Paris Restaurant review: Jean Restaurant (one michelin star)

Bear : We went to Paris for about 5 days, 3 of which were in Disneyland Paris. Disneyland is quite a journey away from the city itself, so we knew we only had 2 nights where we can venture for French food. With this in mind we booked a French restaurant even before we left the UK lol. 

This is the restaurant we've booked: Jean Restaurant.

The ambiance was nice, we got seated after waiting for a while, and we chose the 4 dishes tasting menu as usual.

Free entrée: tempura potato balls , cheese cake with vinegar sauce, squirt leg with cream and pudding soup. 

Bear: Small bites with interesting combinations of taste and texture. A mind-f**king start to showcase the chef's capability. Mixed well overall.

Bunny: pudding soup? tats cabonara cappuccino dear. And it's ducking disgusting D: . I like the first three but the weird texture of the cappucino makes me feel like I am eating overdue milk tat is in the process of becoming into a stinking cheese. But really the first three gives the restaurant a good start, it reminds me the two star restaurant pier a Terre haha. 

Bear: the pudding tasted well wa... I never had anything like this before so I kinda liked it hehe 

Starter: Raw Oyster and foei gras in chicken soup

Bear: Fresh oyster bedded on a foei gras, flooded with chicken soup, with lots of cheap vege made into a somewhat classy presentation. Doesn't mix that greatly although all food are good on their own.

Bunny: come to think of it, this is my favourite dish of the night. Mayb cuz I like oyster and foei gras. Hence by putting them both together it's so good tat I am willing to overlook the icky vegs tat float in the nice chicken soup they prepared. I like the fact tat they din sautee the foei gras. The rawness of the foei gras and oyster really packs a punch. 

Bear: vege are healthy and delicious! D: but I agree with you on the oyster hehe

Fish Dish: Fried cod fish fillet and classy vege (zucchini, peppers, mini capers, sea grape, and julienned leeks.)

Bear: The first time I heard about sea grape. Sea grape tasted like lady finger with its gooey texture. Fish fillet is like fish n chip's fillet, without the batter. The 'classy vege' (that's what the waiter said) sauce was ok but doesn't really relates to the fish. Fish with the soury sauce + deep fried ginger gave excellent texture but not excellent taste.

Bunny: I do not know tats grapes from the sea, too busy playing the updated version of plants and zombies lol. But frankly speaking the soup is too oily, reminds me of the Spanish way of cooking prawn tapas by using olive oil as a base. But at least the ones in Spain add white wine to curb the oiliness. I know they try to do tat here with the vegs, but it's clearly not enough. The turbot is tough and chicken-like by nature so no complaints there.  The grapes are like sweet caviar haha so I enjoy that.

Meat Dish: Roasted French Piglet Belly and Rib with pumpkin puree, celeriac fondant, pippin apples fried, truffle juice Autumn, brioche chestnut and rosemary.

Bear: Pork Tasted like roasted pork (燒肉) outside my house's chicken rice stall, truffle sauce and flakes did nothing on the pork as the pork is somewhat marinated to good taste already. Vege is good but disposable. Pumpkin yolk is very petit and special but cookie seems weird in a main dish.

Bunny: I hav to disagree about bear's opinion about the presence of the cookie. The pumpkin and the cookie help elevating the dishe's taste by adding another dimension. The pork is too rough, so the petite-ness of the gooey pumpkin tart thingy gives the taste a bit if quirkiness, which is a good thing.

Dark chocolate cake with crispy praline pecan nuts, chocolate ganache, almond milk "molecular" and lime sorbet.

Bear: Chocolate mix well with hazelnut crust at bottom as always. The 'almond milk molecular' thing is awkward. Lime sorbet doesn't match with choc, being sourish to the supposedly sweet chocolate.  

