated the potato well, but one has to
wonder at the price (8/10).
For main course, Stella had a
lasagne of lobster with black truffles, chunks of tender lobster with very finely diced
vegetables wrapped in extremely fine layers of pasta and garnished with a sprig
of coriander, the pasta surrounded by a black truffle sauce. This was very classy, the pasta tender and
the vegetables excellent (9/10). I had a
“cassoulet” that turned out to be no such thing other than being served in a
pot. It consisted of lamb sweetbreads
and morels in a creamy mushroom sauce, topped with baby green asparagus. The morels were stunning, the sweetbreads
tender and the creamy sauce delicious (9/10).
Cheese was the only let-down
here, a rare occurrence in
For dessert Stella had
raspberry tart. The chef seems to have a linear theme, since the tart arrived
as a very long, thin tart, just one raspberry wide and eighteen raspberries
long. The fruit was of the highest
quality, which for no good reason had been sprinkled with balsamic
vinegar. The shortbread base was was
excellent, topped with fine crème patissiere (9/10).
I had a pear shaped
arrangement of chocolate, with shaped wafers of dark chocolate forming the pear
shape, and a rich, velvety mousse inside.
This was made from very fine chocolate, and the mousse has great depth
of flavour as well as fabulous texture.
As an added dimension there were a few griottines steeped in alcohol
embedded in the mousse, and three additional ones as garnish. On the side was a little jug of what turned
out to be crème anglaise, and this may have been the best I have ever tasted,
with a consistency that was just on the balance between lightness and yet
thickness; it was of the highest quality (10/10).
Coffee was very good, served
with a few petit fours: a Chinese gooseberry with caramel was about the best I
have seen anyone do with this overrated fruit.
There was a further chocolate tart within which was the same perfect
chocolate mousse, and a pastry base with a little crème patisserie on top (8/10
for the petit fours).
Service was patchy. The female sommelier was excellent, and given
the tiny number of diners one would hope that there would be a good level of
attention, yet as soon as the private party next door reached its peak the
service faltered badly, and the dining room was left for minutes at a time with
no waiting staff at all. This is not
what one comes to expect as normal in top French restaurants. Oddly, there is fairly poor muzak played at a
surprisingly high volume all evening in the dining room. Overall, I found the cooking to be
technically excellent and innovative.
This thoroughly deserved its three stars, and indeed is much better than
many restaurants with this accolade.
One minor note was that when
we checked out we were presented with a bill with two coffees we did not have
(EUR 8) which were only gracelessly taken off the bill, and a charge for a beer
and glass of house wine of EUR 28. Yes,
read it again, one bottle of beer and a glass of wine in the room – EUR
28. This was absurd, and yet I was
forcibly told that this was the correct charge and I would have to pay it. I found this left a sour taste in my mouth
after a magnificent meal.
Last visited
This is quite a trek from just
about anywhere, about 4,000 feet up on the plateau of Aubrac, perhaps 50km
north of a town called Rodez (this itself is over 100 miles north west o
Montpelllier, though Ryanair do fly to Rodez).
Set on top of a hilltop, the Michel Bras premises are a grey granite and
glass modern block which are of the “fuck you” style of modern
architecture. There are some amusing
notes in the room about this “blending in” to this environment, but short of
using napalm there is not much more that the architect could have done to not
blend in to the hilltop landscape. The
building is nonetheless striking, and has a great view over the surrounding
hills and meadows. Bear in mind if
staying to bring a sweater, as even in mid May when the temperature was 20C
down at sea level, there was a bitter wind blowing at this height. Everything in the complex is ultra-modern,
with the dining room being three sides of floor to ceiling glass, the other
side separated from the kitchen and a corridor a little stream, over which tiny
bridges cross into the dining room. This
is quite effective, and the view does the rest.
In daytime you see meadows of dandelions and little hilltop farms of
beef and sheep, which no doubt the European taxpayer is subsiding heavily.
