I’ve visited a handful of 3-star restaurants and while I certainly enjoyed eating the food, I came away feeling a bit weirdly underwhelmed.
Now some of the dishes were most definitely fantastic, but when I see a lot of food prepared like it’s almost too stylish and the presentation too pedantic with a horde of small drops of different coloured dots of different cream/pure/oils what ever, I smile while I slowly lose resepct for the craftmanship of the dish.
An example is in this video from the 3-start Michelin resturant Bareiss in Germany.
Take a look at the video - the more I see of this video, the more I smile over how over the top pedantic they make the dish with their small dots of oils and pure’s.
I honestly prefer eating at less fancy & less posh, yet still solid reataurants where they do present the dish in a stylish manner, but they don’t overcrowd every dish with dots of oils and pure’s, caviar and truffle.
All the 3-star restaurants I’ve been to have all used truffle, powder dust of some sort, caviar and crowded their dishes with these small little dots in different colurs and lots of small pretty flowers.
It’s almost starting to get a bit boring to be honest - at least it’s very predictable how 3-star michelin food in Europe looks and tastes like…
I’ll probably get slaughtered by many of you, but I’m just being honest here.
To each his/her own - we really like going for Michelin star tasting menus which most of the time include many of these types of dishes described in the video (even though I didn’t think that particular dish was overly complex or pedantic just well thought out). We also like going out to more “basic/solid” restaurants and there are also good dishes but often much closer to something one could make at home. Restaurant visits are for us also to experience unusual and complex dish which can’t be easily replicated at home.
My days at uber-fancy (both $$$ and prep/fussiness) restos are def over. Like you, I prefer solid, well-prepared dishes that highlight the quality of the ingredients and/or technique.
Sure I like looking at a pretty plate, but like you, I find the presentation in those places over the top precious.
We have a place in my hometown whose chef futzes around so much with their farm-to-table food that I stop reading halfway into a dish description. I love it when the ingredients shine without having been manipulated into submission.
I’ve never eaten at a 3-star, and really have no desire to do so. Everything just seems overly frou frou and “precious”, as @linguafood said. Yes, we eat with our eyes first, but I don’t want towers, I don’t want a leaf here, a flower petal there, dots of whatever. It obviously works for so many, as the restaurants stay in business.
I found this article that shows MREs (military Meals Ready-To-Eat) from around the world reinvented as Michelin-restaurant plates. I do have to say, France’s MRE is one I wouldn’t mind just eating out of the tins and boxes.
I love a good fast food burger from Shake Shack, just as much as I enjoy a meal at Arpège or EMP, but I would not want to do either type of meal every single day, or for every single meal, or for all occasions.
You’ve got that right. We’re just as happy with an Arpege or Arzak egg as an Egg McMuffin with sausage. Each is its own kind of genius. And when fast food appears timely and at temperature, it’s the same as the easy hospitality that is the mark of every three star meal.
I agree. I have no desire for 3+ hour tasting menus that are common at the very top end of restaurants. I’ve eaten at a place that was ranked the top restaurant in the world at the time. I couldn’t wait to get out. I prefer being able to have a meal of something I choose and enough for more than a taste rather than a series of exquisite looking bites that more often than not aren’t really that good. I’ve been to a few 3 stars and several 2 stars and a bunch of 1 star. The 1 stars are a whole lot more enjoyable. Though the worst thing is finding a place before it has any stars, watching it get a star, and then no longer being able to get a table and seeing the prices escalate. The exception to not being able to pick my dinner is an omakase sushi meal.
Ipse when was the last time you went? It’s been a while for me and I thought it wasn’t worth it before the last menu change and before Guidara left. The best things about the place was the bottle of brandy and the granola they gave you at the end of the meal.
I’ve been going there before 2017 when they achieved the No. 1 ranking, and after the renovation to the dining room in 2018/19. Both at the bar and the dining room and many times the tasting menu felt more like watching paint dry than fine dining.
I’ve tried the new vegan menu twice now. Once out of curiosity, the second out of professional duty. Neither was truly enjoyable from a pure culinary standpoint.
But I do not regret any of my meals at EMP. There are meals where the journey is more important than the destination. EMP (and many Michelin-starred restaurants) fall into that category.
I enjoy EMP for the degustation journey, and the curiosity in which that journey piques, and not necessarily to be culinarily satiated. Though the two can go hand-in-hand sometimes.
It obviously works for so many, as the restaurants stay in business.