Bunny: I am not happy with the dessert, really. Z the lime is sour, the chocolate cake is bitter. How can u put them together? Ugh the bitter sour taste lingers in my mouth. They try to go for layers of different texture with the care. I appreciate that but the really, the mild taste of the cake should not go with the strong taste of the sorbet. It's not just awkward, it makes a disastrous end of its flow, washing away the customers' memories of the good dishes zzz

Bear: I smell a grumpy bunny >___<


Overall: Mixed review to this restaurant. I would like to praise the chef for his (or her, who knows?) effort in mixing and matching different ingredients to produce some of the finest dish I've had in France. I do liked some of them to be honest. Good effort there.

Paris restaurant venture: le violon d'ingres (one Michelin star)

Bear: As mentioned, we DID get a walk near the famous Eiffel tower, but we do so at the very late hours, so by the time we're done, its already near dinner time. Being the asian-tourists looking for food around the world-class tourist spot at around a Sunday dinner-time without any reservation, we're quite lucky to get a spot in this restaurant, le violon d'ingres by Christian Constant, after being turned away from 198639827091820381 other restaurants due to our lack of reservation.

Bunny: to be perfectly honest, we did not choose this restaurant, we were wet and grumpy and we jumped into this restaurant without giving much thought (after verifying it has a good ranking in trip advisor of course lol.) We did not know its a one star Michelin restaurant until we ordered out food and overheard other customers. 

(NB: Because the dishes on the tasting menu did not appeared the menu, we cannot get its proper name for some of the dishes. We named it based on what we remember on the description by the waiter.)

First dish: Lamb ravioli thingy 

Bear: The ravioli looks great, and to make it better they topped it with a heavenly creamy sauce (I would happily say that it is a cream-soup dish, but they insist that its just the sauce... i mean look at the picture, it flooded almost the entire ravioli!!!) There is no sign of lamb in it however, but I liked it for the soup sauce. 

Bunny: I have vague memories of the dish, but definitely no memories abt it being heavenly -,-. I only rmb dipping bread into the cream to curb my hunger since there's only one freaking ravioli in the dish. Granted tat its fine dining, so i cant really complain z. The cream is cheesy, tat is all i can say. 

Second dish: Scallop with a dash of ginger and lemon, served with Osciètre caviar, herring roe and grapefruit.

Bear: Refreshing combination... as in it tasted refreshing, but not surprising. Definitely not the first time I had scallops in such citrus based combinations, but I'm glad to eat this dish. Herring roe is nice~ Grapefruit tasted like grapefruit.
Bunny: Wad do u mean grape fruit taste like grape fruit? Does it suppose to taste like something else?

Bear: What I meant is that the grapefruit is there to taste like grapefruit, without aiding other ingredients of the dish. So its dispensable. 

Bunny: .... okay. Deep stuff there. First thing i gotta say is the presentation is pretty, there is quite an array of colours, and i am always a fan of floral decors. Taste however, its raw scallops, so basically it comes down to whether it is fresh or not, and given tat it is a Michelin restaurant, it has to be fresh enough. Then the blend of accompaniments and the scallops cones into factor. It is actually almost based on the same concept of adding lemon to raw oyster, to give a bit of zing. They try to make the zing unique, but really, you cant really stray too far away, I did not notice a huge difference. The roe is a nice touch though. 

Third dish: Soft boiled eggs rolled in breadcrumbs, truffled butter toasts. (proper name)

Bunny: ... Its an egg.

Bear: It's apparently the restaurant's (and the chef's) signature dish!

Bunny: Its still an egg... tat *checked ala carte menu* costs 25 euros!

Bear: That egg has its own webpage!! (link)

Bunny: ... I think Parisian never taste a soft boiled egg before, because it sure tasted like any soft boiled egg i hav eaten, with additional bread crumbs of course. -,-

Bear: I agree with bunny with this... it tasted like soft-boiled egg from cha-chan-ting (茶餐厅), but I think the breadcrumbs gave a great dash of saltiness to the egg... I must say its hard for the chef to maintain the egg's shape though, even when its soft-boiled. 