The menu is a mixture of
things that draw on local produce and history, and there is a strong emphasis
on vegetables e.g. a starter that is just a series of vegetables, simply
cooked. The quality of the ingredients
is very high, and this is a good job since Michel Bras seems to have almost
eschewed sauces altogether. The wine
list is extensive at 38 pages, mostly French but with a couple of pages of
mostly excellent foreign wines. Mark-ups
are 3-4 times retail i.e. modest by
Service was generally good,
with only minor topping-up problems (at these prices they can afford plenty of
waiters). The kitchen is partially
visible from the dining room and is vast, with a humidity-controlled wine
cellar next to it. We started with amuse
guele of a mushy egg cooked in its shell and runny, served in its shell with
balsamic vinegar, with three sticks made of cereal. Pleasant though hardly
anything special (4/10). Much better was a little tarte of ceps and
bacon, with delicate pastry and very good mushrooms (8/10). Next up was a series of nibbles each served
on a silver spoon: a rabbit consommé, a radish cream topped with shredded
radish, and a little finely chopped flesh of seafood e.g. scallops. These were around 4/10 also. Bread was slices
of either sourdough (8/10), country bread (8/10) or cereal (8/10 also). There was also a little thin crisp bread in
the Italian style, that was much less
interesting.
I started with two slices of
foie gras terrine (fois gras is a speciality of the area), each served between
two thin wafers of crisp, savoury potato chip.
Around the plate were a few pieces of fruit e.g. orange, apple and also
a little fruit chutney. The foie gras
was very good indeed, the terrine silky smooth and having deep flavour of foie
gras (9/10).
Stella had green asparagus,
served hot, topped with a foam of vegetables flavoured
with black truffles. The quality of the
asparagus was superb, cooked just right (9/10).
For the main course I tried a
fillet of beef from the local area Aubrac, which was cooked very rare and
served in a vast chunk. Next to the beef
were little matchsticks of turnip, a little wilted spinach and two sweet
onions, with just a few small slices of black truffle. The vegetables were of the highest standard; indeed the turnip
and spinach were magnificent, and yet the dish cried out for some kind of sauce
or just some of the meat juices. As it was you just had a hunk of meat to chew
on with a few (admittedly fine) vegetables, the kind of thing that is more
English than French. Surely it makes no
sense to spurn the use of sauces: what happened to all those lovely cooking
juices for the beef? I can give this
8/10 yet to me it seemed as if it was too dry.
Stella had wild salmon, cooked
“a cuit” i.e. just cooked through but not a second more. This was topped with shreds of cabbage and
accompanied with a few wild mushrooms and a smear of avocado. There was a little set of sticks of chives
and flat-leaf parsley garnished with a mountain wild flower. Again the ingredients were of the highest
standard, and again the dish could have done with more than the smear of meat
jus that was offered (8/10).
Cheese draws heavily from the
local area e.g. the local hard cheese was served at four different ages. There were two kinds of Roquefort, a strong
version and a very nice sweet version that as less salty than normal
Roquefort. A few conventional cheese made up the numbers e.g. a St Nectaire. The cheeses were in excellent condition
(9/10). They were served with a raisin bread.
For dessert I had chocolate
fondant with a very liquid centre, and a scoop of cardamom ice cream that
worked well with the chocolate, although it was already melting slightly when
served (8/10). Stella’s dessert had
vanilla cream in between very sweet tuiles encrusted with pink sugar,
interleaves with brioche ice cream that really was rather tasteless. This dish did not work for me, with the bland
ice cream and the over-sweet tuiles (4/10).
A little “aligot” was then
served on a hot plate. This is a local
delicacy of the local cheese, mashed potato and some garlic (hardly
noticeable). This was odd, tasting
rather like the tasteless cheese that you sometimes get on mediocre pizzas,
being stringy in texture. Plate after
plate was returned untouched from almost every table.
Petit fours were a let
down. A biscuit base had coffee cream
(5/10) while chocolate ices, both white and dark chocolate, were watery
(2/10). A lemon crisp was much better
(8/10) but almond paste on a stick was dull (5/10). Two lollipops were certainly different, one
made from red fruits and one with banana and pineapple. A couple of pots of sweetened milk were
served, along with a chocolate mousse of raisins steeped in cream. Overall maybe 4/10 for the
petit fours.
