Astrance, Paris (***)

It's been many years I wanted to visit L' Astrance in Paris but I always hesitated. The booking process was one of the hardest in the city. You had to call in a specific two hours long period and find one of about 10 tables available for lunch or diner, at least 2 months in advance as there was a permanent waiting list. Luckily nowadays the french website has an email address to contact them. So one and a half months prior to my lunch I sent them an email which they answered promptly and confirmed me a table for 2 for early December. The restaurant was indeed full at the time. 

It all started in 2000 by the head chef Pascal Barbot and the maitre d' Christophe Rohat both working at L'Arpege before creating L'Astrance. They won their first star after only one year in the business, the second came in 2005 and the third in 2007 retained ever since. The restaurant located in a quite street near Trocadero in the 16th arrondissement has a two level salle with a few tables. The minimal modern decor has mainly dark colours with dark grey walls, yellow chairs and perfectly ironed white tablecloths. The cooking is modern french with Japanese influences.

The restaurant open from Tuesday to Friday for lunch and diner has no a la carte menu. You can only choose from 3 different carte blanche set menus. The lunch menu available only for lunch followed by the seasonal menu and the Menu Astance both available for lunch or diner. As it was the white truffle season you could supplement your menu with a little or a lot of white truffle at 80 or 150 euros extra respectively. We chose the lunch menu.

We started with country bread and salted butter. The bread only of one kind was amazing with yeast aromas, nice crust and moist interior with the necessary open crumbs. 

Three amuse bouche followed. An earthy hot consomme, a small tartelette with Parmesan cream and cooked pear and a crispy white almond sandwich with lime cream filling. All were flavorful and skillfully made. 

The wine that the sommelier proposed was from Cotes du Rhone from the Domaine Gramenon. A Grenache full bodied wine  from 2012 with spicy aromas. Great overall, came from a magnum bottle and served by glass at 30 euros per glass. 

The first course was the signature dish of L' Astrance. Foie gras and mushroom tart served with concentrated hazelnut oil and lemon confit puree. Raw finely mandoline sliced button mushrooms alongside green apple slices were carefully placed on layers of foie gras on top of a crispy caramelized extremely thin pastry base. The earthy notes of the mushrooms complimented the fatty foie gras while the acidic lemon puree balanced the flavor. A well thought glorious dish that I will remember for many many years. 

Cod fillet with Japanese rice and beurre blanc with soya sauce was simply stunning. This was in fact one of the tastiest dishes I can recall in any Michelin starred restaurant. Perfect technique in every element and utterly delicious. The cod perfectly cooked with translucent interior, caramelized on top, the rice with lime as good as it can possibly be ( I really have no words to describe it). The purple cauliflower and the beetroot supplemented on the acidity while the soya sauce on the beurre blanc on the saltiness. 

Duck breast from Challans, sour cherry puree, sweet chili pepper and quince made the main dish, accompanied by a second small bowl of duck leg meat, vegetables and a thin toasted slice of bread with duck foie gras spread on top. A very rich dish with a perfectly cooked duck breast and an amazing sauce. 

A pre-dessert followed, described as a restaurant's classic. Sweet chili and lemongrass sorbet. I found this very interesting, as the heat from the chili was strong while the sorbet was inverting this feeling.

The main dessert was a thin caramel multi layer cylinder filled with pears, walnuts , chocolate, and lemon zest Chantilly cream on top. A piece of cognac soaked Perigord truffle was alongside on the dish and a quenelle of perfect coffee ice cream in the bowl. I didn't find the dessert to be in same league with the previous dishes as it was too sweet and quite on the heavy side. 

Fresh fruits, madeleines and jasmine eggnog followed after dessert. 

The service was abundant, attentive and professional working like a Swiss made watch. The value for money is very good, this is the cheapest of all the 3 Michelin starred restaurants in Paris and after visiting most of them I would also say one of the very best.