Posting a list of restaurants in my Facebook page, so that friends will join me for a meal, got me some very positive comments! Some of them referred to it as my ‘Restaurant Marathon’ which is suitable as it turns out I have a lot of plans for the next month. For me the Marathon is as well as writing reviews as eating in these restaurants so here we go, first out of many more to come, hopefully.
L’Ourcine is not a new restaurant but I already read good reviews a while back. It’s a bistro gastronomic with a menu changing according to the market’s fresh ingredients. After writing this restaurant in the list, found out Adrian from my Ferrandi class is doing his stage there. Even better, it’s always nicer to eat somewhere where you have connections!
I reserved a table of two for Elizabeth and me without any problems. There was a bit of mis-communication between Elizabeth and I and she thought I reserved a table for 4 and brought her daughter Jacqueline and friend Jia. Oops!! We explained the situation to the host, and fortunately they quickly arranged a bigger table for us. That was so kind and not to be taken for granted, it’s a small dinning room, almost fully booked, so I don’t know how they did it but I’m glad they did. The dinner was great: we were a table of four foodies, all equipped with a camera, talking about food and restaurants and switching between the plates to get a taste of everything! This is my idea of good ambiance eating with friends.
The dinning room is decorated very modestly, simple but classic. This place is telling you – focus in the most important thing- the food.
The menu for dinner is 34 euro for Amuse bouch + entree + plat + dessert with some more expensive options. Five dishes in each course is a good balance between a diverse menu and a seasonal one.
As we sat down and took our time with the menu, we got this sausage plate which was a good quality slices of fatty sausage full of flavor. Nice touch
The bread
Amuse bouch – mousse of fresh peas with croutons. I liked it because it was just like eating a chocolate mousse but savory, well made, very airy.
Entreés:
Pressé de kakoo de porcelet braisé, foie gras, chips de campagne. Terrine of braised pork, foie gras and confit of onions. This was my least favorite entrée even though I ordered it. The onions marmalade was good but the terrine was a bit disappointing.
Marbré d’aile de raie, poireaux et tomates confits, sauce vierge. Skate fish, leeks and tomato confits. I thought it was interesting and pretty good start.
Bonite rôtie aux quatre épices façon tataki (+3 euro). Bonito (type of tuna), four spice takaki style. Was a very good fresh dish.
Jia splitting his Bonito, what a nice color! The cooking was perfect and very gentle condiments.
Bisque crémeuse d’étrille servie froide, croutons et ciboulette. Cold crab bisque, with croutons and chives.
The soup was my favorite entrée, not sure why it was so thin, maybe too much, but the flavor was spot on.
The wine we ordered complimented the meal perfectly
Our table before eating the entrée course. It took a while because we were four people with four cameras taking pictures of the four different dishes!
And after..
Adrian with the Chef, smiling from the kitchen window!
Plates:
Onglet de veau cuisiné à l’échalote, pôelée de haricots verts frais. Veal cooked with shallots, fresh green beans.
This dish was my favorite. The veal cooked perfectly, the juices of the cooking were delicious and the green beans tossed on a pan with baby mushrooms and lardons, so good!
Poitrine de porc braisée, lentil vert. Pork belly braised and then pan fried.
Salad of green lentils and red onions served room temperature
This dish was pretty good, I liked the carrot and the cold salad that came with it to contrast the heaviness of the pork belly.
Rascasse de petit bateau, pôelée de courgettes, tomate et basilic
Rockfish, fried zucchini, tomato and basil. One really tasty fish, cooked properly and I like the 4 sauces square.
Dos de Cabillaud rôti à la plancha, légumes cuisinés en barigoule. Cod fish roasted on a plancha with vegetables barigoule style.
I looked it up and turns out that “…Barigoule is a traditional Provençal dish of braised artichokes in a warm and slightly tangy white-wine broth…” (origin here). This was my least favorite dish out of the four. It’s hard to please with a cod fish if it’s not deep fried, the matching with this broth did not do miracles. Kind of a boring dish.
Desserts: For desserts, we skipped the cheese dish and took all four dessert options to rotate them between us. Best way to eat desserts.
Nage de melon, “boule de miel” refraîchie à la menthe fraîche et son sorbet melon. Melon balls swimming in a refreshing soup with mint and sorbet of melon, pistachio cake.
Bonbons croustillantes de fenouil confit aux épices douces, sorbet fromage blanc. Crunchy candy of fennel marmalade with spices, sorbet of white cheese
Panacotta aux épices douces, compotée d’abricot au miel. Spiced panacotta, apricot compote with honey.
pralinette de chocolat guanaja, sorbet lait-menthe et perles craquants. Chocolate praline, sorbet of milk and mint and crunchy pearls.
All four desserts before rotation begins
Melon dessert was pretty good and refreshing, not heavy and a nice ending to a meal. The green cake was soft and moist inside and crunchy outside. The only thing a bit off was to eat melon with melon sorbet. It’s sort of one note.
The chocolate dessert was my least favorite, the flavor of the chocolate was a little washed down – not intense enough and just your ordinary chocolate dessert that can be found anywhere. The sorbet saved this dessert – it was milk with mint, cool and cold!
The fennel dessert was Elizabeth and my favorite dessert but the least favorite from the other side of the table. It reminded me of baklawa desserts because of the filo and spices but the fennel was amazing. So inventive as well.
The panacotta was okayish, too sweet for me to be honest. Maybe should have had less of the sweet cooked apricots. Serving in a glass also does not add for me. I prefer the free spirited panacotta on a plate.
Overall the meal was a great success, we had so much to eat and drink, we stayed there for about four hours!! No-one was rushing us out. We waited for Adrian to finish service and he joined our table for a midnight chatting. We asked him about the restaurant and the type of mushrooms and the cooking of the soup and he had fun explaining everything to us. The star of the meal for me was the veal, and the secret Adrian shared about this dish is that they had some foie gras left so they used it with the green beans! No wonder it was soooo scrumptious!
Not leaving without a picture together. Thanks for a dinner at l’Ourcine, it was outstanding and a very good value!
Thank you Mashav for your wonderful blog. Thanks to you, I was able to follow Adrian (my son) and all the Grégoire Ferrandi’s cooking classes and field trips from my home in Idaho. Keep it up, I truly enjoy reading your descriptions and critics of food and restaurants.
Annie Phillips