1st post! Le Gavroche (5th Mar 2010)

I have had the idea of writing on my dining experiences for a long time and being a bit of a foodie and haute cuisine hunter, many of my friends have questioned why I have not done so. Finally I have the willingness in starting this blog and I hope to share my gastronomic experiences in the future and also write about my previous experiences.

Enough of the boring intro. My 1st post is on the famous "Le Gavroche" tucked away in the quiet lanes of Mayfair. Being the 1st restaurant in the UK to be awarded the prestigious Michelin 3 star accolade (though it is now a 2 star), I have come across the Gavroche name many many times. Since it was my girlfriend and my 2nd year anniversary + valentines, we decided to check out this renowned place.

Having found the restaurant, my first impression is that the placeis that it is rather low profiled from the outside (forgot to take a photo of it). We were welcomed by the staff into the restaurant where on the ground floor, there was the lounge area where diners catch a few glasses of wine before their meal. The actual dinning area was in the basement, and by entering the dinning area , I immediately felt the Frenchness in the place - the carpet, settings, surroundings, as if I was instantly teleported to Paris.

We decided to go for the menu exceptionnel (my girlfriend had the additional flight of wine for each course) , which is surprisingly not very overpriced in comparison to other celebrity restaurants. To start off the evening, we were presented with some amuse-bouche - as far as I remember , one was beef tar-tar and the other was some smoked white fish on a crispy pastry.

The first start from the menu was "kingfish sashimi, black sesame, citrus palm heart salad & crab claw fritter" (5/10) . The accompanied wine was a Zen sake Daiginjo (6/10). I have to say that I was a bit confused by the 1st course - "wait a minute, am I eating a Japanese restaurant in Paris?" and the sake, "big ZEN" written on the bottle? "is that to impress the Westerners who are into martial arts? I could be biased against this 1st course but seriosuly, I didn't pay this amount of money for something I think could easily be found in Asia. Having said that, there was no complaint on the actual food itself. It was nicely prepared with fresh ingredients.
Second up was a "lobster salad marie-rose flavoured with brandy and black truffles" (10/10). This was perhaps the highlight of the meal - the ingredients cannot be much fresher, the lobster had the perfect springy texture as if the little buggers were still alive in my mouth; and the subtle scent of the truffle perfused through each mouthful of the salad.

Third up was the "cheese souffle"(6/10). I only found out later that this was a signature dish at the restaurant. However, from my personal view, this course was a little bit too rich and maybe the portion was too big. It would have been better if it was only half the size. The next dish was a finely pan fried "John Dory with pickled radish and soured grape juice". (9/10) The fish was very well balanced by the jus and the pickles.

As the meal progressed towards the red-meats. we were presented with "langoustine and snails glazed in Hollandaise sauce" (7/10). The langoustine and the snails were good individually, but I was not convinced by the combination. Towards the end of the meal, we had the "roast lamb" (9/10). The lamb was very tender and was served up in front of us. The vegs to go with the lamb was also good. This was an amazingly simple dish and was served very traditionally in the French way. By the end of this course, our gastro-volume was approaching our limit, but dessert? - of course there is always room for dessert!

Instead of the cheese dish (which they have a very nice and wide selection of), we opted to exchange for a surprise dessert - "Passion fruit souffle with white chocolate ice cream" (7/10). I am a big fan of souffle and it was very nicely baked though a bit too sweet for my taste. The addition of the sweet white chocolate ice didn't really help. Maybe if they had made the souffle more sour, then there might be a better balance. Finally, we had a tray of little nibbles of sweets and dessert (6/10) and the last dessert was "chocolate truffle, puffed rice, praline biscuit,rum jelly and bitter chocolate sorbet" (7/10) along with some darjeeling to end our sumptuous feast.

You may notice that I have given a score to each of the dishes. These are my objective view towards the dishes, and personally, I am quite a picky person when it comes to food. I have also left out the wines that we had throughout that night, but the general impression was that the wine we had was OK but not great (though it wasn't expensive for a restaurant of this league). Overall, I would say that Le Gavroche was a decent 2 star Michelin restaurant providing solid and fine cooking though could do with a tad more creativity. The service was pretty good, though my impression was that they maybe have too many waiters/waitress, making the place a little too crowded and loses the private setting that some diners may want. Another thing that I came across is that I felt the place is perhaps more suited for a business meal rather than somewhere romantic for couples. But again, that's purely objective.