It was also about time to eat at Shane’s place of stage – Kei. After hearing all about his struggles with the parmesan cheese etc. and finding out that at this exact week Kei received its first Michelin star! We had him reserve a table for the more affordable lunch time.
Kei is a fancy restaurant, so we couldn’t see Shane in action at all. Shame but that’s life.
Around 30 people can fit in Kei’s dinning room very comfortably, with chandeliers and fuzzy sofas, white-silver theme. It’s promised to be a Japanese-French fusion cuisine. Opened just last February and already got their first star.
The bright dinning room
Orchid center piece
Ceramic plates that were taken away right after we ordered
Eating at Kei’s is very formal with the service taken seriously, felt ceremoniousness at times. I guess this is what customers are expecting in this sort of restaurants, most suitable for business meals in my opinion. Everything looks beautiful and perfect.
The menu? Thanks to Shane's help I can describe what we had.
Kei’s concept’s trying to be very simple. You only get to choose between 4 or 6 course meal and one type of meat out of three for the main course (pork, guinea fowl or venison were our options). As always, trying to taste as many different dishes we asked to have one pork and one guinea fowl. The waiter repeated it is recommended to have the exact same meat dish for the whole table (again, business meal). We declined his recommendation and sent him to consult the chef. He returned and said we can have the two different main courses in a bigger portion instead one of the first courses (out of two). The reason is that the big portion is split in two and he will have to loose the other half if he will serve the regular portion. We will also get two amuse bouche as part of the meal anyway. Although wondering what happens when a table of three is dinning there, we agreed to the sacrifice.
Cheese sticks, very tempting and crunchy.
Two types of bread
Shane's pride: The butter ball! His very own responsibility in the kitchen and very well made. Good job Shane this butter ball was delicious!
The wines which were suggested by the sommelier were very nice. We started with a white wine.
Amuse bouche: Hot espuma of carrot puree with black truffle ice cream and chocolate malt powder
That was a nice sip of sweet soup to start with. Loved this little bowl also.
Amuse bouche: What I remembered: Squid, leeks. Shane's description: slices of the cornet of squid marinated with yuzu oil and lemon juice and strips of leeks tossed with that. Sprinkled on top are toasted wheat berries and squid ink panko crumbs.
This was a nice and fresh raw squid but could be more spicy.
First course: Lobster on a red onions marmalade with a squid ink raviole, parmesan cream and lobster sauce
Coucou lobster!
With an option to add black truffles on top (+16 euro). Mom hadn't had her share of truffles yet so we went for one of those. It was very fragrant and cut very finely. It's worth it if someone hadn't tried that yet or really into truffles.
For the meat course we went for a red wine, the heaviest and strongest they could offer which was this medoc. Mom was happy about it and this is the most important thing
The pork (double portion) with its jus and cabbage, salsify puree
The guinea fowl with the same condiments but its own jus and some red onions marmalade
Both main courses were well cooked, it was a little draw back to me finding out it’s the same dish but with different protein. I thought we’re gonna get two very different dishes and I was wrong. Eating pork medium rare was amazingly great and the little bird – tasted like chicken but a damn good chicken. Crunchy skin and juicy flesh.
Then we got a plate of little mignardises: salted madeleine cookies, a mix of caramels and a tea explosion with a lemon zest confit
The salted cookie with the overly sweetened caramel had a great balance but this tea exploision was overwalmingly good. It was liquid inside and exploded in our mouth as the final note of the meal with a jasmine-lemon tea flavor. Left us wondering how does that made.
For dessert we had this very beautiful (right side neglected) plate of all sort of citrus goodies called Vacherin.
Lemon sorbet and vanilla yoghurt ice cream, creme anglais, creme chantilly, citron confit, limquat sauce, chocolate hazelnut crumble, and meringue, sprinkled with flower petals and Mizona leaves (where are they Shane??). A true delight, even without the Mizona.
A very graceful table
Too bad there’s no actual menu for references, I like to know what I’m eating and the French-English explanation was confusing at times. Nonetheless it was a fantastic meal with a great ending. The bill came out higher than expected because although the set menu is 38 euro, everything else is an addition to that and pretty expensive as well (13 euro for 10cl glass of wine, 16 euro for the truffles, without adding fromage or coffee or any other drink it came out 60 euro each).
A word about the fusion: for me it was more like taking some Japanese ingredients and add them to a French cuisine rather than a fusion. I guess the reason is that the French prefer French subtlety and not because the chef doesn’t want it to be more Japanese per say.
I think you are right about the Japanese fusion thing. Kei uses many Japanese ingredients but on dishes I would consider French. The meat dish is disappointing for not having a different take for the proteins, but if you are vegetarian or chose the venison, then the plating is entirely different. The dish you missed out on Mashav for Must having the different meats was the foie GRAS!! Which in my opinion is the only foie GRAS served cold I have ever liked. It comes with yuzu jelly, and miso sesame sauce. I love it. So glad to see you enjoyed it, and I know exactly how to make those tea explosions… Hehehehe
oh damn now i’m very sad not to have gotten it! 🙁
so what’s the protocol when a 3 cover table orders the same meat? he throws a portion away like what would have happened in our case? that was quite an annoying matter of the meal. let’s talk about the tea explosion over the phone 🙂
He just chooses a price of meat and cuts it into three. And yes there is a bit of trimmings.
i never thought i would hear about a “tea explosion” – but there you have it…
the pick-a-boo lobster looks wonderful…