Les Ambassadeurs

In Paris, there's no such thing as walking in a fancy restaurant for a impromptu meal. Everything needs to be planned, and since most restaurants are not big in scale (at most 20 tables), serving one round per dinner and lunch, it is not hard to imagine how difficult it is to secure a table at highly ranked restaurants. Thanks to dada we precisely planned out every single meal in Paris. Crazy enough we even had an agenda on where to go and the backup plans for our food adventure.

Our first lunch at Michelin star restaurant Les Ambassadeurs. The restaurant is located at Hotel de Crillon, pretty old building close to the Concord plaza. The renaissance style decor makes you feel almost like the royal family dining in a palace. The super large windows let in the miday sunlight, I wonder do they ever close the heavy drapery curtain. The tables were elegantly dressed, with glasses being Riedel and Baccarat and cutlery from Christofle. All six of us were being seated at a corner of the restaurant and presented with the standing menu that held up by menu sockets. We all went for the three course lunch menu that cost around 75 euro. In Hong Kong standard this considers an outrageous lunch, but in Paris this would consider as a bargain.

For amuse buche, lobster & foie gras mousse with parmasean emulsion (left) and carrot juice (right). The lobster broth was absolutely wonderful and aromatic, we kept spooning the last bit of juice left in the glass.

Amuse buche: little ball with soup that made with some kind of fish, a tube with ham mousse, and a candy like wrap of truffle butter. The soup ball was interesting it literally exploded inside your mouth once you bit it. The crepe was thin and flaky and although the ham mousse was a bit blande it actually quite suited for asians' taste buds. Almost all of us finished the whole block of truffle butter.. by the time we finish the amuse buche we were a bit full already.

My choice of appetizer duck foie gras in two soups: in smoken bacon and cabbage leaf (top); in corinanda and giner broth (bottom). I wasn't that into the dish as I didn't expect the asian twist to foie gras. The foie gras was cooked perfectly, but the flavor of the corianda/ginger broth dish just reminded me of the liver soup I had in HK.

Another choice of appetizer: spider crab with crispy peanuts (top); with fennel, avocado and green apple (bottom). The cold crab salad was very refreshing with the sourness from the apple. I would prefer the crab appetizer than the foie gras dishes.

My choice of entree: dover sole and crispy rice. I couldn't expect more from this dish the wine sauce was not too overpowering and the fish was soft and flaky. The crispy rice was exceptional well made with the parmesan cheese creating the salty flavor and gooey texture. Didn't it look like the HK style roasted pork? If you like crunchy stuff you would love this crispy rice.

Another choice of entree: Veal with sweetbread. This is a piece of serious veal. The meat was supppperrr tender and cooked with so much flavor you wouldn't figure it is a piece of meat if being blindfolded. I saw my friends chowing down on this dish with such dreamy happy faces.

A vanilla ice cream stick with chocolate and almond ganache as the palette cleanser.

Something fun to eat.. is a kids' food. The procedure is to dip the biscuit stick inside the melted chocoate and damp with the candy sugar... guess what the candy sugar is the one that pops in your mouth.. like a harmless fireworks that tick every sensor that connects to your brain.

We were presented with a box of nibbles: orange sponge cake, macaroons and raspberry mille feuille.

The main dessert: the classical black forest cake with new wrapping. I could taste the mascarpone cheese inside the cake and poached cherries were really tasty. The leaves were made with chocolate and caramel. The caramel leaves had some deep redish color to them I wondered if they used the cherry sauce for coloring as well. An exceptionally well done black forest cake I was the only one who finished the whole thing... because we were all sooo full already.

After so a sumptuous meal, we were being escorted to the opendoor courtyard area to enjoy our coffee/tea. Seriously.. more food was handed over.. hazelnut chocolate pyramid with gold dusting (very good, I think E had 3 pieces herself), and a vanilla pastry cream with chocolate sauce, so embarrassing we actually needed instruction on how to eat that little ball - was to put the whole ball inside your mouth and squeeze the sauce out.

We were all so satisfied after a serious french cuisine. We dined from 12:30 to after 4pm. It seems strange to spend the precious afternoon at a restaurant in paris. It is either your beloved partner or a bunch of good friends so that you can chat for the whole afternoon non stop wth interesting topics and ideas.