Sur Mesure par Thierry Marx, Paris
It was a fun day in Paris by myself, or not, which I will explain a bit in the post, but the restaurant is just ok. The restaurant is located inside Mandarin Oriental. Since I was walking all day, visiting Chateau de Fontainebleau and Musee Picasso, frankly I was tired and did not look nice, when I was at the front door of the hotel. I was an hour early because I put the wrong time in my calendar due to the one-hour time difference when I booked the restaurant. Well, I simply got a mocktail in the bar, looking at the outside courtyard and messaging a stranger from a dating app, who lives in London but also visited Paris, like me, by himself; what a big surprise for my trip to Paris this time. After an hour, I was offered the seat in the restaurant. All the tables are facing a private outside courtyard.
Table
The menu here was very interesting, apart from the small bites, each course is chosen from 3 candidate dishes. I picked frogs’ legs, lobster, quail and coconut. I was particularly interested in the frogs’ legs, which is not a very common ingredient.
Menu
Before all the dishes I had chosen, there were two rounds of small bites. Do I remember the taste of them? Unfortunately, no, I do not, but they were all fresh and inspired your tongue for the rest of dishes. However, I want to mention the second round; I enjoyed the colour and presentation: a little bit fried, a little bit jelly and a little bit fruit and vegetable in a column.
Canapé
The frogs‘ legs were a bit disappointing to me, because they were way too dry. I do not know how they make the legs meat into a ball, but it looks like it was fried. I had many frogs’ legs when I was a kid in my home town, Changsha. In my memory, the leg meat should be smooth, a bit chewy and have a unique taste. However, here it simply tasted like a dry chicken breast! The paired herbs were also boring. The second problem, or one could argue it is a problem of taste, is the frogs’ legs were way too salty while the herbs had no seasoning. In fact, it was the main style here: overly salty main and no-seasoning side.
Cuisses de grenouille nantaise prêtes à consommer (Ready-to-eat frogs' legs) / Herbes sauvages (Wild herbs)
The next lobster had a similarly over-salty seasoning. I did like the presentation, red for the lobster and green for the sauce and sides mixing with black. The side followed the similar pattern of the small bites, something jelly, something crunchy and then something in light and fresh taste.
Homard miso & Black tempura (Lobster miso & Black tempura)
Then, here we had the quail. I had very similar complaints as with the frog, how they make shape and how they make it so dry? Also, one of the sides (the yellow part in the picture) just slipped into the centre of the plate while they were presenting the dish. I had to say, I disliked it, even for the sides, which were all towards the dry end.
Caille conique façon Tajine (Conical quail Tagine fragrance)
This restaurant was a bit out of my taste. Maybe I had too high expectation since I was in Paris, one of, if not “the”, capital of food. I might also blame my personal feel as I simply disliked the seasoning style of the chef. One thing I want to mention is the excellent service. All the waiters would wait in front of you, but facing away from you, until they spot a “gap” in your own activities, relying on the reflection in the glass, to present you the dish. It is interestingly subtle. Separately, I unfortunately spilled my mocktail on the table, staining the white tablecloth. Immediately, one waiter provided me a white napkin to cover it.
During the entire dinner, I was also being pestered by the stranger I was chatting with on a dating app, who insisted on joining me. Although I would be very happy to have someone for the dinner, but not from a halfway; I had to say I feel very shy to ask the restaurant about this uncommon request in the middle of a set menu dinner. In fact, he apologised to me afterwards and said that he did not realise it is a very serious and formal restaurant. I really appreciated it. We went to a dinner and show in Moulin Rouge in the next day! He became the absolute highlight of my visit to Paris, and I enjoyed every moment with him.
[Update after first write] In fact, we continue to see each other in London since. That is why I said at the beginning of this post, it was absolutely a great day in my life, though probably not from the restaurant.
🐼 Score: 2/5
