Whilst in Paris, this was hands down, the best meal I had. The restaurant is called Le Cinq, as you can see from the menu cover. A 2-star Michelin restaurant, Le Cinq is located conveniently inside the Four Season Hotel George V, 31 Ave. George V, 75008 Paris, France (Champs-Élysées).
The restaurant is elegant, spacious and grand with high ceilings and chandeliers. Giving it the "michelin-star" feel. Anyway here's a picture of the restaurant...
I went there for lunch because we couldn't get dinner reservations despite the best efforts of the concierge. But in any case, we just wanted to try the restaurant so it didn't matter what time of the day we visited. Here's a look at the menu...
You'll notice that the menu doesn't contain too many items, but I guess what they do, they do it well. Sorry there are no prices reflected on the menu! But I gather we spent about SGD$300 per person.
Bread is present throughout the meal as a matter of course. The French view it as a symbol of hospitality, and would never serve a meal without it. Water is optional though. Wine is the classic beverage of choice for meals, and is readily available regardless of restaurant class or type. Then came 2 courses of appetizers...
Honestly speaking though, out of the 6 little "Hors D’oeuvres" I could only recognize maybe 3 or 4 of them. On the top picture, on the left we had some sort of fried shrimp. It was really good, the sort of thing you can spends hours eating whilst watching TV. In the middle it was a lobster-essence soup which was cold. I'm not really a soup person, so for me that was...interesting. And then on the right we had some lobster-gelatine dish which was really good as well. The bottom picture comprises of, from left to right, salmon sashimi with Salmon roe and celery, a cheese pastry of some sort and lastly, cauliflower fried in truffle oil. They were all really tasty, but I think if you have too much of them, you definitely will get sian. So I guess that's why they come in bite sizes. Its not the kind of thing you will splash out on, but I guess it all adds to the experience.
For my starter I had the assorted shellfish. I think we all know, shellfish can only taste good if its fresh. The waiter assured me that the shellfish was excellent and in season and I had to have that, so I went with his suggestion.
The first picture of the half dozen fresh oysters we ordered to share. The second picture was my starter course. I had Oysters in Hollandaise sauce, scallops with caviar, a lobster bisque with salmon roe and langoustine prepared with various herbs. I'm not a chef by trade, so in no way am I able to dissect the various ingredients thrown into the preparation of the dishes, but you can bet your last dollar it was all really good.
I especially enjoyed the scallops with caviar because it had a good mix of flavour within such a simple, albeit top grade dish. The scallops(raw) were sweet and light and that coupled with the taste of the sea emitted by the caviar...brilliant. I would definitely recommend this combination if any of you have the good fortune of visiting this establishment any time soon.
My main was a dish actually meant for 2. I had the slow cooked lamb shoulder, again at the behest of the waiter. He was really insistent, in a good way I must add, we make the right choices. And yet again, he was proven right. It was the best, THE BEST, lamb I have ever had thus far in my 25 years existence. Cooked to slow perfection.
The top picture shows the waiter carving my lamb shoulder for us. One portion for me and one to share. The bottom picture was my serving. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and that adage is certainly true. Just look at the glorious pinkish, moisture-ish, handsome piece of meat on that serving plate. Just thinking about it ALMOST makes me want to throw 2.5k down the can and book an air ticket back to Paris again.
Tender, juicy, slightly fatty. Pure Nirvana. Worth every single Euro I paid for it. Food always taste better when you're in the holiday spirit, but this was just outrageously good. Please, please order this if you ever get to visit. You wont regret it.
After the milk-fed lamb shoulder, dessert just wasn't going to cut it no matter what they did. Everything else was just an after show, but having said that, dessert itself was ingenious. They served vanilla ice cream and a peach sorbet garnished with gold leaf, and served in a giant ice cube. What better way to keep your iced dessert frozen than serving them in a block of ice itself. Creative brilliance by the French. The dessert itself might not have been fantastic(it was great by the way), but at the very least, they go all out aesthetics wise.
I had an apple tart as well. It was warm and freshly baked. The sweetness of the pastry went well with the slight tinge of sourness from the fresh apples, and if this was sold in Singapore, it would surely be very well received. But honestly, after the lamb, everything else was little more than an after thought.
Le Cinq, one of the best.
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