The Nagoya branch of course does not have nearly as impressive of a reputation but situated on the 42nd floor of the Midland Tower, it does possess a skyscraping view of the city unparalleled by others.
The dining room is an impressive combination of elegance, comfort and modernist. My personal favorite is the wooden chandelier located up high in the middle of the room. It goes extremely well with the wooden floor, white tabletop linen and the framed photo of L'Auberge de l'ill taken during the winter time.
Of course, we did ask for a window seat.
There were all together 4 lunch sets available, 2 of which (Set A and B) involved simpler and less sophisticated dishes while the remaining 2 (Menu d'Alsace and Menu des Vosges) offered more choices and dishes with more sophisticated cooking tecnhiques.
Amuse bouche was a small green pea mousse topped with a soft mozzarella cheese ball and thin slice of biscuit (5/10).
Spinach velouté, langoustine ravioli with mozzarella cheese, 5.5/10
The soup itself was very light for a velouté. The langoustine ravioli with mozzarella cheese provided a bit of variety in terms of texture and taste but it was not as savory as we would like.
Poached egg, asparagus, 5/10
We were fully expecting an onsen egg but it turned out to be just a simple poached egg with fresh asparagus and mushroom sauce. That was a bit underwhelming coming from a team as highly touted as this one.
Slow-cooked beef shoulder, 6/10
The beef shoulder, which was supposed to be one of the more flavorful cut of the meat, was slow cooked or braised. It was then served with a yuzu and honey foam.
I thought this dish had a lot of Chinese cooking inspiration in it and the braised shoulder was fairly tender with decent fat content spread around. However, it did not have the flavorful taste that was best known from their particular cut.
Salmon and salmon mousse wrapped in a pastry, 5.5/10
One of the most memorable signature dish from the Illhaeusern-based L'Auberge de l'ill has to be their salmon souffle. Over here in Nagoya, they offered their own version of salmon wrapping underneath a pastry.
This special version of "Salmon souffle" used both salmon fillet and a mousse with minced salmon. I thought they had something going with that innovative idea but unfortuately, the execution was just not up to par.
Another downer was the sauce - tasted a bit like gravy!
Fast forward to dessert now, our first dessert was a custard pudding cake with prunes and armagnac which was just average.
Profiteroles in a mixed berry sauce, 4.5/10
But the profiteroles with mixed berries were even more boring.
In all honesty, I was a bit surprised how weak this overall performance was, especially coming from a storied franchise like L'Auberge de l'ill.
Food Rating: 5.5/10
Price: ￥￥￥
Address: 42/F, Midland Square, 4-7-1 Meieki, Nakamura-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi, Japan
Closest Metro Station: Nagoya
Tel: +81 052-527-8880
Website: www.hiramatsu.co.jp/eng/restaurants/aubergedelill/index.html
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