Review of Olivier Roellinger in Cancale (Brittany)
by Andy Hayler
Food Rating: 10/10
Last visited: June 2008
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The dining room is very pretty indeed, the main part being a conservatory looking out on to a lovely garden with a duck pond. There is a wooden floor and white walls, and a pleasing absence of music. Other than the garden view, there is nothing to distract from the food. Indeed this was the house where Olivier Roellinger was born and grew up (the house dates from 1760). His cooking is known for its use of spices, a rarity in French cooking.
The wine list is lengthy and carefully chosen, with many fine producers. For example Alsace is well represented e.g. Trimbach Cuvee Frederich Emile 2003 was EUR (i.e. GBP 62 for a wine that retails at around GBP 23 in the UK), Madame Faller Riesling Schlossberg 2005 was listed at EUR 64 (GBP 50 for a wine that retails at GBP 24 in the UK). Bread is a choice of slices of white, rye and seaweed bread. These were excellent (9/10).
The amuse bouche consisted of high quality diced vegetables on a potato crisp, avocado cream with tomatoes, and a little piece of excellent sea bass (9/10).
This was followed by dazzlingly fresh sea bream with carrot and ginger, tender cuttlefish and artichoke, and a very good winkle (8/10 overall, but the sea bream was 10/10). I began with lobster, which was brought to the table in a bread basket to be introduced to us before meeting its fate in the kitchen. The lobster flesh was very tender (such a rarity) and cooked with a subtle mix of spices, these being very restrained so as to add a little interest to the dish but not in any way to detract or overpower the delicate the lobster (9/10). I also tasted a remarkable dish of uncooked John Dory served in four different ways (e.g. with Celtic mustard and ginger), an original and superb dish (10/10), A chlorophyll of petit pois with white asparagus was also intensely flavoured (9/10).
My main course was John Dory with a fine sauce involving 14 mainly Indian spices, and a little apricot chutney. The fish was perfect, and the sauce managed to show off the individual spice elements without at any point overpowering the flavour of the fish (10/10). Other main courses tried were magnificent turbot, beautiful baby sole and superb sea bass with leeks and prawns.
Cheese was in lovely condition, including Camembert, Livarot, St Maure and some local cheeses (9/10). These were attractively presented with a range of chutneys and spices matched to each cheese.
Desserts continued the high level of cooking. Rhubarb with pistachio mousse was served with lovely wild strawberries with a rhubarb mousse (9/10). I briefly tasted a fine coffee mousse and parfait with lemon zest, but my favourite was a glass of raspberries with a Thai basil jelly flavoured with a hint of violets. This would not usually be my kind of thing, but the raspberries were literally the best I have ever tasted, and left me grinning like a child when I tasted them (10/10). Finally a little cocktail stick was presented on which was an utterly perfect piece of rum baba, moist and dipped in cider and spices (10/10).
There is a lengthy tea and coffee menu, so you can have coffee from Columbia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mysore or Guatemala: the espresso from Guatemala was superb (10/10). The bill per head was EUR 245, which included plenty of wine. Starters are generally around EUR 50, main courses mostly EUR 65. To give an idea of the food costs. Service was just about perfect.
Overall this was a fabulous meal, a very strong 3 star restaurant at the height of its abilities. This was confirmed by a lunch the following day, where we repeated some dishes but also tried a few different things, all at the same top class level, including superb sweetbreads and lamb.