Same, the sauce was the motivation to try it and I’m glad I did. There are not of opportunities where it’s on the menu and you can be confident it’s executed well.
3 Likes
Diversion away from Paris, I did sample Maison Nico in SF this week. Pate en croute was good, but I think the texture of the croute was not as good as L’Astre. Custard tart was completely different, despite looking similar. The custard was much denser. The canele had a nice crunchy/caramelized exterior, but the interior was underdone. Not to say Maison Nico was bad, but L’Astre Sans Apostrophe was on a higher level IMO.
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@PorkyBelly, review of Maison Nico forthcoming?
i enjoyed the pithivier and chicken liver mousse. the flan was thicker than i liked and i prefer the croissants at arsicault bakery.
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Maison Sota Atsumi for Sunday lunch, which I believe is similar/same length as dinner. I am a sucker for places cooking over live fire. Food isn’t too fussy. Good value… I mean I can go here twice for the cost of one meal at Table??
Of the 3 lobster dishes I had in Paris, the one at Maison was my favorite by far. The sauce was amazing and the grill flavor on point. Pigeon was well cooked with a lot of textural variety.
4 Likes
Grand finale in Paris was a 3* lunch at Pierre Gagnaire. They had a slightly more expensive lunch tasting during the holiday season, but still a tremendous value. Enough food that we didn’t really eat dinner that night. Chef was in the house and visited every table. Everything you would hope a 3* experience would be, and it was great to visit the OG after having enjoyed Twist in Las Vegas years ago.
As is Gagnaire’s style, every course has multiple sub dishes. The à la carte dishes are extravagant (and priced accordingly similar to L’Ambroisie). They were very generous, my wife only wanted a single à la carte dish, but they paired several opening dishes with the first half of my tasting menu.
Highlight for my wife was the venison smoked under a chocolate cloche that you break at the table.
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Bonus pics from Air France business class. Unsurprisingly, they have stellar food execution for airline food and the wines aren’t too shabby.
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Best food on any European carrier (by a large margin)
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Je suis d’accord…
1 Like