L'Ambroisie, a traditional French restaurant I love. It's been a while since I went there for dinner, so I'll give you a review.
The restaurant is located in the Place de Vosges, which is the most Parisian but not very popular place.
We arrived early, and the restaurant was not open yet, so we walked around. Next to the restaurant is Hugo's former residence. We sat in the park of the Place de Vosges for a while, as Parisians like to do. Sunset, grass, people sitting on the ground and chatting, children playing in the sandpit, my friend and I didn't talk much, just quietly feeling the atmosphere of life in Paris.
We arrived at the door of this old restaurant on time. The name of the store was engraved on the stone plaque in a very low-key manner. In a candlelight, it seemed that the family-run store, which was painstakingly run by the son and the father, was passed down from generation to generation.
There are several compartments in the restaurant, which was converted from an old apartment. The decorations are very familiar and warm, as if you are a guest at someone else's house.
The restaurant has only four menus a year, spring, summer, autumn and winter. In each season, the best ingredients of the season will be selected to make several exquisite dishes. The waiter introduced that it is now the summer menu, which is mainly lobster. This autumn, it will be changed to a menu with Italian white truffles, and in winter, it will be French black truffles. I don’t know if he didn’t mention spring or I didn’t remember it, leaving a blank.
Let’s not talk nonsense, let’s get straight to the dishes.
Before the appetizer, we still conservatively ordered champagne for the aperitif. The side dish was a salmon dish, which tasted very good.
For the appetizer, I ordered snails, and my friend continued to order caviar. Snails with pasta sounded and tasted a bit strange, so I didn’t give it a high score. But the caviar soft-boiled egg was highly praised by my friends. The caviar also came with a small glass of vodka.
For the main course, we couldn’t help but order the main feature of the summer menu: lobster. Compared with L'Epicure, I think this lobster at L'Ambroisie is more colorful! First of all, the presentation is more vivid, the whole lobster retains a better taste, and the sauce at the bottom of the plate is also quite outstanding!
In terms of wine pairing, my friend and I don’t want to drink too much, we just want to pair it with the dishes. After the waiter’s recommendation, we ordered white wine by the glass.
For dessert, we asked the waiter for his opinion, and he strongly recommended that we order chocolate cake. Michelin calls it the best chocolate cake in the world, and it is the only dish that has not been removed from the menu of this restaurant in 30 years. In view of his praise, we naturally couldn’t help but try it, and the conclusion is: Famous! Not! False! Legend! The hot chocolate is baked just right, the outside is burnt and the inside is melted, the concentration is just right, not bitter or greasy. The matching vanilla ice cream is also very pure and refreshing. One cold and one hot, the two worlds of ice and fire meet between your lips and teeth, stimulating your taste buds. I really want to use climax to describe it.
The last picture is the dessert snacks after the meal. Just like at noon, our stomachs have no room for them, so I ate a little symbolically.
Overall, the dining environment here is relatively simple, and compared to the grandeur of Alain Ducasse, it feels like a farmhouse. The light is a bit dim, so the photos I took are not very good, please forgive me!