Good Addresses - MARCH 2024

Our Restaurants of the month 

La Taverne Alsacienne in Ingersheim (near Colmar, 99 rue République, Ingersheim)

Fabulous dinner in this charming tavern! After a business trip, nothing better to unwind... This is a restaurant within an imposing building, a table well known to wine lovers for a well-stocked wine list with reasonable prices/ 

While good deals are less numerous than 10 years ago, some still remain... 

The market menu at €36 pleased us greatly: excellent value for money with a choice of fresh products! Refined and careful cuisine by the Guggenbuhl family: it has gained in lightness, although you must love cream for the starter and main course... 

Starter: Perfect egg, bread espuma and grilled bacon slice. Pure delight. 

Main course: Fillet of flounder with its Riesling sauce, sautéed sauerkraut: a killer for those who love seafood sauerkraut! The Riesling sauce, perfect with our wine choices, was nicely creamy and very pleasant. 

Dessert: to try to finish lightly, we preferred to have the Black Forest sphere, cherry sorbet, rather than the traditional apple strudel, its vanilla ice cream and salted butter caramel. Very tempting too, but more challenging. 

All accompanied by delicious wines! As we wrote above, the restaurant's menu displays interesting prices, very interesting indeed! 

Silex de Dagueneau: €110, perfect to accompany the egg and its creamy sauce: beautiful acidity supported by the mineral aspect to cut through and balance the starter.

Jubilée Hugel - Riesling 1997: €75! A killer with the seafood sauerkraut and its sauce of the same grape variety, Alsace gem!

Trimbach - Gewurztraminer Sélection Grains Nobles 2017: €110! magnificent sweetness to accompany dessert!

Restaurant Racine - Reims (6 place Godinot)

Contemporary and refined setting with bay windows overlooking a Japanese garden: very harmonious and in line with Kazuyuki Tanaka's cuisine. The restaurant is known for very elegant and creative cuisine, with multiple influences and beautiful aromatic touches: herbs, vegetables, plants and condiments! Each dish is surprising... A magnificent 2-star restaurant, which fully deserves them!! 

The tasting menu we had in March is a pure delight! Impossible to perfectly summarize each experience, and impossible to include all the photos taken during the evening, but we'll do our best! 

Variations around asparagus and frog; red mullet and endive, whiting, mushroom and crustaceans; oyster kohlrabi and kiwi; John Dory, eggplant and preserved lemon; Carabinero, carrot and fennel; pigeon, celery and onion; chocolate, apple and ginger; clementine, pistachio and passion fruit! 

Simple titles, carefully crafted and enhanced products, everything you'd expect from a 2-star restaurant. We've rarely experienced such pairings... The wine list is magnificent! Notably 250 Champagne references: well yes, we are indeed in Reims! 

We therefore chose 2 Champagnes to accompany this array of dishes, two winemakers we know and particularly appreciate.

Emmanuel Brochet - Le Mont Benoit: superb organic Champagne with a significant portion of Meunier! Thus this Champagne is powerful, endowed with beautiful freshness and a slightly oxidative side (linked to the Meunier). The bouquet is marked by notes of yellow fruits and dried fruits. Chalky finish thanks to beautiful minerality, this Champagne always hits the mark! 

Ruppert Leroy Rosé Champagne: a Champagne with intense aromatic notes, which pairs perfectly with this gastronomic cuisine. It's a Rosé de Saignée, made by maceration of the berries (semi-carbonic for 4 days), 100% Pinot Noir. Brut Nature and without dosage, we fully appreciate the purity and intense fruit: beautiful notes of ripe fruits, blood orange, cinnamon, pepper... A beautiful aromatic palette with a creamy attack, minerality and a beautiful finish!

Le Saint Joseph - La Garenne Colombes (100 Bvd de la République)

A very nice little restaurant (near the office) that's worth the detour! Intimate with few covers, cuisine with extremely fresh and very well-crafted products with beautiful originality, we're happy to be able to go there from time to time! The staff is adorable and we really like the menu that varies with the seasons. 

There's also a nice wine list, with obviously, some Saint Joseph! For lunch, we stay reasonable and can thus taste their wines by the glass! That day: Small Chablis Dauvissat, Coursodon Saint Joseph Silice Red. On the menu you also find: Desjourneys, Gonon, Grippat, Renaudin and Cuilleron, enough to treat yourself!

On the menu: revisited egg mayo, stuffed cabbage with its fragrant little condiments, superb yuzu and chocolate madeleines. 

Difficult to return to work afterwards, but a pleasure for the taste buds!

Le Bistrot Flaubert - Paris 17th (10 RUE GUSTAVE FLAUBERT)

Very beautiful place where Erwan Ledru creates modern and creative cuisine with seasonal products! An old-fashioned creamery where we love to go and indulge, all in a timeless setting. 

Much research in the preparations, cooking and seasonings. A nice cellar "completes this Parisian gem" for our greatest pleasure! We thus tasted several delicious dishes as shown in the photos. 

For the wines, we treated ourselves! 

Champagne Laherte Frères – Les 7, Solera 

Domaine Buisson Battault – Meursault 1er Cru Les Gouttes d'Or 2019

Domaine Mugneret Gibourg Nuits Saint Georges Au bas de Combe 2019

Les Cadres Noirs Percherons – Mead 

A little tip from our team: don't hesitate to ask the sommelier for the wine list from the "big brother" restaurant less than 30 meters away, which is none other than the illustrious Edmond Rostan, Michelin-starred... The prices are relatively moderate (sometimes below market price) for an establishment of this caliber!

Delicious! We'll come back!

Our wine bars and dining cellars of the month 

Le Grain - 11 Rue Lepic 

Great place: whether you enjoy good roasted coffee, fine wines to discover (by the glass, by the bottle, and to take away), generous cheese and charcuterie platters, smoking a cigar in the basement with a digestif before leaving with a bottle for your next dinner: this is the perfect address! 

A very warm welcome as a bonus, so you can come for coffee, have a drink, eat well and have a digestif with a cigar. 

Actually, we'd gladly spend the day there... It has everything you need! 

L'étiquette Paris: Wine shop and dining cellar (10 rue Jean du Bellay )

Good landmark for natural wine and organic wine lovers on Île Saint Louis.

A cellar with beautiful labels in the current vibe: little juices to enjoy inside at a table or on a standing counter outside to enjoy the view and the island's atmosphere. 

The managers chat quite a bit, Hervé in particular, and have anecdotes to tell about the estates, it's quite nice! 

You can also get small terrines and sausages to snack on. However, it's not cheap! Nice, but you shouldn't be too attached to your wallet to spend the evening there... 

Mimzo - Wine Bar Paris 9th (49, rue Marguerite-de-Rochechouart)

Great new wine bar in the 9th arrondissement. The welcome is truly delightful, you feel very comfortable and very well guided. 

The concept: we choose our dishes à la carte and we're guided in the wine selection. They had us all taste the chosen wine to make sure everyone liked it, that's not the case everywhere... Everything is homemade and the menu is varied, with dishes to share that aren't too expensive!

Our choice fell on homemade cordon bleus, a pâté en croûte, shredded beef and aged cheeses...The wines chosen by the manager were delicious! Light red from Languedoc and a small white from the Loire. Domains unknown to us but very pleasant as casual wines.

Beautiful plates, nice old-fashioned decor, vinyl atmosphere... Trendy and quality!