Restaurant Session (in Perl): Victor's Fine Dining by Christian Bau

Restaurant Victor's Fine Dinning✨✨✨, from chef Christian Bau. 

 

When we arrived, the chef himself was at a lateral door, at the mobile phone, yelling at a supplier. Not the best welcome impression :-) 

 

 

In front of the restaurant, the casino building.

 

We arrived 5 minutes early, and the doors of the restaurant were still shut. They open the door exactly at 19h to receive the guests. I understand this procedure if it is like in Scotland: you have to arrive exactly at the time (for instance, 19h05) but then you are also sure that you will be welcome on time. In our case, we had a reservation for 19h, but another couple as well. So at 19h we could entered in the foyer, but we still needed to wait some minutes to get to our table (so why not let people a couple of minutes earlier in the foyer?). Anyway, they may follow some strict procedure in the opening, but it is not very customer friendly.

 

At our table.

 

 

Red roses and candle for a romantic dinner :-)

A hot towel to clean the hands and prepare for the appetizers.

 

As aperitif, champagne Krug.

 

The first amuse bouche, langoustine with yogurt foam and madras curry, and carrot and ginger with green apple and coriander. Loved it!

Bio-ox, smoked fish and horseradish.

 

Kimbap, kampachi, sesame. Delicious!

 

Japanese waffle with saba and yuzu-koshu, and king crab 'printemps'.

 

As last amuse bouche, misoshiru, edamame, mushrooms and tofu. So much flavour!

 

Bread and butter.

 

As first dish, kampachi, ceviche, avocado and sweet potato. 

With the first course, a glass of 2015 Abtsberg Kabinett from Weingut Maximin Gruenhaus. Very nice!

 

 

It looked as it tasted - amazing!

 

Green asparagus, konjyu, lardo and kombu. Sooo good!

 

With the asparagus, a glass of 2015 Bernkasteler Lay Auslese from Weingut Markus Molitor. We enjoyed it very much!

As third course, langoustine, xo, heart of palme and pan dan. Fantastic sauce, loved this dish!

 

Pikeperch, peas, morels, vin jaune.

Pairing with the pikeperch, a glass of 2018 Meursault Limozin from Domaine Francois Mikulski.

 

Almost one hour later (it took so long that at this point our appetite was gone - that was such a pity!), the main dish: Japanese beef from Miyazaki, ratatouille, anchovies and black bean.

 

With the main dish, a glass of 2010 Tinto Gran Reserva from Bodega Ontanon.

 

Dessert time! As first dessert, 'Japanese Snowball', calpico, shiso and yuzu-sake.

As dessert, piemont hazelnut, miso and black truffle - a very exquise combination!

 

With the dessert, a glass of 2016 Brauneberger Juffer Auslese from Weingut Fritz Haag. Very nice!

 

It was almost midnight, so we decided not to go for coffees. But we got the amazing gourmandise selection, with chocolates and sweets. And fresh fruits: quite unusual to have it as part of gourmandises, but fit perfectly!

 

The dishes were amazing, prepared with perfection and an explosion of flavors. But the entire experience was not the best: in our perception, the entire dinner took far too long. 50 minutes between two dishes feels very long - the entire dinner took 5 hours (even the 25 course menu we had in Vendome, some years ago, did not take this long). Also the welcome process was not the best: another couple that was waiting outside with us got also very irritated.

Overall, the restaurant is definitely on our top 10 best list, but exclusively driven by the amazing quality of the food. If it would be for the entire experience, we would not go back.

Mar 26th, 2022.