Le Gabriel - Paris
A dining room straight out of the 19th century (or possibly earlier)
Rating: 17/20
Where: Paris, France
When: Dinner for 2 on 22 April 2024
Cost: Tasting menu 278-378 Euro, Wine pairing 192-722 Euro
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars
Why: Good seafood and chicken dishes inspired by Brittany
The restaurant “Le Gabriel” received its third Michelin star about a month before our visit. Clearly a special occasion for the restaurant, but also one for me personally. With this dinner, I had eaten at all of the 144 then current three-Michelin-starred restaurants (while they actually held three stars). The choice of this final restaurant was dictated mostly by logistics, but it felt fitting to have it be in Paris, the capital of the Michelin Guide's birth country.
Uncharacteristically, we arrived twenty minutes early, which gave us some time to admire the fancy “La Reserve” hotel in which the restaurant is located. The hotel's interior is distinctly old-school: ostentatious, gilded, baroque. The dining room is similarly decorated, and its location is surprisingly hidden: a circuitous walk from the lobby finally led us through a side-door of the hotel bar. The room is not particularly large either, holding only nine tables during our visit. White table cloths and a real candle adorned each table.
Two tasting menus were offered, each coming with either seven or nine courses. The first tasting menu's theme was Brittany, the home of the chef, and the second menu featured flavors from around the world, pre-dominantly from Asia. Our server recommended the Brittany menu for first-time visitors, and we went with that one. As tempting as it would have been to celebrate hitting all 144 three-starred restaurants with an around-the-world menu, it made a bit more sense to order a menu that one could only get here. Japanese-influenced French food with international ingredients is pretty common in comparison. There were two wine pairings: a regular one at 192-232 Euro (for 7/9 courses), and a grand cru pairing at 622-722 Euro. I stuck with the regular pairing, and with a few exceptions, the wines were quite good, and all fit the food pretty well.
Four little bites arrived before the official start of the tasting menu. First, a puffed potato dusted with red bell pepper powder. Essentially, this was a not-too-exciting potato chip that could have used more salt 11. Next, an oyster was served with chopped hazelnuts, lemon and ginger. The oyster was fine, there was lots of acidity from the little lemon cubes, and some texture from the crunchy hazelnuts, but overall this wasn't particularly exciting - a really good oyster by itself might have been better 13. A little tartlet was filled with “creamy pork”, apples and caviar. The cracker was quite nice and added lots of texture to the dish, and the flavors combined into a satisfying whole 14. Finally, a breaded and deep-fried snail came with some Comté cheese and a wild garlic cream. The contents of this fried ball were a bit indistinctive. It would have been hard to identify this as a snail without being told. The wild garlic cream was quite nice though (but a far cry from the amazing one we had two days prior) 15.
The first course of the tasting menu was shared by the two tasting menus, and it began with a signature dish of the chef: the limestone-marinated carrot. The soft-cooked carrot was filled with a carrot ginger mousse, and came with slivers of marinated carrots and a carrot ginger sauce. On the side was a brioche that could be used to mop up the sauce. This was a great dish. The little carrot was soft and sweet, and the carrot slivers were the opposite: crunchy and sour. The sauce was lovely: it was acidic, tasted distinctively of ginger, and had a hint of sweetness thanks to the carrot 18.
A buckwheat bread was served with salted butter from Brittany, and had a nice crunch, but was otherwise unremarkable. I suppose its neutral taste made it a good vehicle for enjoying the upcoming sauces 15.
There was a second part to the first course: an artichoke heart glazed with cherry blossom vinegar. Next to it were some dollops of artichoke mousse, and everything was surrounded by a barigoule sauce made from artichoke leaves, white wine and butter. The soft-cooked artichoke heart had a mix of sweet and savory flavors, whereas the mousse had only a light artichoke flavor. The sauce was wonderful with some acidity 17.
Course two: a sardine that had been cured similar to gravlax. It was served with slivers of bell peppers, fried capers, saffron, watercress and mustard seeds. Sardines often have a fishy taste, but this one didn’t have any. Texture-wise, the dish was interesting, with some popping sensations added by fish roe. But tastewise, the dish was a bit muddled. The sauce felt reminiscent of a tartar sauce - which is not necessarily bad, but in this case it overwhelmed the other ingredients 15.
An abalone had been roasted in butter, and was served with a green lentil salad (underneath) and some caviar (on top). On the side was some fried kale, and a sauce made of seaweed, kale and cabbage oil. Here, the flavors of everything on the plate went together very nicely. And for the most part, the individual components were great as well: the sauce, the light lentil salad, and the pretty good caviar. However, two ingredients stood out when eating this dish: the abalone was very chewy - too chewy for my taste -, and the fried kale was very fatty. These unfortunate standouts made this (otherwise great) dish a bit uneven 16.
