5 David Töller - 3 months ago
The small restaurant is situated in the center of Münster in a small, surprisingly bright backyard, that we would have missed, if not for the signs showing us where to look for our evenig's destination. After passing the concierge desk, you enter a beautifully decorated, rather modern, but still cozy dining room that is surprisingly small but at the same time spacy. All seetings are placed so, that if there are only parties of two, everyone has a good view of the kitchen and bar areas, which makes for great entertainment for the evening. The young, motivated and open staff in kitchen and service makes you feel right at home. After being seated, we were immidiately served water and offered a small, but nice selection of aperitifs. My partner and I chose a pleasently dry, non-alcoholic fruit secco and a glass of good, but rather harmless André Clouet NV Rosé brut Champagne, third option being a vintage Riesling traditional Sekt by Weingut Familie Schorn from.the Mosel region. As this rather standard, but high quality selection was not indicative of the menu's accompanying beverage pairing, that showed a strong mix of creativity and understanding of how to match the food's aroma, we didn't bother with the wine menu and were ready to order the full 8 course tasting menu as the first of 3 apéros arrived. The food served and expertly exlpained by the kitchen team, led by chef and restaurateur Frédéric Morel, was first of all flawless with every single course being on a - at minimum - very high level with more than a few reaching excellence. Morel's creativity, that only works because of his ability not to make mistakes, neither in cooking time nor selection and combination of aromas, combined with great touch for ingredients of the highest standard, a lot of them comming from the Bretagne - his mother's home region - such as a succulant and perfectly sweet Bretonic lobster, the umami packed, tender 2018 vintage sardines or the simply perfect fresh red mullet (our favourite dish, but more on that later) as well as his will to employ a lot (!) of spices and herbs, again often reaching into his family's background, employing spices coming from the island of La Reunion, his father's home, makes for a surprising, tasty and sometimes borderline crazy journey through the chef's past, that combines traditional and modern cuisine. The dishes that we will remember the most, were the perfectly pan seared mullet, that I already mentioned and that was served with variations of olive and the restaurant's namesake artichoke and topped with an essence of Artischocke that was cooked for three days and should be served by the liter, such was the perfection in strength and subtleness at the same time, the liquid's aroma never overshadowing the fish or the other ingredients, yet still smacking you in the face with its rich taste. The latter can also be said for the deep, rich jus that came with a nice piece of breast of what might be my favourite bird to eat, Challans duck. Equally great where the desserts with grilled apricot on a loose, therefore many times better interpretation of NY Cheesecake being chief among them. Finally the epilogue contained one more surprise, that had me audibly giggling, almost laughing out loud due to its ridiculous genius: espuma of Eucalyptus combined with red fruit sorbet and baiser. Presented to us by Morel as one of his signature dishes, we were rather sceptical, as this sounded simply to far fetched to work, but we should have known better. Subtlety again reigned supreme and what we got was a well balanced, fresh and joyous end to our menu, that was worth every cent of money and every minute of time we spend. Did I mention that the two person service team rivaled the kitchen's efforts with friendliness, professionalism and attentiveness? All in all a great evening and definetly worth a (re)visit! 5 stars and 8.5 on my personal scale!
