To make the meal even more memorable, I decided to make my booking on our Chinese New Year day. Now, let’s see if Chef Alléno would be there to celebrate new year with us.
This venue on its own deserves a star without any food served. One of Paris's oldest and most prestigious restaurants, Pavillon Ledoyen first opened doors in 1791 and some said Napoleon actually met Josephine here.
Ledoyen is open for lunch and dinner from Monday till Saturday (no dinner on Saturdays). One can choose between the à la carte menu and a 10-course tasting menu (€380). There was also a special black truffle menu (€690) during our visit.
Mom didn't want to stuff herself with so much food and turned out, this was hidden underneath my napkin - a 4-course set lunch menu (€145) which was a lot easier on my wallet. After much discussion and knowing that the entire table must take the same menu, we ended up splurging on the 10-course tasting menu.
Some small bites to start things off including.....
A crispy tart with pumpkin jam, pumpkin seed and what I thought was sour cream...
A grain tart made with rice crispies, crème fraîche and lastly,.....
A sour cream perfumed roll with emulsion of eel. Not bad.
Next up was the first course of the tasting menu named "Unexpected fine fish soup". This came in two parts. The first one featured finely chopped sardines flavored with Dulce seaweed mayonnaise in a sauce made with red wine, vinegar, olive oil and potato. The sardine was topped with red mullet ribbons marinated with lime and olive oil.
The second part of the dish was a rich fish broth made with sole and milk, topped with Cappelletti ravioli from the Russo family (I had to look this one up!). While I was still admiring my broth, our server finished things off by dropping a pile of fish skin powder into the intense soup. Lo and behold, it all disappeared within seconds.
I thought the soup was pretty good. Jelloman joked that the ravioli kind of looked like Chinese dumplings in red chili oil (紅油抄手) and in fact, they tasted a bit alike.
This was followed by perhaps the best dish of the afternoon, hare galantine. The de-boned stuffed meat (primarily hare with some foie gras) was poached and served cold. I'm usually not a fan of game but this was exceptionally tasty. The stunning hare galantine was bursting with rich, gamey flavor and I love the way they finished it off with red beetroot and a sweet and sour cocoa sauce, to offset its richness.
The third dish of the menu was sea scallops cooked in its shell with bitter herbs and black truffle.
A strong celebriac emulsion provided some nice earthy notes to match the sweetness of the scallops (but the black truffle surprisingly failed to add to this dish).
We were done with all the starters at this point and next up was our main course. I was seriously looking forward to this since I'm a huge fan of blue lobster from Brittany.
The blue lobster was beautifully cooked in the wood fire coming out with a lovely charred aroma. It was served on a bed of basil flavored spinach with a relatively light lobster coral jus. My second favorite dish behind the galantine.
The elbows of the lobster was served separately in a broth with a milk skin ravioli.
The cheese course was Vacherin Mont d'Or cheese served on a warm brioche with maple syrup and yellow wine jelly. I'm not an expert with French cheese but this had really great depth of flavors.
Moving onto our pre-dessert, we were presented with a trio of plum themed sweet bites.
Firstly, plum sorbet with tuile...
.....followed by a warm brioche with candied plum,
And finally, dark chocolate infused with plum jam.
We were offered three different desserts to wrap up the meal. The first one was salt spiced citrus compote on a light, flaky and crusty pastry. It was a little too salty and acidic for me at the same time.
Followed by burned orange filled with pine nuts and a "liquid" creme brulee.
Some lovely zesty notes from the orange zest in the creme brulee.
After two desserts with a fair amount of acidity, now some bitterness in the form of coffee flavored fir tree extraction jelly. But first, we were told to have a lick of salt to enhance the flavors.
This looked and tasted more like milk pudding, with the accompanying sheet of spiced chocolate providing some heat (not sure if the salt really did enhance the flavors).
The final dessert was warm, creamy and runny chocolate with a hint of sea salt.
Just when we thought we were done, our server brought out a blueberry pie with soft cheese melted on top. I thought for sure it would be too cheesy for me but it turned out to be the opposite.
The cheese was very light (like ricotta) and the pie soft like a pillow. I could eat this all day.
This was one of the most expensive meals I have ever been associated with (380 Euros x three diners, you can do the math) but sadly, the results weren't exactly what I've imagined. While a number of dishes did click (hare galantine and lobster), Chef Alléno's boundary-pushing cuisine failed to blow me away for the majority of the meal, which I viewed as a major disappointment considering it's been a staple in the World's Best 50 Restaurants since the chef took the reign. Make no mistake about it, it's still a very nice meal but it's just not the pinnacle of cuisine and world-class cooking I was expecting from one of the world's most decorated chefs. I'm perfectly okay with avante garde cuisine but the bottom line is, it has to taste great.
Luckily, I have already had a perfectly executed meal at Epicure Le Bristol three days ago so at least, I didn't have to feel sorry for myself.
P.S. My sincere apologies for the poor quality of pictures under the bluish lighting. I tried my best to cope with it but with my cheap camera, there's only so much I could do.
Food Rating: 7.3/10
Price: €€€€€
Address: 8 Avenue Dutuit, 75008 Paris, France
Closest Metro Station: Champs-Élysées - Clemenceau / Concorde
Tel: +33 (0)1 5305-1000
Website: www.yannick-alleno.com
S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants: 29th (2018)
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