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2018-05-12
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My birthday celebration continues this week and tonight, I'm meeting up with Agent-I for dinner at à nu retrouvez-vous. Along with HAKU, à nu retrouvez-vous has been sitting on top of my to-do list for a while so I am glad to finally tick those two off my list this week.Located on the 4th floor of OTE (Ocean Terminal Extension), à nu retrouvez-vous is the sister restaurant of à nu retrouvez-vous Tokyo, a Japanese-French fine dining restaurant in Hiroo opened by owner-chef Shohei Shimono (下野 昌平)
Located on the 4th floor of OTE (Ocean Terminal Extension), à nu retrouvez-vous is the sister restaurant of à nu retrouvez-vous Tokyo, a Japanese-French fine dining restaurant in Hiroo opened by owner-chef Shohei Shimono (下野 昌平) in 2009. Chef Shimono and his team went on to capture their first Michelin star in 2011 and that's where they've been for the past 6 years. 
It would be too much to expect Shimono-san to be here for the day-to-day operation so that's where head chef Yusuke Kitade (北出 佑介) comes in. Chef Kitade has been working alongside Shimono-san since 2013 so we knew we will be in very capable hands tonight. 
While we were offered some bread to start the meal, our server decided to give us a pop quiz on the name of the restaurant. The question was whether we knew how it translates into English (from French obviously). Well, that's a tough one for someone who flunked high school French and ended up taking Español to fulfill the second-language requirements. After a little bit of dead air, he finally had the answer for us (Thank you!). "Just as it is", the wise man said. He went onto explain that it's the mojo of the restaurant - to let the natural flavors of the ingredients shine the way they should.
Now that we got our little French lesson out of the way, it's time for more bread. This time, some homemade brioche served with butter and sour cream.
Homemade brioche
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Amuse bouche
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Hamaguri clam
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Poached Japanese egg with white asparagus
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It was followed by charcoal grilled lobster with yuzu vinaigrette and lemongrass foam. There was a scoop of lobster tartare on the side to give us some contrasting texture and flavor. 
Charcoal grilled lobster with yuzu vinaigrette and lemongrass foam
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Smoked eel was mixed with silky foie gras terrine and pan seared slightly. What really made this dish extra special was the generous portion of sansho flower (花山椒) laying on top of the sea eel and foie gras terrine. These sansho flowers are only available for a few weeks every year and their season is wrapping up soon.
There were a lot of flavors in this elegant dish (though not a lot of textures), with the smoky eel, velvety foie gras and aromatic sansho flower all doing its part in this symphony of flavors which was very enjoyable for our palates.
Smoked eel and foie gras terrine with sansho flower
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This had surprisingly nice texture. Perfectly moist and succulent, both signs of a beautifully cooked dish. Even the simplest finishing touches with seaweed butter, choy sum and fennel already did the trick.
Pan fried kinmadai
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A5 sirloin with beetroot purée and green pepper sauce
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After our main dish, we had a nice pink guava granita with candied kiwi as our palate cleanser.
Dessert was à nu retrouvez-vous's signature mango fleur d’été, with slices of fresh mango making up the shape of a rose.
Mango fleur d’été
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A small petite four to wrap up this surprisingly impressive meal that lasted almost 3 hours (3 enjoyable hours).
Million thanks to my food buddy who treated me to this wonderful birthday dinner tonight. I have just a few more birthday celebration meals to go so hopefully, I can go on a diet in time for my annual body check scheduled for early May.
張貼