Overall I found the cooking to
have the very highest standard of ingredients, with strong technical
execution. Yet the abandonment of the
sauce, that great triumph of French cuisine, seems to me to be a loss. I can admire the cold technique, but I didn’t
really enjoy it. As a
French general said of the charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War
“C’est manifique, mais il n’est pas la guerre”. Similarly, I can admire the technique, but I
don’t have to enjoy it.
Last visited
|
Restaurant |
Jardins
des Sens
|
|
Food
rating |
7/10 |
|
Address |
11 Avenue St Lazare, |
|
Phone
Number |
00
33 4 99 58 38 38 |
|
Fax |
00
33 4 99 58 38 39 |
|
Open |
Tueday
– Saturday |
|
Price |
£155
a head with drinks |
Situated n a leafy residential
street of
For amuse guele there were
cubes of bread-crumbed pork and a little cream of mustard (that just tasted
like cream), a sponge cake made with fish rather than being sweet, a pistachio
crisp, and roasted artichokes with sun-dried tomatoes (an ingredient over-used
here). The pork was tasty but mostly
these were at the 4/10 and 5/10 level.
Next was a cornet of courgette mousse on top of a lobster mousse
(4/10). Better was a little cup of
mussel soup (7/10).
Bread was rolls of either traditional, black olive,
Stella had green asparagus
served warm, draped with strips of Parmesan and a few potato crisps. On the side was a rocket salad with French
dressing, a few pieces of chicken and our old friend, the sun-dried tomato. I thought the world had moved on from this
ingredient a decade ago, but here it was again (7/10).
I had little pieces of
Charolet beef, served on a skewer with excellent ceps. The beef was supposedly medium rare, but was
actually on the well done side of medium.
A couple of strips of excellent bacon were used as garnish, as well as
some caramelised onions on a potato crisp and a few rocket leaves. There was a meat just but this was spiked
with passion fruit sauce, which did not work for me at all. The meat jus itself would have been just the
thing – the beef did not work well with sweetness (6/10).
Stella had very tender
monkfish tail, the dish of the night.
This was fresh and was cooked perfectly, without a hint of the chewiness
that so often plagues monkfish in restaurants.
This was served with roasted artichoke hearts, ravioli of herbs, three
roasted cloves of garlic, a little butter and herb sauce and, wait for it, some
sun-dried tomatoes that were by now beyond parody (9/10 for the monkfish).
The cheese board reached across
A pre-dessert of soup of
pineapple was topped with a sprig of mint.
Next were some excellent Madeleines and a lovely carnival biscuit. Dessert proper for Stella had ganache
beignets served with a bed of finely diced pineapple, five pieces of
caramelised banana, tiny shortbread biscuits, a chewy tuile, two pieces of dark
chocolate and a long thin biscuits coated with chocolate. This was presented very prettily in a star
shape (7/10). My dessert was a bitter
chocolate soufflé served in a soup bowl and or Texan proportions. This was topped with a scoop of vanilla ice
cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce, and although pleasant was far too big
(7/10).
Coffee was excellent, served
with very fine petit fours. We had a
tart with wild strawberries, a sponge with cherry, a pistachio macaroon, a
shortbread biscuit with lemon curd, a Chinese gooseberry coated in sugar and
dipped in coconut, orange jelly, marshmallow, orange peel dipped in chocolate,
chocolate nougat with pistachios and almonds, little white chocolate lollipops
and a bowl of sugar roasted almonds (9/10).
Overall, I enjoyed the meal,
but it has to be said that this is not three star
level cooking. It is scarcely two stars
(probably one and a half Michelin stars would be fair) though the setting is
pretty and the food enjoyable.
Last visited
Bernard Loiseau sadly made
headlines in February 2003 by shooting himself shortly after being demoted from
19/20 to 17/20 in the Gault Millault (contrary to some misguided reports, he
never lost his 3rd Michelin star).
