I wanted to try this place for a long time.
From Chef Ludovic Turac, young chef (he's my age more or less, 25) from L'Hotel du Castelet and Top Chef, I was expecting something. Now, I don't know what "something" means, I wanted a creative, adventurous travel. Did I get it? So-and-so. But still a good meal.
The location is excellent, I think it'd be impossible to find something better, right at the top of the Vieux Port, booking early means you get one of the two tables in front of the window, Just amazing, you'll eat on the sea with an enlightened Notre Dame de la Garde in the background. Best scenery in Marseille centre.
Reception is on the plus side, warming and formal at the same time, exactly what I expected.
Menu, we have 2 "tradition" menus, that means bouillabaisse ( In Marseille I think even kebab places have its own version of this dish!), grilled fish menu and inspiration menu, 6 dishes according to chef will. Obviously you should go for the latter one, there is no point in getting anything else (at least on the first try).
Wine is covered by Ludovic's wife, Karine, and was quite unexpected. Basically you won't find anything else than France, and most of the menu covers Provence and Bouche du Rhone. Now, I loved it and I think more restaurants should follow this advice, if you live in a land with great local wine just serve your local wine, it's great so why should you want to have anything else? But in this place in particular, I expected something less traditional, something more adventurous. But it's still a good cave.
Now the food.
Mise en bouche: fennel Panna cotta with grapefruit, decent but a bit too flavorful (especially the fennel) for being a mise en bouche, it should open up your flavor receptors for the meal, not engaging a pitched battle with it.
Foie gras, confit with sweet spices: pitched battle from before? Now I get it, our second dish was foie gras! damn, this is too strong, i know you only have 6 dishes but going from fennel to foie gras is definitely a huge step, maybe too big for my palate. Furthermore, my first thought when I received the dish was "õ way this is going to be balanced" and...... .I was right of course. Luckily it's joined with a citrus flavored "puff pastry" (not exact, but I don't know how to describe it better) for getting the acidity you need with the foie gras. In the end a good dish, but not exactly "right".
Fregola flavored with orange flowers and oysters : main dish of the meal. This was just perfect. Flavorful, delicate, I think it's quite difficult to prepare an actual dish with oyster where the oyster is the top flavor and it's not covered by other flavors but rather exalted by them. Just perfect. Even the texture, joining together raw and cooked ingredients, it's amazing, spot on.
Now I just want to make a note: 3 dishes (plus bread with orange citrus butter) all with citrus flavor. Now, I do get it's winter, and it's citrus season, but all 4 first dishes has this flavor. Isn't it a bit too much? Seriously, I expected something a little bit more innovative.
Noix de Saint Jacques with cream of peppers: another amazing dish, not very creative nor innovative, but it was perfectly cooked, perfectly presented (Oh I do love dishes created directly on the table), flavorful and "alive", with its own personality. Second position in my personal ranking just because it was a bit too traditional with respect to the fregola.
Chicken with chestnut cream and figatelli foam: that was unexpected: chicken. Seriously, chicken as "main dish". Wow, ok, if you want to serve chicken as main dish you must give me a world class chicken, something I will tell to my grandsons. Especially after you served foie gras as entree. In the end, this was quite blend and disappointing dish, yes it's good but not creative, chestnut covered almost everything and there was no acid note to join the dish. This is a dish I can prepare at home, I don't see any reason for finding it on my table. This alone could make a 4 star meal go to a 3 stars, it's just not right.
Cheese: this elaboration of the same cheese (brie) on three different versions was quite interesting. Serving to its purpose, cleaning the mouth from the main entries, it was consistent and pleasant. Nothing excellent, but a solid dish you can enjoy.
Dessert, snicker: I tried several version of these dishes, I tasted snickers, kit kat, mars, bounty, nutella, etc. From my point of view, it's a bit boring. You joined together chocolate, peanuts and mou, not really a creative combination, you used citrus for most of the meal, why don't you give me something with chocolate and orange? Anything could be better than a snicker! It was good, but there is no research on the flavors.
In conclusion, it was a good meal, but I expected something more experimental from a 25 years old chef. Will come back during summer, maybe with more ingredients he can make his mind fly a little bit more! read more