Bunny:.... It is STILL an egg. 

Forth dish: Freshwater perch mousse with light lemon sauce, butter savoy cabbage and Osciètre caviar. (proper name)

Bear: The mousse tasted like the... erm... lobster/crab's fatty meat? I liked it!! Nice cabbage to top it up, the sauce is creamy as well~ My only complain is that its too small of a portion >___<

Bunny: I really really don wanna seem negative throughout the whole tasting course, but really they not doing very good right now. The taste is too one dimensional. The texture might woo some Caucasians, but its like toufu so it certainly did not impress this Asian boy. Think: salty toufu with caviar on top, no synergy, no different taste, nothing. 

Fifth dish: Dombes duck roasted with almonds and pistachios, roasted pears with verveine. (proper name)

Bear: I don't like this dish. :( pistachio and duck... doesn't go well... poached pear and red wine sauce might be good with each other, but not when there's also duck-meat. A very complicated taste, and unfortunately not to my liking... 

Bunny: The presentation is weak in this one, but i appreciated the fact tat they try to accomplish the 'burst of flavours' epiphany. Not happening. I like duck meat, always do, i am however not a fan of poached pear. The taste is quite common, as u know duck always goes with red wine. The pistachio provides more of an annoyance than assistance. The duck is well cook though, and appropriately flavoured. 

Final dish: Vanilla Cream-filled napoleon cake with caramel drizzle.

Bear: The cake is so sweet... too sweet to be enjoyable.. :( the caramel makes it even sweeter, causing an overall sweetness overload... :( so... not a very good ending to the tasting menu... 

Bunny: I find the sweetness okay... la.... i think.... Basically it is like mille feuille on its side with cream on top. Vanilla cream.... with caramel. Not too creative aren't they? 

Conclusion:
Bunny: skip this one, unless u are a boiled egg fanatic, Or, just get the ala carte. -,- Plus the price (90 euros) is not attractive at all. 
Bear: I would be willing to go back for its ala carte menu actually, just to try on other signature dish of his... the crab and the fish (which is not on the tasting menu) looks nice~
Bunny: quite ironic, since a chef is suppose to add all of his best dishes into his tasting menu. z

Food venture: Battle between The Bunny and The Bear (1) : PIED A TERRE

Its Bear's birthday this week. So we both cleared our time table and get ready for a nice cosy weekend together.

Then in order to spice things up, both of us are given the task to book a restaurant of our own, mine on Friday and his on Saturday. Its not a competition, but being a competitive rabbit as always, I tried a bit too hard just so tat i can crush bear's restaurant like a helpless fly. MUAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA

Cool down bunny, it is bear's birthday, tat's the most important thing this week. Breathe, breathe.

Anyways.

So wad we r doing now is to go through wad we had for the two restaurants and have a bit of commentary.

So for my restaurant, I managed to book pied a terre (link to its website here).

Being totally not bias here, pied a terre is a FREAKING TWO STAR MICHELIN RESTAURANT!!! WOOTS!!!!!

For those who don really know about Michelin star rating system, its a annual universal rating systems for fine dining restaurants. The highest number is three stars. There's only 103 three starred restaurant in the whole world according to Wikipedia and UK only has 4. The Michelin guide is reviewed annually, restaurants have gain or lose stars, and it is a given that there will be significant impact on its success and growth.

So yeah, bunny just booked a 2 starred restaurant, which is one of the 16 two starred restaurant in the whole UK. I tried to book a three starred restaurant but you need to be on a 3 month waiting list. I managed to snag a place three weeks before the actual date, but the timing is a bit odd, but a well.

So now bear is here with me. and we shall go through the food. We tried the chef's menu, which is a ten course meal of the chef's best dishes. And it cost a freaking total of 145 pounds per person excluding service fees and drinks, yeap i know, my wallet really has burn a hole after tat night. But a well.

