Martin Berasategui -- Restaurant overview

Loidi Kalea, 4 - 20160 Lasarte-Oria (Gipuzkoa)
Lat. 43.2668 / Lon. -2.0155
Tel. (+34) 943 366 471 / (+34) 943 361 599
Fax: (+34) 943 366 107 info@martinberasategui.com

Rating Standards: 5-Stars = Extraordinary; 4-Stars = Excellent; 3-Stars = Average; 2-Stars = Fair; 1-Star = Poor

€ = Inexpensive: 30€ and under; €€ = Moderate: 31€-49€; €€€ = Expensive: €50 -75; €€€€ = Very Expensive: more than €76 (prices based on minimum 2-courses)

1-Bell = Pleasantly quiet (less than 65 decibels); 2-Bells = Can talk easily (65-70); 3-Bells = Talking normally gets difficult (70-75); 4-Bells = Can talk only in raised voices (75-80); BOMB = Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)

  5 - Star...............................................................€€€€.............................................................1 - Bell

It's not often that I go to 3-star Michelin restaurants, because of the costs; however, I've been fortunate to go to a few and had wonderful experiences and have also had experiences where I had to ask myself "what's all the fuss?" and how they hell did they get their stars?

It was a special occasion, my partner's birthday so we decided to celebrate big with our friends who live in the San Sebastian, Spain area part-time and had been to this restaurant and highly recommended it.

We arrived for lunch at the restaurant during a rainstorm.  As we approached the building from the parking across the street, several waiters ran out with umbrellas to ensure we arrived relatively dry.  A nice greeting!

With that said, as you enter, you'll first be greeted with a beautiful display of flowers, very simple but very elegant and understated beauty.

As you enter you'll notice that it's quite spacious. Tables are far apart and you definitely have a sense of being with your party and not having to listen to everyone else's conversations. My guess they could seat 45-50 people.

I had to laugh, because the staff, all men surprisingly, dressed like the CIA, except they served with white gloves.

I did notice that many patrons did not overdress, in fact some came in jeans and a nice shirt, which made it very comfortable for me and it wasn't so stuffy that you always had to be concerned about laughing too hard or just not being formal enough.

We all decided ahead of time that we would get the tasting menu which consisted of 13-courses, yep 13!  It wasn't cheap at 185€ ($241) per person not including libations. Three of us started with their local "cava" champagne, and my partner had a Pastis aperitif.

So, onto our eating frenzy.  Normally I would critique each dish, but I have to say there was nothing to critique, each dish was punched with flavors, each distinct from one another. And, the descriptions by themselves are so beautifully descriptive, no explanation is really needed.  So, rather I would just like to detail what we had:

Entrees

Mille-feuille of smoked eel, foie-gras spring onions and green apples.

Squid soup, creamy squid ink ravioli served with squid crouton.

Another variation of the squid soup. with ink broth.

Main dishes "Plats"

We started with Oysters with cucumber, kafir and coconut.

Sauteed black garlic (fruit garlic) with beet ceviche, ice radish and raifort (horseradish) cream.

Little pearls of raw fennel, risotto and emulsion.

Roast foie gras with seaweed resting on horseradish curd, fermented soy broth and hazelnut salt

"Corrotxategi" -- egg resting on a herb liquid salad and dewlap carpaccio.

Warm vegetable hearts salad with seafood, cream of lettuce and iodized juice.

Red Mullet with edible scale crystals soybean sprouts, wheat semolina and cuttlefish.

Roast pigeon and onion with Iberian Pig's snout, ginger juice and caper.

Desserts

Blood-orange ice cream and slush over liquefied tubers, muscovado sugar, yogurt and pepper.

Mist of coffee and cacao over banana with whiskey sorbet and slush.












Finally a tower of little petit fours and some digestives, for me a local apple brandy akin to calvados.

Since we had mentioned it was Jack's birthday, the restaurant presented him with a plate, personally written by the Chef, noting the occasion, for him to keep as a remembrance of this experience.

 Summary

I have to say Chef Martin is an artist! My hat off to him, or as they say in French "Chapeau!"

What I loved about this restaurant is that, although it's a 3-Michelin restaurant, you felt comfortable. No doubt the formality existed with the staff, but they were friendly and not snooty as in some places I've been to. I've been told that many aspiring wait-staff are trained here in the art of serving.  The kitchen was amazing. They had an army of people to create the Chef's food vision.

It was by no means cheap, but worth every single Euro. With apéros, 2-bottles of wine Ossian 2010 red and one white, with accompanying digestives, our total bill came to 1,100€ ($1,400) for 4-people.

It was a wonderful experience, would I go again, most definitely, after I save up for it.  Thank you Bill and Fermin for recommending this wonderful restaurant! If you go in the summer (and it is not raining!), ask to be seated on the balcony, you'll have a wonderful view of the surrounding mountains.

