L’Amaryllis (*)

This is my second visit to the one Michelin star restaurant which is located in a former water mill. The water wheel in the old part of the restaurant shows the original function of this location. The day after our visit it had been exactly 5 years since I first dined here with friends after buying wine in Burgundy. This was also the reason for our visit to Burgundy this time.

Het personeel spreekt zeer beperkt/ geen Engels. Het lijkt erop dat hoofdzakelijk Fransen de weg naar dit restaurant weten te vinden. Dat is jammer, hoop dat de Internationale gasten hun weg ook snel weten te vinden.

We start the evening with a glass of Agnès Cremant de Bourgogne Brut, a wonderfully fresh sparkling wine.

The first amuse-bouche is a beef tartare with Dijon mustard and a Comté biscuit. Great local amuse-bouche. All ingredients come from the area.

Then comes the first warm greeting from the kitchen: oxtail with quail egg and a red wine sauce. The meat is extremely tender. The sauce tastes good like red wine.

An olive branch with 2 amuse-bouche per person is then placed on the table. A snail with a lot of garlic. Snails and garlic are a perfect match, quite a lot of garlic has been used for an amuse-bouche. The snail lies on a green sponge cake. There is also ox tongue with mayonnaise without egg on the branch. The meat is very tender, there is quite a lot of mayonnaise on the meat.

The last amuse-bouche is trout with mint and parsley. A nice piece of fish, half unprocessed and half with a sauce of mint and parsley, lies in a creamy sauce. There is an egg on the fish. A leek oil is served with it. A tasty amuse-bouche, well balanced.

Al met al lekkere amuses met als winnaar de forel, hoewel de ossenstaart ook erg lekker is.

Crunchy sourdough bread with smoked butter is served with dinner.

We take the surprise menu Mon Univers (8-courses), with accompanying wines.

The first dish is green asparagus from the barbecue with a pistachio mousse, lime sauce and a sauce of yogurt and garlic. The asparagus has insufficient barbecue flavor, the pistachio mousse is very tasty, although the pistachio flavor may come out a little more. The color is perfect. The garlic in the yogurt sauce is slightly present. A good first dish.

The first wine is a wine made from Jacquère: La Cuvée des Gueux. We do not fully understand this wine – food pairing.

The second dish is the chef’s signature dish: foie gras with balsamic emulsion. Pieces of foie gras lie in a foie gras mousse, prepared with balsamic vinegar. It’s a delicious dish. Understandably, this is the chef’s dish.

We get a Blanc from Yannick Pelletier. This is an organic wine that is slightly cloudy. The wine-food is ok.

Then langoustine. First a lukewarm brioche is served with langoustine butter and langoustine salt. The butter is scraped at the table and placed on the brioche. Nice presentation and very tasty. The langoustine is fried briefly, it is also lukewarm and slightly soft, it is also very tasty. The sauce of carrot, ginger and orange with it is very good. Very nice taste balance.

A Ladoix from Domaine Chevalier is served with the langoustine. This wine-food combination is perfect.

The next dish is John Dory with artichoke and a cream sauce. Artichoke with black garlic and an artichoke mousse is also served. The fish is perfect from cuisson. The different preparations of artichoke are top notch.

A Rully 1er Cru is added to this (Gouffier 2019). A good match with the fish and artichoke. Delicious.

The fifth dish are various preparations of mushrooms: cappuccino with mushrooms and hazelnut, figs with hazelnut foam and freshly sliced mushrooms and a biscuit topped with hazelnut cream with mushrooms. The cappuccino and the figs are very special and taste very good. The biscuit is beautiful to look at, but remains slightly flat in taste.

De vijfde wijn is een 1er Cru Mercurey van Francois Raquillet uit 2019. Een pinot noir uit de Bourgogne.

We then receive sous-vide cooked beef with Comté, bacon and a slowly cooked shallot. The meat is perfectly cooked. The cheese with bacon is presented very nicely. The meat sauce has a perfect taste.

The wine is again a pinot noir from Burgundy, this time an Auxey Durres Premier Cru (1er Cru). A very good match with the beef.

Next comes the cheese truck, we can choose from 3 different cheeses. I choose blue cheese and strong-tasting cheeses. I get 1 blue and 2 strong tasting. Delicious!

As wine I get a La Myothe from Domaine Guillot. This wine provides a good counterbalance to the strong flavors of the cheeses. Top!

Om de smaakpapillen te temmen krijgen we een honingraat met een creme van mosterdzaad en een boompje volgehangen met karamel. De honingraat met creme is erg goed, kan het bordje wel uitlikken. Voor mij geen karamel omdat ik dit te zoet vind, mijn tafelgenoten vinden dit heerlijk en genieten. De presentatie is wederom zeer fraai.

Finally, rhubarb with rhubarb ice cream, whipped cream and rhubarb juice. I think this is a very tasty dish, the rhubarb is still firm. That’s why my table mates like it less. I think the whole is an exciting dish with beautiful flavors. Especially because I don’t eat rhubarb very often.

The wine is a Coteaux du Layon, a late harvest Chenin Blanc. A very good wine with the rhubarb.

The service is good. The waiters arrive at the table at the same time, they place 2 plates at the same time and then the collect the other 2 plates, so they walk 2* because there are four of us eating. The ladies don’t speak English. Limited English is spoken in this restaurant. I think this is too limited for a Michelin star restaurant.

The interior in the old part is nice, in the newer part it is sleeker. View from the newer part of the beautifully landscaped garden with of course the water feature. I think it is wonderful to be able to eat on the terrace in the sun.

Overall

The wine pairing can sometimes be just that little bit better. We had a wonderful evening. What I think is too expensive is the coffee, it is EUR 9.50 per cup with 1 friandise (a small piece of chocolate).

Nice that the chef comes to the table to ask how the dishes are. Too bad he also speaks limited English and we limited French, so we can’t have a real conversation with him.

A good restaurant. If you are in the area, this is a must.