Le Pre Catelan
This prestigious restaurant is in the Bois de Boulougne, on the Western edge of Paris. If you take a stroll round the park before your meal, you’ll certainly arrive with an appetite, because it’s more than twice the size of NYC’s Central Park!
Le Pre Catelan
The attached dining hall, used for private functions, is also headed by Chef Anton.
Le Pre Catelan
<br/>You couldn’t call the reception area bright and welcoming! Rather dark and mysterious, in fact.
Le Pre Catelan
<br/>Nor did I like this lounge area much. Cold and miserable, to my mind.
Le Pre Catelan
<br/>The high ceilings in the dining room improved the lighting, but all that hard, white marble meant that it still had a very unwelcoming feel. It reminded me of a funeral home!
Le Pre Catelan
Fortunately, they found us a table with a view of the garden.
Le Pre Catelan
I like this table design – the metal casing keeps the table cloth neatly in place.
Le Pre Catelan
<br/>This unique plate design has a silver centre. The restaurant’s name was everywhere.
Le Pre Catelan
When it came to the menu, the maitre'd told us that, while the tasting menu is a great choice, à-la-carte would be even better, as it’s just as elaborate as the tasting menu - but you get to pick what you want. Sounded good advice to us – so we took it!
Le Pre Catelan
While sipping away our champagne, this arrived – an airy green pea velouté with a mild garlic foam. This foam had a very distinctive texture, half way between cream and foam!
Le Pre Catelan
<br/>Disappointingly, they had only two types of bread - baguette and wheat.
Le Pre Catelan
<br/>Butter - with the place’s name, of course.
Le Pre Catelan
<b>CRAB</b><br/>Our table quickly became packed with food, as each course came in several preparations. A warm and flavourful soup to start...
Le Pre Catelan
...with a cream-filled spoon on the side. The idea is to melt the cream yourself by stirring it into the soup.
Le Pre Catelan
And now, an amazing porcelain crab shell...
Le Pre Catelan
...packed with crab meat and topped with caviar jelly. A real treat for the eyes, but – sadly – not for the tastebuds. Just far too bland.
Le Pre Catelan
Finally, a <a href="http://www.finediningexplorer.com/rest_of_na/robuchon.php" target="_blank"><u><b>Robuchon</b></u></a>-style caviar course as the last crab preparation. Beneath a thin layer of caviar, it was the same as the previous dish. At least, this time, the caviar provided some saltiness, so it wasn’t quite as boring!
Le Pre Catelan
Like the crab course, the <b>Langoustine</b> consisted of three preparations. First was a simple ravioli...
Le Pre Catelan
...with langoustine stuffing.
Le Pre Catelan
Although I expected proper French food at a place like this, I don't actually mind if the chef occasionally incorporates other cuisine at times. But, but but…tempura of langoustine and vegetable, which is obviously Japanese, served with…
Le Pre Catelan
...a Vietnamese fish sauce with chilli and nuts! What's going on? Weird!
Le Pre Catelan
Plus, a tasteless tarragon sauce for the vegetables! Even weirder! OK, so I appreciate that lots of work has gone into preparing the food - but I’m not impressed so far!
Le Pre Catelan
It was a big mistake to serve all the Langoustine dishes at once, because, by the time I got to the grilled preparation, it was completely cold. And, once again, it had very oriental flavours and an extremely salty teriyaki sauce dusted with sesame. I haven't had such a bad 3-star course for a while!
Le Pre Catelan
Anyway. Onto the main courses. First up was <b>Lobster</b>, also in three different preparations. <br/>The whole tail was sautéed and laid on a bed of chopped beans.
Le Pre Catelan
<br/>And the rest were deep fried - just like the tempura of langoustine. Boring!
Le Pre Catelan
<br/>The dish also came with a generous quenelle of caviar.
Le Pre Catelan
Finally, the concentrated broth of the lobster shell was used to make a jelly. This was served in a martini glass and layered with caviar, lobster meat, and lobster cream. It was…
Le Pre Catelan
…by far the best dish of the evening! Powerful flavours, from both the jelly and the cream, blended beautifully with a hint of sea saltiness from the caviar, and – at the bottom - a delicate piece of lobster meat. Excellent!
Le Pre Catelan
<b>Lamb</b><br/>We liked the idea of multiple preparations for each course. It meant we could try various parts of the lamb cooked differently. The sweetbread was incredible - elastic with a creamy centre!
Le Pre Catelan
The plate also had kidney, fillet, loin, and a piece of cutlet. The sauce was a nice combination of lamb jus, vinaigrette and garlic with a touch of pepper. Not bad at all!
Le Pre Catelan
<br/>After a decent selection of cheese…
Le Pre Catelan
… it was time for dessert - <b>Apple</b>.
Le Pre Catelan
It was fun cracking open this apple-flavoured sugar sphere, but…
Le Pre Catelan
…that’s where our enjoyment ended. It turned out to be just a mixture of ice cream and soft meringue with sparkling candy. No different from eating sugar. We left them mostly untouched!
Le Pre Catelan
<br/>Another dessert was <b>Pear</b>, which also arrived in spherical form.
Le Pre Catelan
Melting milk chocolate had been poured over it, and inside...
Le Pre Catelan
... was diced-pear, pear cream and some crispy balls. Both desserts were good to look at, but not so great to eat. Shame!
Le Pre Catelan
By now, we were so disappointed in the meal that we were glad when the petits fours arrived, so we could ask for the bill and leave.
Le Pre Catelan
They also came with various mini-tarts.<br/><br/>Concluding thoughts…the best thing about this visit was the service, which was professional and smooth. Flawless, even. But the food is a different story – a big let-down.
Le Pre Catelan
True, the lamb course was decent, but no more, and none of the courses would make me want to come back again. Was it the blandest and most unexciting meal we had in Paris? Probably, though <a href="http://www.finediningexplorer.com/paris/larpege.php" target="_blank"><u><b>L'Arpege</b></u></a> is also in the frame for this particular honour. Michelin 3-star? Really? If you didn’t know, you’d never guess!