Pirouette Restaurant -- Restaurant Review

Address: 5 Rue Mondétour, 75001 Paris, France

Transit: Châtelet - Les Halles

TÉL : +33 1 40 26 47 81 

Closed Sundays 

Rating Standards: 5-Stars = Extraordinary; 4-Stars = Excellent; 3-Stars = Average; 2-Stars = Fair; 1-Star = Poor

€ = Inexpensive: 30€ and under; €€ = Moderate: 31€-49€; €€€ = Expensive: €50 -75; €€€€ = Very Expensive: more than €76 (prices based on minimum 2-courses)

1-Bell = Pleasantly quiet (less than 65 decibels); 2-Bells = Can talk easily (65-70); 3-Bells = Talking normally gets difficult (70-75); 4-Bells = Can talk only in raised voices (75-80); BOMB = Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)

  4.25 - Star...............................................................€€.............................................................3 - Bell

Our friend invited us out to lunch in the Les Halles area of Paris. The area is being is being renovated so lots of construction around that site.  I never really think of having good food in that area, I’ve always considered it just an OK area for food, but today was an exception to the rule, what a gem we stumbled on to.

Wine list

Pirouette has only been open for about a year. It is very modern and very sleek. They even

have their own little al fresco dining area in the courtyard, we opted to eat indoors since there’s still quite a chill in the air.

They have a nice extensive menu and for their menu du jour (entrée and plat of today's specials) it was 15 euros for lunch and for the entrée+plat+dessert (choices off the entire menu) it was 38 euros, good deal.  They also had quite an extensive wine list.

Entrees:

We had 3 different entrées.   

First was the cod with a spicy chorizo sauce.   

The fish was cooked

perfectly, not much flavor, but with the accompanying chorizo sauce it was great. In fact the Proprietor told me it’s a bit spicy, but I’m from California, trust me it was not spicy, but good, but for the French it would’ve been spicy.

The blanc de sèche, artichauts, lomo, piquillas, jus de viande. It was cuttlefish; it was very tasty, the saltiness of the thinly sliced chorizo and the accompanying artichoke hearts were great. There were even a few dabs of, what we assume was, some watered down sriracha sauce.  I had only one little criticism; the cuttlefish was a tad too rubbery for my taste, but good none-the-less.

Lastly, we had the eggs cooked on a plancha with a puree of asparagus, bacon and salad.

No complaints here, the dish was fabulous, very tasty and well balanced.

Plats:

We had 4 different entrees.  The first was a sweetbreads with petits pois. This was one of my favorite dishes. The sweetbreads were cooked perfectly, tender, not mealy nor overcooked, just perfect. The green peas were to die for, so fresh and not adulterated with much else to keep the natural flavors of the peas in tact. Excellent overall.

Next plat was the roasted pigeon breast with white asparagus. This was my second

favorite dish. Don’t want to sound like a broken record, but it was so tender, and it was accompanied with liver.  Very well seasoned and just overall tasty.

Third plat was the grilled bar (bass) with onions and chorizo.  The fish was nice and moist on the inside and crispy on the outside, and with the crumbled, toasted, crispy chorizo atop it gave it an even extra crispiness. It was an enjoyable dish.

Last plat was the 7-hour lamb with violet carrots and baby grapes. 

Although quite tasty, this was probably 

my least favorite of all the dishes. I’m not saying it was bad, in fact it was very good, but just not my favorite.  When something is braised for that long it can get a little stringy, it’s the nature of the beast, but it was good none-the-less.

Desserts:

First dessert was a soft brebis with black cherries. I’ve eaten a lot of cheeses in my lifetime, in particular brebis, but have never tasted a soft brebis (sheep cheese) quite like this. I’m sure it’s common, but for me it was my first time to eat it. I loved it; however, I would’ve preferred it without the black cherry confiture. A lot of times French like a drizzle of honey or confiture to add that little sweetness; I can do without it.

The next dessert was the gariguette strawberries and rhubarb in a rhubarb sauce. This was

everyone’s favorite dessert. It had a nice balance of tartness and sweetness and accompanied with the “nage” rhubarb and a pistachio palmier, how could you go wrong. Excellent dessert!

And, lastly the praline tart with speculoos ice cream and caramel sauce.  I love speculoos, it’s like a sweet graham crackers that is often used as a crust or base for desserts. And, who wouldn’t like pralines with caramel sauce. Yum-yum!!!!

Overall:

What an excellent find in the 1er arrondissement.  This is definitely a must go to place.  It was 94 euros per couple with 2-bottles of wine, 3-glasses of rosé, and 3-cups of coffee.

I can’t wait til the weather warms up so we eat al fresco. Chapeau to the Chef!

Al fresco dining in front of restaurant