L’Ambroisie

I recently went to go eat at L’Ambroisie which was my first 3 star experience. I was so hyped to go and been looking forward to this meal and visiting Paris but the meal was rather disappointing and did not feel anything apart from the gougeres and canele were up to a 3 star standard.

Pictured:

1) Gougeres – by far the best I’ve had in my life. They were irregularly shaped but were incredibly light and airy, with strong cheese flavour.

2) Sabayon with truffled egg and bread – kind of like a take on egg and soldiers but the truffles weren’t amazing quality and the egg was slightly undercooked, they had that translucent bit in them.

3) Very good bread and butter but not the best I’ve had

4) Langoustines – was looking forward to trying this the most. They were large and plump langoustines, beautifully cooked and the sauce accompanying the dish was extremely aromatic. However the garnish of wilted spinach and sesame tuile was not interesting and didn’t enhance the dish in my opinion. Since there are only 4 components on this dish, I was expecting everything to work together in harmony. The amount of curry in the sauce was perfect but I feel it could have used more depth in flavour. The waiter tells me its just made from cream and curry powder.

5 and 6) Seabass with caviar, nage and artichokes – The other signature dish. I found this extremely disappointing. I did not understand how this dish should work. You have seabass paired with nage which is made using fish stock and caviar which tastes fishy, so the overall effect and taste of the dish is extremely fishy. The artichokes were cooked well and provided the acidity needed to cut through the fishiness but even after eating just a half portion, the dish was starting to feel too rich for me. The dish was crying out for some texture as well. There was dill on the artichokes but I think it would have been better to infuse the nage with it to provide a stronger taste to remove the fishiness. You can also see the plate has not been polished in the 6th picture as there are watermarks so despite charging €100+ for each plate of food, they cannot afford a commis waiter to polish plates. Embarassing for a 3 star.

7) Lamb with celeriac puree and root vegetables – sorry I had started eating this dish before I took the picture. The lamb was cooked perfectly and extremely tender and the accompanying sauce was delicious. On the side was root vegetables sitting on celeriac puree (not pictured). This garnish was extremely boring and not something you cant find at a 1 star place or below.

8) Coconut sorbet with passion fruit coulis – Extremely smooth icecream but as a palate cleanser was crying out for more coulis

9 onwards) Asiette of desserts – The chocolate tart was really light and so was the mandarin souffle, but it needed much stronger flavour as it felt like I was just eating air and the mandarin liquour was wayy too strong in alcohol. The canele was perfect, I’ve not had a better one.

The cost of this meal with 2 glasses of wine was 530 euros. I’m sorry if I am sounding extremely critical but at this price point everything needs to be perfect. I would not recommend this restaurant.

by need20goodmen