Boy, this place does not get much love online. I saw Tusconbabe’s review of it here (as part of a larger report) which was a good one, but it mentioned all the bad reviews. Despite it being very un-HO of me, I did not choose it for the food. I wanted a special-occasion place for our anniversary, and it certainly delivered. And then some. I thought the food was very good, with one misstep, which I’ll get to later.
We chose the Déjeuner sur Branche menu for lunch, which I thought was a great deal. Amuse-bouches, appetizer, main, dessert, 2 glasses of wine (one white, one red, although I’m sure you could just stick with one), bottle of water, coffee & mignardises for €98.
The amuses were a fruit juice (I’m blanking, but I think peach), a piece of tuna belly, chicken pâté en croute, and squash with caviar. Very tasty.
Both the tomato & pea starters were delicious, the peas barely cooked & wonderful for it. The smashed pea toast with rhubarb BBQ sauce was a nice accompaniment. A Pouilly Fumé was served and worked well.
My only complaint was the sinew in the tuna. It happens, but it shouldn’t at a high-end restaurant. Plus, after the amuse, I was expecting a perfect piece of tuna. Actually, the chicken dish won this round. I never order chicken out, but we wanted to taste the whole menu. It looks like dessert, but that’s Parmesan cream with breadcrumbs on top, finished table side. A play on Caesar salad, and it was delicious. We also enjoyed the red wine, a St. Emilion.
Both desserts were great, not too sweet. The plums spoke for themselves and the vanilla ice cream had a dollop of what we think was lime sorbet (to go with the tequila, I suppose) that was a wonderfully unexpected punch of sour. Apricot tarts & poppy seed cookies to follow.
The service was very good until the end, when I felt like they were rushing us out, bringing us the check without us asking for it.
At most, there were 6 tables of diners, including us, and this was Sunday lunch! I heard French at 2 tables, but otherwise several different languages, as expected in a touristy place like this. Every table went out on the terrace to enjoy the views after their meals, and the staff was very accommodating in that regard (but I can’t imagine what it’s like at night with diners wanting to go out there at sparkly times!)
Would I go back? Probably not, but only because I’m just not that into this type of fine dining. Despite the servers being friendly and engaging, explaining what was in the dishes, it still felt a little stuffy to me, and I really dislike that.