We will never know the true reason for his suicide, but his cooking
lives on in the
I
started with langoustine ravioli, which had good texture and excellent langoustine,
but was bizarrely served with watery artichokes, which were so awful they could
have been tinned, though that is surely inconceivable here. There was also a little cooked celery and a
shellfish sauce as garnish. A hard dish
to mark as the ravioli itself was 8/10 but the dire artichokes drag the mark
down, perhaps to 6/10. Lobster was
served cold on a bed of chopped vegetables, decorated with a little lobster
shell stuffed with spiced vegetables and a sauce of the coral (7/10).
For
main course I had excellent Charolet beef, cooked perfectly and served with
asparagus that once again tasted soggy, though an oxtail-based sauce had
suitable intensity and a local
The
cheese board was a little disappointing: I tried a good Langres (8/10), Blue
d’Auvergnes (8/10), an unripe Epoisses (6/10), a soapy fresh goat cheese and a
dull local hard cheese (3/10). As a
pre-dessert there was a glass of blackcurrant jelly, topped with blackcurrant
sauce and a nage of cream (8/10). Dessert
proper was a good apple soufflé, served with a baked apple stuffed with nuts
and cubes of apple, served next to an apple sorbet served between crisp fried
apple slices, the plate decorated with tiny spheres of apple (7/10). Stella had a rich chocolate mousse served in
a ring of nut tuiles and garnished with blackcurrants.. On the side was a square of dark chocolate
and mousse on a chocolate tuile, all surrounded by a ring of blackcurrant sauce
(8/10).
Petit
fours were an almond tuile, a delicate biscuit, a cassis mousse, a tarte of
raspberry jelly, a coffee mousse in a chocolate shell, some nougat, a
blackcurrant jelly and white and dark chocolates (8/10). Coffee was oddly bitter (4/10) which was
particularly bizarre since we had drunk some perfectly good coffee here at
lunch today. Service was excellent
though not faultless, with minor topping up issues. Last visited
Marc
Meneau’s restaurant has a pretty dining room with a view over the gardens,
nicely lit with much use of hanging arrangements of candles. For nibbles we had a frothy seafood soup
containing mussels (6/10) and a tempura of several vegetables: carrot, red
pepper and courgettes served with a tartare sauce (7/10). Bread was a choice of cereal, white or bacon
rolls (7/10).
Stella
started with sole, filleted and fried with no sauce, served on a few baby
spinach leaves cut into circles. The
sole was pleasant but needed something to lift the taste – this was not
provided by a remarkable chewy razor clam in a little parsley sauce served in a
clam shell (5/10 only). I fared a bit
better with a warm crayfish terrine, a slab of white fish mousse with the
prawns embedded. As a rather odd
gimmick, this plate was served on top of a soup dish, which after you finish
the terrine is whisked away to reveal a single crayfish in a ginger broth. All very theatrical, but I’d rather have had
the crayfish while it was still hot (6/10).
For
main course we shared turbot cooked in a salt crust. This was served at the table just with a
little lobster oil, a blob of butter and a few more of the circles of spinach
leaves. Other than some very sad spinach
on the side this was again plain, and the fish was not so
stunning on its own as to escape the problem of there just being a bland taste
augmented by soggy spinach (5/10 if I was being kind).
Fortunately
the cheese was excellent, all but one being local, unnamed cheeses. The famous local cheese is Epoisses, and I
have to say that here was the best I have ever had, the Epoisses neither unripe
nor too far gone but just perfect in texture.
The one guest cheese was two year old aged Comte from Bernard Antony in
Vieux-Ferrette (10/10 cheese).
A
caramel soufflé with orange sorbet was served with an orange segment decorated
with orange peel (9/10). I had an apple
galette, slices of apple baked until caramelised with a little orange rind,
served cold (5/10). Better was an apple tuile made with almonds and served with
hot apple juice laced with calvados (9/10 for the latter). Petit fours were rather ordinary, with only
an excellent orange Madeleine being of any real quality. Otherwise there was a dry apple and almond
biscuit, a coffee macaroon with coffee cream, a decent
rhubarb compote and meringues with praline filling. There were also jellied fruits and
marshmallow, but overall the petit fours were only 5/10. Coffee was excellent (9/10) and service was good,
though there were multiple gaps in topping up.
It is very hard to see why this has three stars other than for the
cheese. Last visited