Le Parc Les Crayères, Reims

Les Crayères is another monument to French cuisine. Currently it has a 2 star rating from Michelin. The restaurant is located in a small château in a beautiful park in Reims, in the Champagne region.
As usual, I informed the restaurant that there would be some vegetarians in our party and I specified that it meant no meat or fish.

le château

As we were seated we were asked again whether fish would be acceptable. A short discussion followed about what could be prepared for the vegetarians. This is never a good sign in my opinion. When I go to a restaurant of this kind, it is to taste the cuisine of the chef and not the recommandations of the maître d'. I feel that the chef should be able to create dishes for the diners. In any case we were able to order our dinner.
After a set of four amuse-bouche, delicate but a bit subdued, the vegetarians had a vegetable medley and a mixed salad as a starter, while I had scallops on artichoke 'risotto' with shavings of white truffle. My dish was excellent, while my wife found the starter not daring enough. The fall vegetables were overpowered by the mushrooms and the tiny ginger and beet ravioli were too shy and lost among the other green.
The vegetarian main courses were the artichoke 'risotto' I had as part of my starter and angel hair pasta with white truffle and a parmesan sauce. My son loved this dish, regretting only the minute size of the portion.
My main was a most classic fall French haute cuisine dish: lièvre à la royale. It was a miracle, possibly even better than the same perfect dish I had a few years back in Paris at Senderens.
As desserts we had a chocolate tart, a pistachio soufflé and a tarte sablée.
My wife had the soufflé, served with a quenelle of lemon ice cream or sorbet that unfortunately was too strong and grainy in texture.
While I would definitely recommend this restaurant for meat-eaters I felt that the chef was not inspired by vegetarian cuisine.
The staff of the restaurant was friendly and efficient, but the perfect clockwork of service I expect from this kind of establishment did now always work seamlessy.

web site: http://www.lescrayeres.com/

Le Relais Bernard Loiseau, Saulieu

My first post is about a very well known 3 star Michelin restaurant in Saulieu, in the Burgundy region of France. I am not going into the history and the facilities of this establishment because it is easy to check on the web if you want more information. You can also check their menu to see whether they offer vegetarian options. If the choice is limited, it is always better to ask.

In this case I was told that the restaurant could accomodate a vegetarian. I went there for lunch in October with my youngest son, who is a vegetarian, just like his mum.
We had a classic starter-main-dessert lunch, as follows:
After a delicious amuse-bouche I had lobster with artichoke, while the vegetarian option was 'jeune legumes en potager' which was an actual starter from the menu.

medaillons de homard

jeunes legumes en potager

The lobster was simply perfect, tasty, well presented, great quality, cooked to perfection. My son's starter was pretty and quite good, but he was not overwhelmed.
As a main I had a classic dish from Mr Loiseau, chicken breast with warm foie gras, while my son enjoyed a small but delicious risotto. My dish was good but after the perfection of the lobster I had expected something more.
Dessert was a chocolate feast: 'rose de sable au chocolat' for me and 'chocolat java en atome' for him. Mine was outstanding and I would go back there just for that dish.

chocolat java en atome

rose de sable au chocolat

Overall it was a positive experience. This is definitely one of the foremost addresses for French haute cuisine. I felt they made an effort to accomodate a vegetarian, even if in my opinion they could have been more daring with the main course. At least it was not the dreaded 'assiette de legumes!'
web site: http://www.bernard-loiseau.com/

About this blog

Why this blog? Because I love food. Good food, from all over the world. One of my favorite cuisines is the one from France.
This is where my problem start. You see, I am married to a lovely vegetarian lady and taking her to a fine restaurant in France can be a frustrating experience, because often food choices are extremely limited if you do not eat meat or fish.
So I have decided to embark on a mission to try and test the finest restaurants, in France and elsewhere, to find the most vegetarian-friendly ones.