2 /5
Bewertung
★
★
We 've known and liked the cooking of chef Julien Lavandet for a longtime, but our first experience of his comeback after a two=year hiatus was very very disappointing. For started, the hotel where he 's located is still pretty much of a building site, and then when we arrived the young woman at reception didn 't say, Bonsoir or Bienvenue, but Vous avez reserve? She was cold and wooden, as were the two men in ill-fitting suits who run the dining room (this is a real shame, because Lavandet 's wife did such a charming job at the maitresse d 'hotel at his last restaurant, La Table de Julien). The ligting in the modern dining room is too bright, and the automatic kitchen door doesn 't close quickly enough, so a meal is regularly punctuated by bursts of kitchen noise. The idea of putting cotton balls on the tables is clearly to save money on real flowers, but is both sad and unhygienic. Re the food, portions are very stingy and the flavours in the cooking were often bland. It seemed to us that Lavandet has sort of gotten stuck, or stopped growing and evolving as a chef, right done to the Kylie Minogue style styling of a strawberry sable. Given the fact that a meal here cost more than double what it did at La Maison 2 Julien, this place offers poor value for money, little atmosphere and a rather underwhelming gastronomic experience overall. I very much doubt we 'd go back, especially since the cooking at the Chateau de Collias in Collias is simply outstanding for the same prices.