Do not believe the name on the door... this place is astonishingly mediocre. Even if you're not a foodie, don't bother... I shall apologise profusely for the mediocre quality of the pictures (taken with my iPhone in very poor light conditions, as this was an impromptu meal with colleagues so I obviously hadn't brought the "gear" along...).
How a man who has held *** in the Michelin guide since 2002 can possibly lend his name to such an astoundingly mediocre place escapes me... He obviously never tasted the food there. I knew we were off for an abysmal experience from the moment we were offered to grab some amuse bouche with our fingers from plates presented by the waiters (WTF??). The wine list was massively overpriced and with an extremely adventurous (if not arguable) choice of vintages - it took me more than 10mn to figure out what could be a relatively safe choice, turns out I was wrong and the wine never opened despite being placed in a decanter for the duration of the meal. I was given the wine to taste, and finding it very closed and flat, I asked the waiter to put it in a decanter... after which he proceeded to serve all the guests at our table (WTF squared??). There would unfortunately be plenty of similar toe-curling moments during the meal...
The little square windows in the wall have a view on the kitchen. Some of us sneaked a peek before entering the restaurant and earned dirty looks from one of the cooks inside... not a very good sign at all.
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The butter (obviously not Bordier...), almost liquid (and borderline rancid) from sitting at room temperature too long... eeek. Note the silly presentation of the salt and coarsely ground black pepper... |
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Amuse bouche: asparagus veloute with some unidentified chilli powder allegedly from Spain (*yawn*) and beetroot tartlet The asparagus veloute tasted raw (read: wrong) and was garnished with a sorry blob of cheese (was that trying to be a gnocchi ??). The "Spanish" chilli (was it paprika ??) was absolutely tasteless even on its own, and the beetroot tartlet was soggy (from having been prepared WELL in advance) and not particularly tasty. The veloute actually contained tiny croutons that tasted like the supermarket variety. By this point I was already very upset... |
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Artichoke and black truffle soup, toasted mushroom brioche with black truffle butter The artichoke soup was exaggerately bitter (which had me wondering whether it had been boiled, or even... OMG... nuked ??) and the truffles not very fragrant. The slices of parmesan has obviously been sitting in the warm soup way too long. The use of corn starch to thicken the soup was very obvious. Not very good at all. |
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The toasted mushroom brioche that came with the soup - obviously sliced the wrong way (if you want to see the swirl you need to cut across not lengthwise, dummy waiter...). The brioche was dry and the oily mushroom paste tasted weird. I gave up on this after a bite. |
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| Glazed veal shank with "poached-roasted" white peaches The waiter brought this insanely big piece of meat to the table and then proceeded to inform me that it was a dish for 2 (which the menu does not mention). He then took the thing away to carve it out of my sight (huh ??) and I never saw that bone again... |
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| Glazed veal shank with "poached-roasted" white peaches The jus was baaad. Way too much acidity (blatant addition of some vinegar I could not identify, probably cheap wine vinegar) and too sweet - not at all meaty like the gorgeous stuff you would get at Caprice. The meat was tough and obviously undercooked (shank is supposed to have a lot of collagen and a fair amount of fat - I couldn't find either). The peaches were not fragrant at all (probably some US-imported crap from California). Don't even get me started on the plating... |
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The cheese was ok - obviously not from Anthony but generally decent (although I suppose my judgement may have been biaised by what preceded and I may have somewhat lowered my expectations by this point...) but the plating... oh la la !! |
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Petits fours: cube of "ile flottante" with strawberry coulis (*yawn*), rhubarb roll with ??? cream, raspberry filled with (was it basil granite ?). A very small effort on presentation (cute raspberry) but not very tasty at all. |
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Complimentary dessert: earl-grey sorbet and vanilla/honey cream The sorbet was in fact just sweetened frozen tea, and the honey/cream mixture wasn't particularly good or interesting. |
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