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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.
My most recent meal was as follows. Nibbles consisted of soft mozzarella with a liquid centre, a beetroot macaroon, what essentially was a lovely chicken samosa and a sliver of foie gras pate (8/10). A mushroom jelly was technically good, served with a scoop of foie gras (8/10) as a further nibble.
The fireworks began with stunning langoustines from Brittany, the tail displayed in their shells with a frothy lemon oil, as well as some further langoustine meat deep fried in a crispy coating. It is hard to describe just how good these tasted - they were near perfect (10/10).
Less good for me were undoubtedly excellent sardines marinated in a mayonnaise flavoured with fresh tomatoes, cos lettuce, rocket and slices of superb tomato (8/10).
Better was sea bass shaped into a ring wrapped in the skin of the bass, served with tomato and a frothy Hollandaise with three segments of grapefruit that had been caremelised on one side. The acidity of the grapefruit was a clever foil to the richness of the Hollandaise, and the dish was completed by two fine spears of Vaucluse asparagus (9/10).
I had a remarkable dish of spaghetti made from Parmesan encasing ham and morels and shaped into a vertical slice (see photo in the gallery) and served with morel sauce. As well as requiring a lot of preparation for the presentation, the tastes in this dish were superb, the Parmesan pasta working beautifully (10/10).
Cheese was from Bernard Antony in Alsace, and is what a cheese board should be; just a few cheeses, but in perfect condition. Camembert was divine, as was Antony's famous 48 month-old aged Comte, along with fine Roquefort and an excellent goat cheese (10/10).
We then had a series of desserts, all of which were really magnificent. A flaky slab of coconut topped with yeast ice cream was technically impressive though my least favourite. Best of all was a grapefruit confit topped with grapefruit, a fine crisp and cylinders of perfect grapefruit sorbet. This was a magnificent creation, its flavours and texture superb; one of the best desserts I have ever tasted. Frozen meringue with wild strawberries had meringue so light that it was remarkable. Strawberries wrapped around a strawberry and vanilla mousse were also superb, and finally we had a superb chocolate millefeuille with chocolate sauce, sesame seeds and vanilla ice cream. These desserts were 10/10, and were a virtuoso display from a master pastry chef.
What follows are notes from a meal in June 2004, showing how much the cooking has developed since then.
Amuse-bouche 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 spongy 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. |
