I chose L'Ambroisie earlier this year and I think it must have earned it's third Michelin star since then and raised their prices as well, but it was a superb and scrumptious meal well worth the cost. The décor is warm and cozy with an original Aubusson tapestry in our room(of Alexander the Great in battle beheading someone), crisp white linens, beautiful silver, but oddly, not the fine crystal one expects when spending a lot of money on the wine.
The menu featured about 5 each of appetizers(100-150 Euros each), fish dishes(100-150 Euros each) and meat dishes(100-130Euros each) and the cheese and desserts(35-52 Euros each).
We were first brought some puffy gougeres followed by an superb amuse bouche, that was actually quite large at 4 bites or so, of cooked and smoked salmon with gaufrettes(potato sticks) and a dill & lemon creme fraiche garnished with a hefty spoonful of caviar(photos all on FB).
Bread arrived with several types but the most amazing was what they called "rye" which was a brown bread that flaked like a puff pastry and was truly miraculous. We ordered sparkling water and were surprised when the Perrier bottle arrived, but then noticed the new label with "fines bulles" and it was indeed very light and fine bubbles and quite nice, but not as good as Badoit.
Our first wine was a white Saint Joseph Le Bercau from the Rhone winery of B. Gripa 2018 which was creamy and rich and loaded with flavor. It was an ideal pairing with Will's Ile flottant a la truffe d'Alba, emulsion de topinambours, a poached egg in Jerusalem artichoke "soup" smothered with shaved white truffles. My Feuillantine de Langoustine aux granes de sesame, sauce au curry was three huge langoustines covered by a sesame tuile on a bed of spinach and a mild curry sauce that had me oohing and aahing with every bite.
We had plenty of time between courses to open our red, a Fixin 1er Cru "Clos Napoleon" 2015 from Burgundy's Domaine Pierre Gelin that the sommelier recommended and was indeed brilliant, and one of the lower prices gems on a wine list where many prices exceeded 10,000 Euros! It was the perfect Pinot Noir for our perfectly cooked Cote de Veau Double roti, etuvee de salsifis a la truffe blanche. The veal loin was for two people and knew we had to have it and a huge chop also came with the thickly sliced meat done tableside in its own rich jus and braised leeks. The salsify was in a separate with more white truffles. It was a huge portion and the maitre d' urged us to pick up the bone to enjoy it best and then brought a finger bowl of hot lemon water! All was truly perfect, although I did find it odd that they did not fold the huge white linen napkins when I took a break in the toilette.
We chatted with a couple from Kalamazoo at the next table and got to bashing Trump and the new taxes on French imports and the maitre d' (beaming with glee) quickly brought over a huge laminated picture of the Chef Bernard Pacaud and the entire team with President Obama who had dined there when in Paris during the last year of his presidency! We were in good company.
We decided to forego the cheese and share two desserts as they offered to do two half-size portions for half the price as we could never have finished any more. Of course a pre-dessert arrived in the form of Coconut Sorbet with Passionfruit/mango/banana and tuile.
We ordered some dessert wine and the Aleatico Orenga de Gafforey "Rappo" was like a light port, yet extremely aromatic and herbal and with long legs to boot. Our two desserts were the Souffle chaud aux pralines, coulis de mangue et Kirche de Fargerolles that was an amazing souffle with mango and cherry from the kirsch, but it was the Tarte fine sable aux cocoa amer, creme glacee a la vanille Boubon that blew us away. A slice of chocolate tarte with the most amazing vanilla ice crea; so simple yet heaven.
Of course one does not leave without mignardises and we got miniature Baba aux Rhum type cakes that were crunchy and filled with custard, apple with puff pasty and chocolate custard with raspberries. In addition a huge bowl of hazelnut crunchies covered with chocolate came, and we took them home with us for a later time(after tasting a couple!).
A truly brilliant meal in every way. Tonight we are off to La Table du 11, a small place here in Versailles where we moved for the last 2 days of our short trip.
We had an okay lunch at the chateaux todays at Alain Ducasse's Ore, but really are looking forward to this small place for dinner which has one Michelin star!
