For this trip to Paris our Michelin star adventure was to the elegant L'OISEAU BLANC situated atop the Peninsula Hotel. The room is small, quiet and classy with all glass walls facing over the city and a monster-view of the Eiffel Tower. This would have earned it at least one Michelin star alone. The service was perfect indeed with the handsome Antoine and his team always there to accommodate any need, pour any wine and answer any question. That would have garnered a second star for sure. The food was indeed quite delicious and only marred in several dishes by the multitude of sauces that did at times conflict on the plate. That said, the two Michelin stars are well earned and there were many things to praise indeed.
The name comes from the famous plane that attempted to be the first to cross the Atlantic and a replica of this is located in the hotel courtyard hung at the 6th floor where the restaurant is located. Even the bathroom has a deco-inspired plane theme with the faucets looking like plane wings.
The crystal is Riedel, the silver is Sheffield, and the crisp white linens are spotless. White roses were everywhere, and white-frosted miniature Xmas trees were mingled with elaborate wine decanters. The plates had a copy of the Oiseau Blanc plane and blue clouds. As we sat, a huge cart arrived with multiple champagnes to choose from, and Will opted for a JM Seleque Rose while I preferred the yeasty Tarlan 2009 vintage! Riesling glasses were used instead of flutes as the sommelier explained it allows one to smell the wine and the effervescence to improve; I didn't buy it. Sparkling water was Orezza from Corsica which was nice, but not as good as our favorite Badoit. We marveled at the view as the Eiffel Tower put on a light show for us all evening and settled in for our culinary journey. I explained to the team that Will was not eating a lot due to his medication, and they asked the chef if we could do one tasting and one a la carte; et voila, he approved.
A tiered caddy arrived with three amuses (all photos on FB along with views and videos of the Eiffel Tower light show): an okay butternut squash tartelette with cacao, a fabulous puff pastry with herbs that exploded in our mouths and Lobster wrapped in spinach that was a tad to lemony for me. With this came a Kugelhopf (the famous German treat) but here was as fluffy as could be in its miniature form and made with Indian spices, mushroom and Ossiau-Iraty cheese! Sourdough bread with very yellow butter followed which Antoine informed us came from naturally grass-fed cows and ws rich in beta-carotene and hence so yellow! Another amuse bouche arrived in a bowl with snail, bone marrow and turnip bathed in a beef broth with citronella (I thought it awas in candles only) that was quite rich, and one could tell much love went into this small carafe of broth.
We ordered a white and red wine and both were spectacular but are grateful for the sommelieuse's recommendations as the Saint-Aubin 1er Cru "En Remilly" 2022 from Domaine Marc Colin was the most creamy and unctuous white we have had in ages. The Chassagne-Montrachet "Les Chaumes" 2022 from Domain Morey-Coffinet was a tad young and chewy at first but opened up over the time we ate and was ideal with our heavier dishes later in the meal.
My tasting menu began with SHELLFISH consisting of Leeks in seaweed crust, RAZOR CLAMS smoked/grilled/sea urchin and a black garlic cream sauce with oyster leaf and red shiso. Accompanying this in a separate bowl was a poached oyster in leek and bearnaise sauce. The flavors were excellent, and I loved it all, especially the superb use of leeks and the oyster leaf did taste like an oyster!
My second dish and Will's starter was SCALLOPS consisting of a huge scallop mousseline in a crispy buckwheat "crepe" cracker that had bone marrow/matured sorrel & watercress, with a black truffle-meat sauce which was where the sauces did conflict, and the dish was indeed rich. Accompanying it was a superb carpaccio of scallops on a bed of crunchy lentils with caviar!
BLUE LOBSTER was a claw and tail/Carbonade with Fermented Grains/Cabbage in Beer, black truffle and beef crisp in a cappuccino coral with Lobster jus-beer sauce. The sauces were less intense here and worked well, although I am not a beer fan, this was a yummy treat as lobster is always good.
Will's main course was PHEASANT HEN with royal squid, passionfruit, chestnut and black truffle and while I did not taste, he raved about the entire dish. My "main" was Roasted WILD PIDGEON with citrus peel. salsify, clementine and roasted pepper while on the side was a small bowl with WOOD PIDGEON CONFIT in its sauce with chorizo oil. Each bite was a burst of flavors and amazing treat, but we were both starting to really fill up and almost 3 hours had passed!
We were not prepared for what was to follow although we knew the dish was called Speyside Pearl with fresh milk, marinated galangal, sunflower praline and pistachio sap.
The sommelieuse brought Macallan 15 year scotch tableside with a large kind of snifter machine to which she added refined tea and heated it(video on FB). Other ingredients were involved as she poured the concoction in our glasses and we drank it (I prefer straight scotch, but this was novel) and the sweet dish with the above ingredients was served to pair with it and the meringue was made with scotch too, I think. We both loved it.
My final dessert was Crystallized Taha'a Vanilla with Burnt Onion, Soubise, Onion Tuille, foam and caramelized layers but sadly had some licorice in the soubise that I just could not eat. Within minutes another dessert appeared which was the same vanilla but with no licorice or the crispy onion, which I kind of liked, but was a tad weird.
There were mignardises naturally and the three were all yummy:
Vanilla Quinoa Cups, Apple with Lemon Caviar and Mango Pavlova.
We did roll home but truly had a superb time at this lovely location with the great food and the unbelievably superb staff.
