Situated on the 14th floor of Abeno Harukas building, Bernard Loiseau Signature Éo is a French casual fine-dining restaurant by celebrated chef Hiroshi Yamaguchi from Kobe Kitano Hotel. Chef Yamaguchi started his career working under the legendary three-Michelin chef Bernard Loiseau who obviously had tremendous influence on the path the Japanese-born chef has taken and he named this restaurant in memory of his late mentor.
[In case you haven't heard: World-renowed chef Bernard Loiseau was one of the greatest chefs of his time but he killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot in 2003 when there were reports hinting that his restaurant might lose its 3-star status.]
Everything counts in a first impression and the elegant setting certainly gave us a strong impression to kick off our New Year celebration (a low-key one).
We were offered a table next to the semi open kitchen and I just knew it's going to be a great experience seeing the young chefs in action (trust me, they were really young).
A small amuse bouche before our four-course lunch menu officially got started and it was a good one. The piling hot mushroom croquette, dusted with basil leaves, was wonderfully matched with the herby notes from the celery purée.
This was followed by our opening dish, chicken parfait beautifully presented in the shape of a tube wrapped in a layer of red wine jelly with toppings of sour cream and crispy biscuit. It was served with parsley cream, a small garden salad and dabs of mandarin sauce. A lovely starter with multiple sources of acidity to cut through the richness of the parfait.
Some homemade bread was served just before our soup arrived.
Our soup of the day was pumpkin velouté with drops of olive oil and some micro celery on top.
My main course was Kobe beef, superbly seared and served with red wine reduction.
The toppings of mushroom and eggplant ratatouille didn't look particularly sharp but it linked up well with the seasonal vegetables (lotus root, white and pink radish, beetroot chip, carrot, mushroom, bak choy etc.) to give the succulent beef something to work with.
Jelloman elected to have the pan-fried pork loin with mixed mushrooms and vegetables, finished off by some sharp acidity from the yuzu purée. Not bad but I like my Kobe beef a little bit more.
If there's one area from the kitchen that requires some reinforcement, it's definitely their dessert department. This just didn't cut.
Three kinds of grapefruit were matched with Japanese sake sorbet, fresh cream and pistachio shavings. The idea wasn't bad but the execution, most importantly its presentation has got to be a whole lot better than this.
Some interesting mignardises wrapped up our New Year celebration on a high note.
There were some real nice surprises from a number of dishes (chicken parfait and Kobe beef), which I didn't expect from a casual French restaurant in a shopping mall. But I would like to see the same creativity carried over to the rest of my dishes (soup and dessert).
Food Rating: 5.5/10
Price: ￥￥￥
Address: 14/F Abeno Harukas Dining, 1-1-43 Abenosuji, Abeno-ku, Osaka 545-8545, Japan
Closest Metro Station: Tennoji / Osaka Abenobashi
Tel: +81 (0)6 6654-6446
Price: ￥￥￥
Address: 14/F Abeno Harukas Dining, 1-1-43 Abenosuji, Abeno-ku, Osaka 545-8545, Japan
Closest Metro Station: Tennoji / Osaka Abenobashi
Tel: +81 (0)6 6654-6446
Post a Comment
Please tell us what you think