Bear: Hi.
Bunny: Hi dear XD (we are doing this online lol)

First: canapé: Oyster tempura and potato fritters

Bear: I like the oyster better but i also love the potato fritters. As in, for the oyster i think good deep down in my heart, for potatoes, it is good... but it is supposed to be good in a 2 star Michelin restaurant 

Bunny: I din even know its oyster after listening to that guy's thick french accent -.- , until i took a bite tat is. Its a bit soft for my taste, i expect tempura to be crunchy lol. Potato fritters.... meh. The mayo is nice. lol

Soup: Mushroom and Truffle Soup with cream orzo pasta, braised celery, and lightly smoked duck breast.

Bear: The soup is full of flavor, with very rich mushroom and pasta taste, not so much of the truffles, i think the truffles din really bring out the best of the soup. There is no hint of celery and duck breast at all. However i quite like the taste in general.

Bunny: Wa, dear, i din know u can be so pretentious in terms of judging the food (=_=) I DIN KNOW TAT"S TRUFFLE!!!!!! It looks like any yucky vegie. The presentation is sad, it looks like some one vomited onto my bowl lol. But the taste is rich i gotta say, like bear said, i cant taste the duck or the celery. 

Langoustines with Suckling Pig Glazed with Honey and Soy, Gremolata, Romaine Lettuce, Red Mizuna

Bunny: I LIKE THIS ONE!!! The pig's fat is not actually greasy, and i like it being not soft and melt-y if u get wad i mean. The languos-wadeva is so chewy~ I don understand the green sauce though. 

Bear: I liked the glazed pig, but i wasn't expecting chinese food in a french restuarant. The prawn is tender, and overall presentation is great. But i have to agree with bunny: the green sauce is dispensable.

squash and parmesan gnocchi with baby arthichokes, autumn truffle and iberico ham

Bunny: I have no idea wad is gnocchi until the person kindly explained to me. Some sort of a pasta. I don think this fits to be a main because there is no main star in the dish. Well... pasta isnt a main star in my book.

Bear: I can't comment much on this. i found a hair in it on my second bite, so the rest of the dish remained untouched.

Bunny: oh yeah, I rmbed tat!!! You actually jz wanna let this slide, but we r in a two starred restaurant, we expected top notch quality!!!! X(

Bear: Its okay. Lets not make a fuss abt it.

Bunny: at least he came back and apologised. But still tat is really unexpected from a restaurant of this caliber.z They should all kneel down and beg for our forgiveness. 

Bear: Dear, I said LETS NOT MAKE A FUSS

Bunny: I am not making a fuss, a kneel is the least they can do. Hmph. They charged us 40 pounds (RM200) for their service fee ya know!!! 

Line Caught Monkfish with Spiced Butternut Squash, Amalfi Lemon, Mussels, Coriander and Mint

Bunny: wad the hell is the difference by adding the word line caught =_=, is it nicer to know tat their fishes struggled before their demise? zz But I do like it, the fish is ssssoooo firm and compact with a tinge of bounciness to it!!! The curry made me confused though, if you tell me this is an Asian dish, i might believe you. 
Bear: OMFG the fish is AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG. Tender and yet firm and flavourful. The curry-based sauce matches well with the coriander and the fish in general. Reminds me of the kuah ikan that comes with roti canai, but a high class version.

Roasted Loin of Venison with Poached Cascade Pears, White Onion and Sage Puree, mulled wine gel

Bear: Tasted exactly like beef. I like it though. Juicy and tender. But the pastry base kinda destroyed the dish. I don't think pastry in a main dish is justifiable! Its like eating cereal with vodka!

