We selected the Fine Wine Pairing with the Surprise 6 course tasting menu.
Quite a surprise it was too. It even included the special of the evening, a Gnocchi, and a couple of dishes from the regular menu. Hmmm.
(1) Lets begin Food. 7/10 Wine...| 10/10
A wonderful tuna dish with avocado mousse. The mousse was over chilled but apart form that a really nice dish. A stunning wine pairing with 100% Viognier.
(2) And now it goes downhill. Food 4/10 | Wine 10/10
The Gnocchi was a starchy, mushroomy truffle mess. Very Heavy, inelegant and in search of balance - maybe some thyme? The wine pairing was excellent - A Puligny Montrachet Bizkot I think 2017
(3) And now it descends into farce. Food - 2/10 | Wine - 10/10
So a fish dish. Halibut with salsa.I mean it was apparently supposed to be Halibut with iberico ham and olives which on paper looks great but what we got was Halibut sitting uncomfortably of a piece of almost dead broccoli (see pics!) with Salsa (?) and an unattractively layered piece of Iberico just kind languishing in mid air on top.
The fish was very overcooked, the contrasting salsa was painfully boring and as mentioned the broccoli was ready to expire. The whole thing look pre-prepared and reheated. If it wasn't then we cannot explain how the chefs achieved such a tired serving of food. The wine was again excellent - Gevery Chambertin PN, as elegant as its gets, smooth and heady and beautiful a perfect match for this type of dish but such a great shame about the food.
(4) And now its gets significantly better - 6.5/10
A really interesting Moroccan lamb dish with supremely delicate sous vide lamb fillet, cous cous and an inelegant but nonetheless delicious sauce, Paired with a Bosquet des Papes 2015, perfection - life is fair sometimes. This was almost great. The lack of flavor in the otherwise perfect Lamb and the thickness of the sauce (a recurring problem) let down this dish but it was otherwise really great - we enjoyed it a lot.
(5) Another farce I'm afraid. Food 3.5/10 | Wine 5/10
Selection of cheese with Tawny port. Although somewhat nice the cheeses were just so extraordinarily ordinary that it left us perplexed. A couple of pieces of Comte and maybe a piece of Roquefort...with again ordinary port. This 'course have been omitted entirely.
(6) A deal breaking disastrous dessert | Food 0/10 | Wine 5/10
Panna cotta with Pelham Ice Wine. The pairing was poor - this is overly sweet wine, not as elegant, balanced or interesting as the Austrian Eiswein.
The Panna Cotta was utterly devoid of taste, not luscious and milky like a good Panna Cotta. It was also covered in sweet Jelly clashing horribly with the wine.
We couldn't eat this one and set it aside in disappointment.
We don't know what they were thinking here. We may as well have been in any mediocre Italian restaurant in Temple Bar.
Having paid €180 per person, maybe, just maybe a glass of Sauternes and a Crème Brûlée (both on the menu!)? You are a French restaurant after all so finishing a meal with a Canadian ice Wine and an a poorly executed Italian dessert is just wrong on many levels. Wheres the head chef, hes badly needed?
Perhaps a 5 course tasting menu with focus on better quality food and a choice of cheese *or* sweet dessert to finish with either Sauternes or Port would an eminently more wise approach and far less prone to failure.
We know this restaurant can do better. We may revisit for the a la carte but it'll be a while.More