Pierre Gagnaire

There are numerous michelin star restaurants that one can go to in the city of Paris.. choices are immense: Guy Savoy, L'Ambroisie, Plaza Athenen, Taillevent, Joel Robuchon, Le Cinq, L'Astrance, etc.. the list can go on and on and you would wonder why they all can make food so magical? well, unfortunately we didn't have that much luck with L'Astrance which requires reservation made a lot earlier in advance... but guess where I went to for another five star dining experience when I was in Paris?

We took the advantage of our prestige membership at Pierre HK to secure a table at Pierre Gagnaire in Paris. My other friends did try to make reservation at the restaurant for a number of times but the place was fully booked whenever they visited Paris.. tough luck. So M: I dedicate this review to you.. just a preview for your next attempt of table grabbing.

We ordered the degustation menu for the night which costs 275euro. No doubt that it's a great deal of money... but I'm telling ya, you will get what you paid for during the whole 4hrs of mindblowing gastronomical voyage.

The wine list at the restaurant is so much friendlier than Le Meurice, at least most are something we can actually afford. At the end of the day, we are here to enjoy the food, not too much about wanting to get drunk with 1000euro of red wine.

I believe I read that L'Astrance also has this seaweed butter..well..to be honest I would rather prefer this seaweed butter than the truffle butter at Les Ambassadeur. Maybe it is an Asian thing, the seaweed is much more to my liking and better in fragrance.

Nibbles to start our dinner, and the amuse buche

Breadsticks dipped in olive oil... by this time we wondered when could we actually start the our dinner...

The bread was so good you could actually eat it by its own without using the butter. Love the baguette and brioche, so chewy and soft I wanted to pack these into my purse on my way out.... They should have opened a bakery shop which can potentially be more profitable than just running the restaurant.

1st course - murex shellfish with fennel infusion and chervil; toro with mustard sauce. amazing composition. the fish and shellfish are so chewy ang goes well with the bitterness of fennel. the mustard sauce almost feels like peanut butter.. see how rich the flavor is...

2nd course - lettuce pocket stuffed with crab meat on the bed of peas and zuchinni. the crab meat was so tasty. Pierre seems to like using peas a lot.

3rd course - fried sole fish with peas and fresh almonds. two dipping sauces: oilve and apple. again, I really like the way they use raw almonds in finished dishes, see how big the almonds are!! like the sweet and sour apple sauce a lot that goes with the fried sole.

4th course - truffle and foie gras, onion gratin, young leeks, see how generous they were with the shavings of truffle. this dish was really rich...

5th course - lobsters and cuttlefish with hazelnut butter and turnips, lobster broth with radish and mascarpone jelly. I have seen the making of lobster broth when I did cooking lessons at Pierre...the considerable amount of effort and time made me appreciate the broth even more. this is my favorite dish.. it has everything I love, the seafood was cooked perfectly with a crunchy texture.

6th course - cod fish with egg plant, cabbage and chard. the fish was seasoned with just salt this way it preserved the natural flavor of the fish.

By this point of the dinner we were so stuffed with food already and so certain that we were to start having desserts for the rest of the time... when we saw the server placing the meat knife on the dining table we were about to faint...

7th course - veal steak with oregano, red beets foam, bechamel sauce, rhubard flavored with basmati rice. I don't really remember how I can finish half of the steak.. I was totally stuffed by then.

8th course - roquefort with apricot floating on sheep milk. er... what can I say.. interesting, but i rather have cow milk.

Here comes our grande dessert parade:

Passion fruit sorbet with green tea flavored caramel thin.. LOVE the greeen tea caramel, this is so innovative, I should try to make it myself next time.

It is rare that I don't eat the petite fours.. but this time I don't have any excuse but to pass up.

10 course - raspberry mille feuille. interesting interesting! instead of using the fruit by itself they created the jelly form. with the biscuits in between.. so good!

11th course - raspberry sorbet with raspberry meringue

sorry.. forgot what this is...

12 course - chocolate and pistachio mousse cake. chocolate was rich and dense. classic combination.

13th course - the berries sauce.. I tasted strawberry, raspberry, cassis.. it is beautifully presented in a martini glass creating a void with a think slice of almond thin. a perfect way to sum up our dinner.

See how much food we've got for the tasting menu?! They didn't even charge us for the bottle water which is extremely rare. I would recommend this place to everyone, not just because of the food, but the sincere gesture of offering a memorable dining experience with the exquisite ingredients and cooking methods, and not feeling guilty of spending big bucks on a single dinner.

Funny that on our way out they showed us the tea table at the exit area with traditional chinese tea set and offered us a cup of chinese tea to help digestion... he must have learned that in HK....