| rev:text
| - Hmmmm, where to begin? I guess ideally I would have to thank everyone at LTPB for a wonderful, memorable evening! Sebastien, merci beaucoup, c'etait une soiree tres agreeable! And here is how is went.
We arrived at 5:50 pm, a little early, but we received a warm reception and were promptly seated. We were offered a glass of their "bubble of the day", a very nice glass of sparkling wine, with a lovely "amuse bouche". It was the choice of the chef, and that evening it was smoked fish with a poached quail's egg. The combination was nice, the fish was smoky and oily, firm and salty, the quail's egg was soft, smooth, perfect with a little bite of the marinated onion included on the plate, and a confit of what seemed like blueberries and olives (tho I could be way off on that one). I would have preferred to have the above served on a piece of crusty bread or toast, especially to mop up the egg yolk, which was yummy and I couldn't quite pick up all of with my fork . To be fair, just as I was finishing up, they brought out the bread, and I will chalk that one up to us being the first to arrive and the fact that we were served our tasty treat so quickly.
We moved on to appetizers, and when we couldn't agree on a bottle of wine, Sebastien suggested a different glass for each course, which really was ideal, since my husband and I ordered very different meals and we actually have slightly different tastes in wine. When our appetizers arrive, Sebastien brought a white bottle for my husband to taste and a red for myself, which he poured out for us a sample. He was bang on for this course, we loved the choices and he poured us each our respective glasses. My husband ordered the gravlax, salty lemony morsels of fish (what kind, I can't remember) and I opted for my weakness, mushrooms! I was not disappointed by the tartinade aux champignons, but had I known the size of it, I would have ordered a half portion if possible, or shared it with my better half. The mushrooms of varying size, taste and texture, in some heavenly sauce danced on my tongue until the plate was empty. It took a while. I could eat that appetizer for breakfast lunch and dinner - delish!
Next...I ordered the magret de canard, my husband, the coquille St. Jacques. Again Sebastien appeared out of nowhere with bottles in his hand. Perfect for the coquille, but I was hesitant, so off Sebastien ran, to return with two more choices. Third time lucky and I found my perfect pairing for the duck. The duck was exactly as it should be, perfectly seared, rare, yum, yum yum, and the plate was decorated with a number of interesting vegetables, but the show stopper, seriously, was hiding under the duck, reluctant to peek out for fear of it's reputation. The show stopper was in fact, spaghetti squash. Yes you read that right, spaghetti squash. If I had their recipe, I think I might even be able to get my kids to eat it! Unassuming to look at, but when it hit your tongue, bam! Lemon and pomegranate! - what a wake up call for the taste buds. And a wonderful complement to the beets, and interesting contrast to the earthiness of the baby brussel sprouts. Again, my only criticism could be that the portion sizes are too large. How was the coquille? My husband said good, but I couldn't taste it, too many ingredients in it on my allergy list.
Dessert, well, I had no room. Hard to believe but true, since I have a healthy appetite, but the mushrooms did me in. My husband ordered the chocolate cake with almond ice cream - his favorite combination! I did taste the chocolate cake - warm and molten in the middle with a touch of cardamom I think, paired nicely with the almond in the ice cream. No more room for even a coffee, sad for me.
So I give a 5 star rating because overall the experience was really enjoyable, the food excellent and the service superb, but I would take a 1/2 star off for the portion sizes. What?!?!? Is she crazy? I know commonly people will take of points for portion sizes that are too small - but too big??? Well my humble opinion is that if all things are proportioned appropriately then I would have been able to enjoy each course of the meal, and had room for dessert and coffee at the end, it has happened before. Perhaps I should not have been such a greedy pig when it came to the tartinade aux champignons, well you taste them and tell me if you could stop eating them before the plate was cleared.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)