December 10, 2014

Dining with Chef Thierry @ Maison Francaise, KL

Pretty in white, lay with its usual modern and elegant atmosphere; filled with colourful paintings on the wall and comfortable lightning in the monotone dining area. Maison Francaise it is, the French House which is just about 5 minutes away from the city centre. A great hide out for out chill-out lunch or dinner, as well as the weekend pampering treats such as afternoon tea. Once you are in here, you will be in a relax mode, as though holidaying in a French mansion. If you love the sun and breeze, you can always opt to be seated at outdoor area, decorated with sweet floral setting.

This time, I had this precious opportunity with the bunch of good friends, trying out the new a la carte menu sincerely presented by the new chef, Chef Thierry and his team. Love the way he presented the food and his skill, transforming the simple ingredients into the next level, like seeing the beautiful colourful aura and the tastebuds dancing accordingly to the flavour-rhythm.

Goat Cheese Basket, Tapenade Quenelle, Honey Dressing
We started off our meal with Goat Cheese Basket. The first plate itself was already too pretty to fork in. It was a superb starter, with rich and creamy goat cheese retouched with cherry tomatoes, carrot slices, rockets and the crispy caramelized thingie; served with tapenade quenelle and dressed with the sweet refreshing honey dressing.

Seared Burgundy Snail, Rocket, Blinis, Garlic Butter
Fluffy blinis (the thin pancake), topped with fresh green rockets and underneath were the seared fragrant Burgundy Snail with garlic butter. The Burgundy snails were pretty earthy and it tasted best to have it with the fluffy pancake and bits of greens. I am pretty sure you will like this if you loved the earthiness flavour.

Grilled French Foie Gras, Crispy Provencal Figs Filo, Figs Sauce.
We actually went ohh-ed and ahh-ed over the creamy, melt-in-mouth fatty grilled foie gras; at the same time rich and flavourful too! Served along at the side were the crispy figs filo and sweet figs Sauce. You can have them together or separately. Myself, I would love them separately to have a better taste of each main and sides. They were all so yummy!!! Chef Thierry does know how to work well on every ingredient with his magic.

Tarbot coated with Asparagus Puree and Vegetable
It was indeed a refreshing touch of asparagus mousse, the puree and the asparagus on the delicious, prettily seared fresh tarbot with a thin crisp. Though they were all came from the same family of asparagus, each different form or texture tasted so differently and blended so well together and on the fish.

Seared Dover sole with Herbi Raviolis
Hmmm… not our kind of thing as it was a little overdone; the texture was a lil’ dry to our liking.

Lamb Loin with Crusted Herbs, Sautéed Quinoa with Lamb Sauce, Tomato Ratatouille and Baked Potato
The lamb loin was beautifully presented in a plate, with drizzles of hazelnuts crust on top of it and sat warming on a bed of sautéed Peruvian Quinoa. Every single detail is being taken care of. Even the tiny sweet cherry tomatoes were stuffed with ratatouille in it. How adorable! Am not a fan of lamb but I love the Peruvian Quinoa which was bursting with flavours. Lovely!

Grilled beef tenderloin, Sichuan pepper sauce, potatoes and Cheese Skewer
Another brilliant dish! The beef appeared in pinkish blush, perfectly grilled; sat on the not-overly-powering pepper sauce and dashed with bubbly foams. One word, just right.

Pistachio & Amaretto Entremets, Pistachios Ice Cream
Smooth and creamy rich mousse sandwiched in between fluffy sponge layers and paired with the pistachio-rich ice cream.

Apple Tart, Creamy Safron Sabayon Chocolate Mousse, Apple Sorbet
A piece of art! Rich chocolaty mousse layered on the flaky tart crust and paired with the chilling refreshing sourish apple sorbet. All of their desserts were really good and we licked clean the plate!