L'Arnsbourg (Baerenthal, FRANCE) ★★★★★

What a difference 24 hours have made. Yesterday around the same time, we were still indulging ourselves in the classical French recipes of L'Auberge de l'ill near River L'ill. But very quickly today we found ourselves in the remote Baerenthal searching for a more innovative and unconventional French cuisine at L'Arnsbourg.

Under the guidance of Grand Chef Jean Georges Klein, L'Arnsbourg has been a 3-star Michelin establishment since 2002. The restaurant along with Hotel K, was hidden in the Baerenthal forest where even our GPS did not have coverage.

 
 

 

Collection Amuses

Amuse bouche was a collection of small nibbles starting with a cherry pastry and a cracker with eel fish and sliced apple. A bit of acidity to get our adrenaline going.

The next one was a spoonful of liquor and apple sorbet, following by a bread topped with smoked mackerel fish that was pretty nicely executed.

Finally, there was a baked egg yolk with bites of ginger to wrap up the amuse bouche portion of the meal. This was definitely one of the most impressive array of amuse bouche we have ever experienced (if not the best).

Variation of corn

Next up was the "Variation of Corn". In all honesty, we had no clue what would be coming up by looking at this topic. But as it turned out very much like our amuse bouche, it came with a trio of dishes labeled with the "sweet corn" theme.

The first dish was something they called "popcorn with goose liver" - a small bag of sweet corn roasted with goose liver flavor. It was interesting to note that the sweetness of corn actually worked pretty well with goose liver.
 
Then, there was this little dish with noodle, sweet corn, chicken, sesame and vinegar. Very Japanese. And last by not least, a corn sorbet with yogurt foam to get our palates ready for the next starter.

While we were still waiting for our next starter to show up, the restaurant manager came and asked if we liked oysters. We nodded and all of a sudden, he brought us a "bonus dish" which was a fresh local oyster with cherry mousse and a ball of sour cream. I am not an expert in oysters but this one was very nice and sweet in taste. 

"Olympics 2012" Goose Liver
So after some seven or eight dishes, our first "real" appetizer finally came and it was gold, I meant gold-medal gold!

It was a goose liver terrine made into the shape and design of a 2012 Olympic gold medal. The surface of the "medal" was made with nut cream to form the engraving of the London Olypmpics logo. They were so attentive to details that even the ribbon and decorations were presented beautifully. This was simply a piece of creative art!
 
And the result was a silky smooth terrine served with a comforting strawberry purée. This was an amazing dish with a fantasic presentation.

Seabass, ginger hollandaise sauce, exotic citrus fruits vinegar

Our fish dish was a seabass pan-fried in a surprising lemon and orange flavored oil. The key was really the special oil that provided an extra orange fragrance for the seabass making it particularly tasty and unique. It was perfectly complemented with a nice mashed potato, ginger bites and sea garlic purée.

All around the Tomato

Before our other main courses came, the kitchen served up a change of pace for us with a tomato course. Very much like the previous "sweet corn" themed course, this one was all about tomato, different kinds of tomato.

There was a small portion of a green tomato, tomato with avocado cream, sugar tomato, tomato with cheese, cherry tomato, tomato confit etc. I am not a huge fan of tomato but this one I found quite refreshing.

Our server hinted he would have a surprise for us but needed to wait until we finished our tomatoes. When we were done, he suddenly removed the plate and hidden underneath was a lasagna made of tomato skin served with pine nuts, parmesan cheese, eggplant and spinach. It was very rich in taste indeed.

Blue lobster, carrots bonbon, rice foam and passion fruit

We were now down to our final two main courses. The first was a blue lobster served with a passion fruit jelly and rice foam. I have never came across a blue lobster that I didn't like in my life but this one was surely a subpar effort. I did not enjoy the passion fruit jelly with the lobster at all.

Roasted pigeon breast, reduced jus with jasmine, morello cherry and hazelnut

The meat dish was a pigeon breast served with hazelnut cream, cherry mousse and goose liver parfait. I thought the pigeon breast was a bit on the hard side and did not have the rich flavor one would expect from a pigeon. The sauce was decent but not overly impressive.

 

Potato and truffle cappaccino
Imagine mixing potato soup and coffee together. Did not finish this one.

The Dessert Collection
We moved forward to the dessert courses and first up was a tart of strawberry pudding accompanied by a herb ice-cream. Perfectly refreshing after a rather heavy meal.

Less impressive was a peach sorbet in a fruit foam atop with some cous cous style crackers.

Then we were presented with a nice-looking petite four. The star-shaped marshmallow was the best of the bunch there. And when we turned to look at the clock, it was already 5:30pm! What a long lunch it was.....

 

 

 
Apart from the high-quality haunte cuisine we already expected from L'Arnsbourg, the team here also did an incredible job of setting the pace on delivering our food (It's not easy to handle 12-13 courses all together) one by one. Everytime when we started craving for more, the next course seemed to arrive just in the nick of time.  

Food Rating: 9.5/10

Price: €€€€

Address: 18 Untermuhlthal, 57230 Baerenthal, France
Tel: +33 3 8706-5085

Website: www.arnsbourg.com

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