René et Maxime Meilleur - Saint-Martin-de-Belleville
Rustic restaurant interior design
Rating: 19/20
Where: Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, France
When: Dinner for 2 on 21 March 2022
Cost: Tasting menu 389 Euro / Wine pairing 195 Euro
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars
Why: Marvelous cuisine inspired by “mountain hut cooking”, seemingly rustic, but very delicious
René et Maxime Meilleur is named after the two chefs, a father and son duo. The restaurant is located in a building that grew out of the senior chef's childhood home. There have been multiple additions to the house over the years, which explains the somewhat unorthodox layout of the building that also houses a hotel and a spa. Staying at the hotel is probably a good idea after dinner, since the alternative is driving down a very windy road next to a sheer drop in darkness while tipsy.
The decor of the restaurant is very firmly on the rustic side; cow bells are hanging from the ceiling, ceramics are on the walls, and wood is everywhere. The servers and staff are dressed in traditional garb. Guests were dressed very casually, think sweaters and jeans - Paris, ce n'est pas.
Many fine dining restaurants shine with the amuse bouches and appetizers and then go downhill with the following courses. I imagine the starters can be prepared ahead of time and you can pack a lot more flavor in a single bite than a full course would allow without being overwhelming. Not so here, in fact the reverse was true.
Ordering is either a la carte, or a surprise menu of 4, 5 or 8 courses, the longest menu also including the cheese course that's otherwise optional. We went for eight courses, which seemingly none of the other tables around us did. I appreciated that we were asked whether there was anything on the menu that we didn't like. So if you really want to avoid, for example, sweetbreads, you can. My wife received a pescatarian version of the menu, although bizarrely, the amuse bouches were the same for us (in one case containing sausage). The wine pairing was by the glass, so you can drink as many or as few glasses as you'd like.
Amuse bouches were an oyster with yuzu and a cracker 15, a gougere with avocado 16 and tartlet with pigs ear sausage and mustard 16. Fine, but not spectacular by any means.
Rounding out the amuses was a melted raclette cheese fondue with croutons and cheese cubes among the melted cheese. This was surprisingly heavy for being this early in the menu. Enjoyable enough, but nowhere near three-star level 16. Makes you wonder whether instead of serving the "real thing" - a local cheese fondue -, the Flocons de Sel route of serving a much lighter dish merely inspired by a fondue isn't the better choice.
The first "real" course of the tasting menu was caviar with hazelnut oil, lemon zest and a snow of parsley root. This was intense, a bit on the salty side, but otherwise very enjoyable 17.
Next up was local pike, with pickled vegetables, roe and croutons, and a butter sauce. The fish itself didn't have too much flavor, but with the accompaniments this was a lovely dish 18.
The third course was green asparagus over a quail egg with a truffle vinaigrette, topped with pancetta. Ostensibly simple, this dish was magnificent, the truffle flavor omnipresent, but still allowing the wonderful asparagus to shine 19.
Next were Reblochon ravioli (i.e. ravioli filled with the local, melted Reblochon cheese). These came in an onion broth that also had pickled pearl onions and a disc of cheese. The onion broth itself was intense and delicious, definitely not subtle. You can't really do this any better if flavor intensity is what you're aiming for, the broth itself a 20. However, the ravioli could have been a bit thinner, and the filling cheese a bit more flavorful, but overall this was a great dish 19.
My main dish was venison, with a venison jus reduction, under local flowers, served alongside a carrot and cranberry sauce. This was a fine, but somewhat traditional presentation 18.
The pescatarian main dish was arctic char with sunchokes and a heavenly red wine butter sauce. This dish was better than the venison by leaps and bounds. The fish perfectly cooked, and the sauce so good that we almost emptied the saucier that was provided with the dish. This is a highly appreciated gesture, by the way: all sauces were not just served table-side, we were left with an ample remainder of sauce in the saucier to add to the dish (or dip bread in directly). For the sauce alone this is 20.
Cheeses were good to very good, and mostly local.
A blood orange drink, with blood orange and Campari brittle was an intermezzo. It was fine, but unmemorable (unless some of the brittle got stuck in your teeth) 16.
Better were variations of tangerine - sauce, mousse and ice cream all made from the fruit 17.
The next dessert was similar in spirit: variations of milk, as ice cream, meringue, caramel, white chocolate, etc, etc. Astonishing what you can do with essentially two ingredients, milk and sugar 19+.
Petit fours were served in our hotel room after the dinner, a nice way to not be rushed to finish everything. A saffron cookie tartlet 17, orange meringue 16, a "stone" of hazelnut chocolate 17 and ”galet chocolate-sapin", a dish usually made for children from milk, flour, butter and sugar - good, but pretty heavy 16.
It is interesting to contrast this dinner to Flocons de Sel, where we went the previous night. Both started with a premise of what I'd call "mountain hut cooking" (raclette, onion soup, ..., hearty dishes in general). But the directions taken were most dissimilar. Flocons de Sel opted for an "inspired by" approach, serving entirely new dishes that might still be hearty, but otherwise unlike anything one would seen before. Tonight's dinner was more straight-forward in that sense, serving heavenly versions of dishes that still felt traditional. Which one is better? It's really an apples and oranges comparison (to use a food analogy), and I'd put them at about the same level. But I'm sure there are aficionados of both.
Overall: Foodwise, this was at a three-star level for the majority of the courses, with some dips at the appetizers and desserts, so at the border of 18 or 19 overall. Generously, ignoring the dated ambiance, a 19.
Tasting menu