The
building is very grand, the dining room upstairs. It
has a low ceiling but high grade furnishings and
excellent lighting. There is a wooden floor, cream
linen tablecloths,wood panelled walls and a pretty
flower is on each table. Everything exudes class:
the glasses are Riedel for example. The wine list is
virtually all French, with choices such as Weinbach
Riesling 2003 Schlossberg at JPY 9,800 (i.e. GBP 49
compared to retail price GBP 15)up to Chateau Mouton
Rothschild 1970 at JPY 144,000. 2002 Ramonet
Chassagne Montrachet was 19,000. Markups do not seem
excessive for a three star restaurant.
Our waiter used to work at La Tante Claire in London
in the old Pierre Koffmann says before moving to
France and then to Japan; he was extremely
attentive, as were all the staff we encountered.
Breads were made here rather than bought and were a
choice of rolls: fig, seaweed, brioche, "Scottish"
i.e a bap, croissant, baguette and an excellent
black olive and wheat bread (8/10).
We began with asparagus and smoked salmon roll, a
bavarois of peas, campari and orange jelly, a duck
liver "burger" and a cornet of lemon and sour cream
(which actually barely had any lemon taste) topped
with salmon roe. I'm not sure about the wisdom of
the campari as it rather dominated the orange jelly,
but this was all well made (6/10).
A soup of peas with morel jelly and chantilly
truffle was superb, the soup having great intensity
of flavour, the morels working really well with the
peas, and the dish being lifted by the truffle. This
was top quality french cooking (9/10).
5 minute egg was served on a salad of fresh leaves
(mostly rocket) with shallots and a carefully
balanced vinaigrette. This was very good, if not in
the same league as the pea soup (7/10).
Sea bass was very fresh and well timed, served with
white asparagus, potatoes, parsley and mushroom, a
duxelle of morels and little pommes dauphinoise
balls. (8/10).
The best dish was without doubt my fillet of beef.
This was served with pomme dauphinoise, excellent
sauce from the cooking juices falvourred with herbs,
and a rather superfluous mousse of egg and fermented
garlic. The star was the beef: miyazaki beef from
Kyushu. This is a rival to Kobe beef, made in the
same manner from black Wagyu cattle, and was utterly
dazzling. I could easily have cut this with a spoon
rather than the steak knife provided, and indeed the
beef itself was so incredibly tender it was almost
buttery in taste. Truly one of the best two beef
dishes I have ever eaten, and I preferred this to
the Kobe beef I ate in Kyoto.
Cheese was surprisingly impressive. The importer
gets the cheese from France but has a proper
temperature controlled cellar, and the cheese was in
superb condition. We tried St Maure, Camembert,
Epoisse, tow year aged Comte, Munster, langres and
Bleu d'Auvergne, served with grapes and raisin
bread. The cheese were in uniformly ripe conmdition
(9/10).
For pre-dessert we had strawberry jelly, coconut
mousse and pineapple sorbet, all of which were
stunning. There were also macaroons of cherry
blossom, vanilla and olive, pistachio and chocolate,
lollipops of caramel and cumin, white olive and salt
and black cherry. Finally there was a little creme
brulee, a meringue with lemon cream raspberry and
mint leaf (8/10).
Rum baba with wild strawberries was served with
Kirsch ice cream. This is a classic dish that is
surprisingly hard to get right, the most famous
example being the one served at Le Louis XV in Monaco
(it never leaves the menu). The one tonight was a
very close second to that, the baba extremely moist
(9/10).
"Foret noiree" chocolate with cherries was parfait
with maraschino cherries and orange ice cream,
having terrific flavor (9/10). We had a glass of
1991 Yquem at pretty much retail price (GBP 40) and
the bill still came to GBP 150 a head.
To finish off a trolley appears with a vast variety
of little confections: tuilese, chocolates of many
varieties, superb lime jelly (this was 10/10), uzu
tart, meringue, ice creams,.....
This was a meal of the highest standard, and I will
remember the beef in particular for a long time. The
restaurant has 36 covers, but 18 chefs and four
sommeliers, to give an indication of the level of
effort hat goes in. A proper 3 star restaurant.
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