Alexandre F.
Yelp
It must be said that even if the quality is present, we reach the ridiculous in the size of the proportions and the industrial service.
Le lièvre gourmand has a certain art of alternating the worst and the best in record time.
First of all the phone reservation as friendly as the KGB standard between the deaths of Stalin and Beria. You are almost summoned to arrive before 12:30 pm Why? Because the House has set up a very intelligent waiting system in the living room to encourage you to have an aperitif.
As I hate being strong-arm, even if I like to please myself, you understand my feeling. And bing, 23 euros for a champagne flute and a house cocktail. Good but the granity makes the liquid too cold.
Order took and some good appetizers, a foie gras, a tamarind salmon and a pretty spicy beetroot mousse.
Let's go to the table and already I rattle. Yeah, you know me!My bottle of Auxey-Duresses is already open... Uh, well, no, that's not the way to do this. I remind you that one of the basic rules of the service is to present the unopened bottle to the customer and to open it in his presence. Then, if you want to do without, up to you. But not with me.
Services of the first two dishes: we are at the opening of the hunt. Indeed, the hare looks terribly in a hurry. It's like Bouillon Chartier. Dish laid, dish eaten, dish cleared and the next arrives in stride. We are not here to knit!
Fortunately, just put the kibosh to get a proper service speed and worthy of a Sunday noon. With the inconvenience of finishing the last of the dining room because all the other customers have been served in a hurry.
The service will remain throughout the meal overall effective but completely cold, not involved, remote. No empathy, no discussion possible.
What about the plate ?
Undeniably an excellent selection of products, a very good job.
We start with a very original (and small) whole crab moulting with his drop of crab juice on its bed of daikon. As promised in the menu, we are in the nibbling.
The two (not one more) scallops are in two versions, with black and green radish. So do not be fooled by the name "tempura" written on the menu. None of the scallops are cooked according to this frying method. You simply have a few milligrams (called "pearls" to make it more elegant) of donut dough that are carelessly placed on the nuts. It's tempura very much revisited ... and microscopic.
Follow an exiguous metal verrine of excellent snails (between 4 and 5, one hand is enough to count them). They are incorporated in a very fine flan of two garlic. A classic white, and the other black.
It should be known that black garlic is not a particular variety but a classic pod cooked for several weeks in a humid environment. They are covered with a layer of water bindweed. In my opinion, this is the most interesting dish of the meal.
It was in competition with the pikeperch but he suffered a disastrous trauma.
I hesitated a bit about the cooking methods. My first idea of grill was incompatible with the few burnt ridges on the skin that looked more like a blow from the torch. But the complete cooking of a few cubic centimeters of flesh suggested a poaching first.
Still, the blow of blow was too insistent and gave a disastrous taste to the fish. I should have returned it to the kitchen but the general atmosphere did not predispose to a kind reception of my desire. I raised the point with the waiter ... who did not answer my questions. Racking the plate and "Next!"
The culinary oxymoron is probably reached between the term "pork products" printed on the menu and a plate of a few grams of pig's foot and tail surmounted by a (1!) sheet of Vietnamese coriander. The portion is so small that I don't really know if it had any taste.
The beef gyoza is cordially missed because its dough is elastic and too grilled at its base. But it's probably my fault since I asked for a slow service (or normal, finally I do not know very well). The kitchen being apparently accustomed to its stakhanovist rhythm, they forgot to put on hold my poor gyoza waiting for my goodwill.
Sublime cheese plate, as we see less and less. The honor of our beautiful country. And then it allows to eat a little and compensates for the general lightness of the meal. A good technique so that customers do not leave the restaurant by saying that they are still hungry ...
Bread is, like cheese, excellent.
First dessert made us think that the chef thinks he is Magritte. Indeed, the name of lemon pie is in direct contradiction with what is served since not a gram of dough, but a glass welcoming an excellent lemon cream with a lemongrass sorbet non-existent. Anyway, trying to combine lemon and lemongrass in the same volume is a challenge. Missed in this case.
Perfect Soufflé with mango. Stiff egg whites with a very fine texture without any irregularities. As the restaurant has a Michelin star, we could be picky and ask for 30 seconds less cooking but there, we