Blue lobster had been poached in seawater and then grilled on binchōtan coals. Some corn and sorrel sat underneath the lobster, and it was surrounded by a sauce made from corn, Japanese rayu spices and coral butter. In a separate glass was a lobster stock. The lobster meat was a bit chewy and lightly sweet. One might have expected the corn-based sauce to be sweet as well, but it only had a hint of sweetness - very nice! The rayu spices were very subtle. The lobster broth was slightly bitter, and its taste reminded me of shrimp heads - presumably, lobster heads had been used here. Overall a decent dish 17.
A mackerel had been cooked between cedar planks, a Japanese technique that's usually applied to salmon. It was served with uni, shallots, bottarga, potatoes and a bourride sauce. The mackerel tasted nicely fishy (in a good way) but the potatoes were quite plain. Overall, this was a fairly heavy dish thanks to the fatty fish, lightened only by the slightly acidic sauce 17.
Many layers of meat made up a terrine of crispy pork’s head. It came with mashed potatoes and two sauces: a jus of pork bones, and a cream of coastal herbs, iodine and poached shells. This was a heavy dish: there was a lot of pork - crunchy and layered like a millefeuille. The jus was very nice by itself, but the rest of the ingredients were best eaten together 16.
As a final savory course we received... chicken. The poultry in question had been marinated in buttermilk and came with miso-marinated white asparagus, a wild garlic juice and a buttermilk mousse. Let's start with the bad news. The asparagus was overcooked (or over-roasted), and a bit sweet, making it more reminiscent of a roasted turnip rather than asparagus (maybe 13 if rated individually). But there was also good news, and it was very good indeed: this might have been the best chicken I've ever eaten! It put a lie to the sentiment that chicken is an anti-climatic main course at a fine-dining restaurant. (Although it generally is.) This chicken was juicy, nicely salted and very flavorful. It was also nicely complemented by the jus. The chicken's skin was less exciting - crispy but a bit fatty -, the dish might have been fine without it (19 for the chicken). Overall 18.
Palate cleanser time. A lime sorbet was seasoned with mint, parsley, lemon balm, apple. pickled ginger, apple juice and parsley oil. A fresh tasting dish that was dominated by the lime flavor with a hint of apple 17.
The first of two desserts was served inside an “Italian style” meringue. In its center was grapefruit meat, lemon peel and sea asparagus. The sour grapefruit and sweet meringue made for a nice combination, but the sea asparagus added some seaweed flavor, which the dish didn't really need 17.
Finally, a filled Williams pear was served with a honey ice cream. The pear was dehydrated, with a texture similar to fruit leather, and had a fruity filling. The honey ice cream had a strong aftertaste, at first we were reminded of shrimp (!), but more likely this was just a very unusual tasting honey 16.
Three petit four sweetened the arrival of the check. A cracker topped with a pistachio mousse and a burnt sugar wafer was seasoned with orange blossoms. I couldn't actually detect the orange blossom, so this mostly tasted like pistachios with a hint of burnt sugar. A heavy petit four 16. A marshmallow covered with chocolate and topped with passion fruit gel was a bit better. The first impression was the acidity of the passion fruit, followed by the sweetness of the marshmallow and finally some crunch from cocoa nibs 16. Last but not least, a yuzu and kaffir lemon Chantilly was very sour and not too sweet 16.
We got a package of buckwheat chocolate cookies to take home. I won't rate them, since I ate them a couple days later.
The service during our dinner was an odd mixture: at times amazingly perceptive and accommodating, at others almost rude. It started when we arrived twenty minutes early for our reservation, which the receptionist acknowledged in a way that suggested that maybe we didn’t understand how reservations work. What did we expect them to do when we just showed up like that? But things improved during dinner. My dining companion didn’t feel too well, and our server bent over backwards to accommodate her: first by allowing her to order 7 courses to my 9, and then even going completely a la carte, while only charging for the dishes that were consumed. He checked on her repeatedly and made sure that her hot tea was always refilled. An excellent and flexible service that put the guest first - bravo! Oddly, the same server became standoffish near the end of our dinner. First, by refusing to repeat the ingredients of dishes - walking off without even acknowledging my question - and then by generally minimizing all interactions with us. Finally, he ushered us from the dining room for our supposedly waiting taxi, only for us to discover outside that the cab hadn’t even been called yet. An unfortunate way to conclude an otherwise pleasant dinner.
Overall: This was a good dinner, with a couple of standout dishes, including a truly amazing chicken dish (something I might have considered an oxymoron before this dinner). Several courses felt a bit unbalanced, allowing one or two components to overwhelm the rest. Foodwise, this was at the weaker end of Paris' three-Michelin-starred restaurants. The service was also somewhat uneven, at times excellent, while at others borderline rude 17
