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For one, I am in love with the casual atmosphere of this gastronomic restaurant. The chef walks around with his beanie and talks to customers without pretension, the waiters are down-to-earth, and if you go to the bathroom and pass by the kitchen, it's awesome to see how much the staff is having fun.
The surprise menu is an adventure, and some dishes are very audacious (I mean, a dessert with beetroots, chocolate and goat cheese? Who does that?). The menu is cryptic: it only lists the main ingredients but says nothing about how they're cooked or how they'll be used together. Surprisingly, for a gastronomic restaurant, the 11-course meal left us quite full. For the experience we got, the price was very reasonable.
I won't spoil the surprise by describing the plates in too much details, but I was pleased to see that there was a strong theme around which the meal revolved. Elements of the forest and nature (pine branches, stones, minerals, grass, wood, shrubbery) were a leitmotiv, masterfully incorporated into a feast for the five senses. The plates often combined many surprising ingredients together. I mentioned the beetroot/chocolate/goat cheese combo, but there was the equally audacious mushroom + maple taffy, and foie gras + cotton candy. Other plates were more tame (such as the harissa and lamb, with a carrot macerated in butter), but quite eclectic in influence. There was a loaf of homemade bread, with its homemade butter, and right before, there had been a duo of perfectly seared scallops in their pearly shells; the rustic standing alongside the fancy. I especially loved the special emphasis on locally-sourced products.
The only downside was the seating; we were sitting at a 6-people table with 2 other couples, and we kept getting spoilers from seeing the plates served to the people on our left. The only thing we could do was to completely avoid looking to our left.
We'll definitely come again when the menu changes.
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