Expensive, yes. Surprisingly short for a three-star (a lot of pages, widely-spaced entries on them). Very short of anything mature or mature-ish, at any price. A few natural wines, as if they'd dabbled for a while, but otherwise few surprises, other than what's missing. I really struggled to find a white I wanted to drink below 150 euros or so (there were some I might have chosen had I not had them over the last few weeks, much more cheaply, in other venues; Mosse comes to mind), and the first one I ordered (Hauvette) was out; the replacement, suggested by the sommelier, wasn't a very good wine and was also pretty terrible with the food. The red side is better, and I drank better there (2000 Pibarnon), but by then I'd started losing enthusiasm for the food. A lot of magnums, a very wan selection of halves. BTG options were decent.
FWIW, on the tasting menu I had (ten courses, plus one addition), of the eight pre-dessert courses three were vegetarian (including the egg), though one was only non-vegetarian due to a speck whipped cream atop a velouté. The best were a very simple plate of mixed plants, all cooked differently yet perfectly, and a vegetable consommé with vaguely Asian-style dumplings (filled with root vegetables in this case), and in fact those were my favorite courses of the night. There was also homard de Chausey (which they did well), turbot (served in an incredibly lame and gloppy vin jaune cream sauce, which was boring as all hell and which completely obliterated the fish), and chunks of poularde with chunks of vegetables and chunks of fruit -- repetition deliberate -- in which everything was cooked beautifully and served unadorned as a plate of, well, chunks of stuff. Which would have been fine, and I don't really have a complaint about the dish itself, except that the same dish on the carte was described as pigeon and I was looking forward to that. Well, I also suppose I have a slight problem with that dish coming from a three star kitchen at three star prices, but that's a separate category of complaint.
The vegetable cookery was brilliant, as mentioned, and the quality seemed superlative (you will want to like beets, though, which show up in three dishes, and turnips in three as well). I wouldn't say inspired, though; basically knife work, heat, and things any good first-year French culinary student might know and try, no more...so it's a very naked sort of cooking, and there's proportionally less margin for error, of which there were (in my opinion) several. The dessert, also as mentioned, was tragic. Cheese was beautiful, but that's just good shopping. Flesh was a mixed bag. And I hate to say it, but the egg at Manresa is better, or at least I liked it more.
Service was a little more casual/friendly than one might expect, which worked well for me actually. Mr. Passard was friends with the folks at the next table and spent about 45 minutes all told at their side, but worked the room with a smile and seemed like a lovely man. He finished the night plowing through a few plates and some wine in the corner, alone. The decor is minimalist, as probably befits the food, but not rising to the level of notice. The "parting gift" is very amusing, but if you're traveling with checked luggage it won't do you much good.
Robert, I hope your meal works out a little better for you than mine did for me. I believe one Disorderly is there tonight, though, and maybe he'll have a better report.
