The restaurant is very nice inside as you would expect, wood panelling, linen, silver ware, all very tasteful! They brought out the menu's (set menu, a la carte) and also a plate with a pair of three little appetisers. To be honest the way they were presented I wasn't sure if we were being offered a choice of one or the opportunity to take one now and eat others later :) The first one we had was a sardine ball with a small dab of sauce. The second was a mini tart with a clam and something else on it and the third a mini slice of something like a pork terrine. Delicious.
While we were thinking about what meals to have we got an aperitif, Kir for me, Kir Royal for Paul. We then said we were ready to order but we had to have another think because they wanted to know what dessert we wanted as well. Normally that is left to last. Of course during all this we had a choice of bread rolls and there was a large tub of nice butter.
Once we'd finished ordering they brought out a palette cleanser, a glass with three different layers. The top layer was an effusion of tomato, it was white like a meringue but tasted of tomato! The second layer was a zucchini puree and the third some sort of duck. Each layer was nice and it all worked together very well as well.
The sommelier brought out the wine menu. It was VERY impressive. Such a huge selection of such really good wines. Hardly anything under 100 Euro a bottle. Naturally we had no idea since we are getting different courses to each other as well. In the end we asked the sommelier to recommend something. He asked if we wanted a bottle or by the glass. The menu didn't actually have any by the glass prices so we thought that would be good. He asked if we would like us to leave it to him and we said yes. What a good choice. The wine matches were excellent, they really matched well with the food, and interestingly they were pretty much exactly the right size to match the course. Paul noted that every wine we had was served in a different wine glass!
For an entree I had ordered the entree du jour, rabbit with foie gras and aspic. Paul had pigeon stuffed with foie gras. The rabbit was really nice and the foie gras was in a layer above the rabbit, and below the aspic. The layering like this meant that the rabbit, which was quite meaty, was very tender when eating thanks to the foie gras and aspic layer. They worked together so well.
For the main Paul had what was like a pork terrine on a bed of green beans and mini mushrooms. I had fish, Saint Pierre (John Dory) with apricot and mini mushrooms in a lovely (no fat spared) sauce. The serve actually looks quite small but with what came before, the wine and the sauce with the dish it just seemed to be very filling. The fish was really tender and the sauce was luscious. The mini mushrooms were also very tasty.
Finally came dessert. Paul had a souffle with caramel sauce and I had cherries with a cake piece, sorbet and a biscuity bit on top. Naturally this was really nice, an excellent finish to the meal!
Actually that wasn't quite everything! We got coffee and tea and a plate of petite fours were served, and there were four each. They were all very tasty, again see the photo. We sat for a while, we both had two drinks and admired the décor. I went to the toilet again so that I could take a video of the wine cellar :)
We finally left around 3pm and waddled up towards the Arc de Triomph and caught the train home, back just in time to see the finish of the Tour! A perfect day out :)
We both napped at one point or another in the afternoon. We did get some food for dinner, just some baguette, ham, tomato and a slice for dessert.
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