La Palme d’Or
Our dinner at La Palme d’Or was amazing. The evening started off with a leisurely walk along the waterfront to the Hotel Martinez where the restaurant was. The restaurant is up one level so we had to take the private elevator. Inside the elevator, a hostess was waiting to greet us and confirm our reservation. She then led us to the maitre d’s desk who then escorted us to our table on the terrace. We had a nice view of the strip, the beach, the boats and the cars.
The restaurant was very nice. Lots of wood and leather, but it didn’t feel old and stuffy. We had one of the earliest seatings, but there were already 3 or 4 tables seated when we arrived. Most of the tables that were already seated were sitting inside away from the terrace. It was such a nice evening that I couldn’t understand why. One thing I noticed were little footstools next to the table. I didn’t think anyone would really need a footstool for these tables. I was right, they were for the ladies to put their purses on.
After sitting down and getting a lay of the land, the staff brought us a little hors d’oeuvre and the menu. We knew before we got to the restaurant that we’d be going with the Summer tasting menu, but there were some very interesting dishes on the regular menu. We were then brought the wine menu. The first couple pages were about what I expected: a variety of wines ranging from €30 to 90€. Then I got to page 3. The wines hit 3 figures with a couple wines priced at over €1000. Since a friend was paying for dinner in return of a favour, we didn’t try how a €1000 bottle of wine tasted like. Instead we opted to have the sommelier recommend wines to go with the tasting menu. Since there were 3 fish courses, we selected a full bottle of white and a half bottle of red.
The first course of the evening was grilled escargot with a lemon, garlic, tomato and meat juice sauce. It was the one course that we were most scared of going into the night, but it turned out to be the best. We were absolutely blown away.
The second course was a mixed bag. A grilled prawn with seafood ice cream and melon. The seafood ice cream wasn’t as bad as it sounds, but it was too rich to finish. The prawn had an orange glaze and was fantastic. I hate melon and melon served by a 2-star Michelin restaurant is still melon.
The third course was grilled Mediterranean Sea Bass drizzled in olive oil and served with a variety of vegetables cut in the shape of little hearts. A fried piece of the skin was served on top to add a little bit of texture to the dish. It was delicious.
We chose the seasonal inspiration option of the menu, so we had no idea what we were going to get with the next course until it arrived. It turned out to be a meat stuffed cannelloni with a beef sauce and topped with foie gras. It was good, but compared with everything else, it was near the bottom of the list.
The main dish of the menu was grilled lamb with an Amaretto sauce. It was very good, but it didn’t seem to fit with the level of luxury with the restaurant.
Next up was the cheese course. This was an event. The staff wheeled a cart to our table and gave us a brief tour of the cheeses. We were then asked (one at a time) what types of cheeses we liked. Christine opted for harder, older cheeses while I went for the stinky cheeses. We learned a few things too. For example, honey goes extremely well with a hard goat cheese and blueberry jam and Roquefort is a perfect match.
Dessert came next. I ordered the chocolate soufflé with coffee ice cream while Christine had red berries in pink champagne. Hers was served in a bowl made of ice. Both deserts were superb.
Christine decided to have a coffee while I thought a Scotch was in order. The restaurant had a member of the staff that was a scotch expert and he recommended a very nice 12 year old that capped off the evening nicely.
We thought the meal was done, but there was one last course. The staff brought a small carousel to the table that had little home-made candies on it. They were all delicious. Not too sweet and made with fresh fruit.
Overall, I thought the dinner was well worth the price (even if we had to pay for it). The food was very good, even if I thought a couple of the dishes were kind of ordinary. The service was exceptional. Overwhelmingly good, in fact. The staff attended to us the entire evening without being intrusive. Many times, I didn’t even notice when they refilled our wine glasses or took plates away. Christine and I had eaten in a one-star Michelin restaurant in Paris a few years ago and the difference between that restaurant and La Palme d’Or was amazing. I can’t wait to try a three-star restaurant.
Sorry the pictures aren’t so good, we used my iPhone and it’s not very good in low light. We didn’t bring our regular camera as we didn’t want to be those people taking pictures of everything. We were, but fewer people noticed.
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