Bunny: Is tat pastry base?! I thought its pork skin or wad not @_@. To be honest it taste standard, i think i expect too much or something. I was hoping it can sprout rainbows. But one can only hope. ~_~
Bear: The cracker pastry would be amazing on its own, though
Bunny: So they are crackers now!? zz

Cheese board!!!!

the crackers tat come with it

Bunny: I HATE CHEESEBOARD, i sat this one out. They r kind enuf to let me switch it for another dessert which will be covered below.
Bear: Cheese board is great. A good selection but not as much as 21212.(another Michelin restaurant we ventured) I picked both mild cheese as I'm not feeling adventurous with my tastebud that night...
Buuny: But I gotta say, the presentation of the crackers are interesting.
Bear: The cracker is great: crispy and nicely presented. A nice combination with the cheese selection. I've started to like cheese being eaten in this way.
Bunny: ewww. Don kiss me with tat. 

Tasting of lemon, passion fruit and natural yogurt

Bunny: This dessert has an unexpected twist of flavour. The passion fruit oddly serves as the sweet base for this dish and the yogurt kinda brings you back from the generic sourness of the dessert. =D Yay no cheese board!!!

Pear Millefeuille with Cinnamon Mousse, Verjus Gel, Pain d'Epice Ice Cream

Bunny: The main body of the dessert is really refreshing! I guess it has to be, since it is made up of fruits. The pear had a great fusion with the cinnamon. It always annoys me when i try to cut millefeuille z. Ice cream wise.... not impressed. I don know the flavour and its name isn't helping. It is quite forgettable until i cant be bothered to google the meaning of its name z

Bear: Not 'cutting' friendly. The mousse is nice though... not a strong taste dessert, which is good for a first dessert dish. 

Bunny: do you rmb how does the fancy named ice cream tasted like z?

Bear: nope, i rmb the jelly though.

Bunny: the jelly? how does it taste like? I forgot z

Bear: like pure juice lemon agar agar

Bunny: D=

White Chocolate Tart with Macerated Blackberries, Toasted Almonds and Lemon Thyme Ice Cream

Bunny: Happy birthday!!! =D
Bear: I was surprised that mine came with a happy birthday message and candle! The ice cream is just... nahh... but the tart is great! Its like creme brulee made in a tart style! i liked it, though its a little heavy
Bunny: I know right?! The tart is heavenly. I can taste white chocolate seeping through my gums. it will suffer. hahahahahah I called them beforehand and ask them if they do anything special for birthdays, I guess this is their answer. Some restaurants gives free dessert though, ugh. 

Chocolate and Petite Four

Bunny: quiz time! wad are the names of those mini desserts! =D
Bear: a... there's a donut.
Bunny: wad is the name of the donut dish =_=
Bear: errr...
Bunny: =_=
Bear: sugar... SUGAR COATED DOUGHNUT!!!!
Bunny..... no, Its cinnamon doughnut.
Bear: I din try it! how i am suppose to know!!!! 
Bunny: the waiter mentioned it to us -,-
Bear: there's dark chocolate muffins, and chocolate coated coconut ice cream, and the petite fours. 
Bunny: To ppl who are confused now, the desserts we mentioned came with the tea. Now bear is suppose to name the four things tat is served on a rectangular plate as shown in the photo.
Bear:.... lemon tart...
Bunny: uh huh
Bear: mango jelly
Bunny: go on...
Bear: white chocolate
Bunny: white chocolate wad?
Bear: .....truffle.
Bunny:.... white chocolate cardamom fudge. and? The third one you conveniently missed?
Bear: err... i... i don know...
Bunny: Its salted caramel with chocolate cups. Bang!
Bear: Back to the commentary.... Earl Grey Tea is the besttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt ending for the amazing dinner. I'm too bloated to try the other petites though...
Bunny: they r quite good. I cant be bother to list out of them, but the cinnamon doughnut reminds me of home. The white chocolate fudges give me a sweet finish hehe. 

Other stuff
Bear: The services is great.. i mean, there's a keen waitress who serve bread to me non-stop, and the water cup is never empty. As for the price... thanks bunny for the treat~ <3
Bunny: yeah... A 350-pound-bill is nothing to joke abt zz. But it is alright just to ensure my victory, i mean, to have a memorable celebration with u dear hhaha. XD

Tomorrow(or the day after lol): Bear's restaurant.