We started with a glass of Franck Bonville Blanc de Blancs grand cru champagne and an amuse bouche platter. Let’s see, if I remember correctly... from the left it was potato with crème fraiche and roe, quail egg, gazpacho, salmon tartare, and something or other with avocado. All very nice and RoF-stimulating…
As for the courses:
1. Salmon sashimi with papaya salad, ginger and wasabi sorbet, and an interesting soy sauce with toasted sesame seeds. Served with Bourgogne Aligoté 2006 Saint Aubin. The sorbet was, um, different but tolerable for me (I can't really deal with wasabi or any other kind of horseradish). The fish was fresh and tasty...
2. Crab and scallop with apple purée, petit pois purée, and chorizo. Served with Schloss Lieser Riesling 2006. The scallop was absolutely perfectly prepared. The dots of apple and petit pois were a bit too small in my opinion. I would have liked more of those tastes...
3. Skrei (Lofoten cod) with mushroom soup, shitake mushrooms, and asparagus. Served with Domaine de la Sancesse 2006 (Côtes du Rhône). The fish was also cooked perfectly, and the soup was nice and creamy-foamy with lots of flavor...
4. King fish with lentils, chestnut purée, savoy cabbage, and anise and olive sauce. Served with Moulin à Vent Maison-Blanche 2006. Interesting combination of flavors, but the king fish was rich enough to tolerate them all. Yum yum...
5. Cheese with fig preserves, nut bread, and candied nuts. Served with two different wines - Andre Brunel (Rhône) and a sweet dessert wine - Henri Ramonteu 2004 Jurançon. Boyfriend of feitpingvin had roquefort on his cheese plate. As I'm allergic to that, I just got larger portions of the other cheeses...
This was followed by some chocolates, though we didn't have any coffee to go with it. I don't even think we were asked if we wanted any coffee...
Not having been asked if we wanted to order coffee is among the little annoyances about this place. The other annoyance was that I felt that they moved through the courses too quickly. Which I suppose they had to do if we were going to chow down in time for them to clear us out and clean up the table for the next seating. They have two different seatings - one at 17:30 and one at 21:00. I guess it's to get as many customers as possible, but they're both annoying times to eat dinner out, and I don't like being rushed...
Otherwise, the food itself was lovely and the atmosphere was lively. I don't think I'd call it the best fish restaurant in town, but it's not the worst...
