La Marine - L'Herbaudière
A simple, rustic interior, with windows facing the harbor
Rating: 18/20
Where: L'Herbaudière, France
When: Lunch for 2 on 22 November 2023
Cost: Tasting menu 160-250 Euro, Wine pairing 80 Euro
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars
Why: Cuisine based on highly seasonal local seafood and produce; several amazingly delicious dishes
“La Marine” is a restaurant in L'Herbaudière, a fishing town on the island of Noirmoutier on the French Atlantic coast. Earlier in 2023, La Marine received its third Michelin star. It took me a while to get a reservation here, since the math apparently worked out as:
France + Three Michelin stars + Being featured on Netflix' Chef's Table + Only seven tables = Fully booked
When the restaurant finally switched from taking reservation by phone to a more contemporary online booking system, I was able to snag a lunch table in late November, a mere three days before the restaurant closed for a winter break.
At that time of the year L'Herbaudière looked pretty deserted - a chilly wind was blowing, and the stores and restaurants near the waterfront were all shuttered for the season. The marina was full of winterproofed sailboats and the occasional fishing boat. I imagine that in the summer this would be a bustling tourist destination. But to look on the bright side, we had a really easy time finding parking.
After checking in at the restaurant's reception, we were led through the kitchen and wound up in a simply decorated dining room with windows overlooking the marina. Having only seven tables makes this one of the smaller three-star restaurants in the world, and all seats were occupied during our lunch. I think that we were the only non-French-speaking guests, but that was no problem: the entire staff spoke perfect English, and were quite happy to translate the printed menu, which was available only in French.
Speaking of the menu, La Marine is a tasting-menu-only affair, with a choice of either six or nine courses. The menu changes daily depending on what fresh catch and produce is available in the morning. Ostensibly for that reason, no menu was available on the restaurant's website. A wine pairing of four glasses was offered at 80 Euro. It was a pretty basic pairing - the corresponding bottles had a street price of around 20 Euro each. So, yes, one could have bought all four wine bottles in a store for the price of the pairing - but then again, wine pairings are never the most cost-effective way of enjoying wine at a fine-dining restaurant, just the most convenient one.
Our lunch started with some amuse bouches. First, we had an infusion of gray shrimp, poured table-side. The broth was bursting with an amazing shrimp flavor, with a fine vegetable base showing through, and there was maybe a hint of pepper. Fantastic 20. My dining companion today (my mother) was much less impressed, and thought this was a 17.
Next came a collection of four crackers. A cracker cup was filled with shaved fennel, sardines, lemon and seaweed dust. The cracker was nicely crunchy, and its contents had a pleasant hint of sourness, but I couldn't taste any fish - this was pretty much just a nice fennel dish 16. The other three crackers were a bit smaller. One was filled with crab and topped with sliced turnips. Fresh, with some nice acidity, the flavors blended seamlessly 17. A black cracker was filled with seabream and seaweed. The seafood flavor here was very light, and the cracker had a sticks-to-your-teeth kind of consistency 15. The final cracker combined mushrooms, sunchokes and chocolate. Only a tad sweet, it tasted mostly of mushrooms and not of chocolate (thankfully?). Nice enough 17.
Before we jumped into the main part of our lunch, we received a cup of kombucha made from fig leaves. It had quite an interesting flavor, and was slightly sweet and fizzy. Something I'd happily buy if it was for sale 17.
Two kinds of bread were served. First, a slice of bread made from “unprocessed flour”. Served at room temperature, it had a lovely crunch and a fairly neutral taste. That might sound like a bad thing, but in fact made it ideal for sopping up the excellent sauces that were to follow. It also went well with the accompanying butter flecked with pieces of seaweed 17. A brioche dusted with seaweed and salt arrived hot from the oven. It was a great example of brioche and it was made even better by the tasty seasoning on top 18.
Seared mullet was served with beets prepared two ways: roasted, and as a cream. Also on the plate: a parsley sauce, nasturtium leaves and some lemon. I was surprised by how charred the top of the fish looked, but tastewise there was scarcely any hint of burntness. The mullet was cooked to a firm consistency, but it sadly wasn't too flavorful. The parsley sauce was lovely, but was upstaged by the much stronger tasting beets. The beet cream was slightly sweet, but the best part of the dish was the roasted beet wedge - it was intensely flavorful without being particularly sweet. Excellent 18.
The star of the next dish was caviar made with salt harvested on Noirmoutier. It sat on top of a flan made with little crabs that was covered with shrimp and scallops. Together with its sauce, this dish reminded me of a cioppino, a seafood stew from in San Francisco. The sauce was bursting with seafood flavor, and close to perfection in my mind (20 by itself). The seafood itself was good too, and the caviar excellent - not too salty, very flavorful, and with a soft consistency (19 by itself). Overall, another amazing dish 19.
The next course was the only savory course not based on seafood. Its main ingredient: onions from the restaurant's garden. A piece of onion was filled with chopped onions, cumin and grapes, and was topped with a skin of citron fruit. A choucroute-inspired sauce made from onions surrounded the dish. All in all, an excellent dish. The piece of onion had a bit of sweetness, its filling was savory and the sauce added some acidity (I'd have given 20 to the sauce itself) - a great combination. I'm not sure that the citron was really necessary, but otherwise no complaints 19.
Back to fish for the remaining four savory courses. Sea bream with a crispy skin was served with pumpkins, sliced pears and a sauce seasoned with elderflower. The fish had barely any flavor, but its skin added a nice crunchiness. The pumpkin was of excellent quality and only lightly sweet. The best way to eat this dish was to mix everything together, combining the texture of the fish, the predominant taste of the pumpkin, and hints of the other flavors. Nice 17.
A white fish, called “julienne” in French, came next. It was served with a turnip, a wedge of cabbage, and two sauces: a coulis of herbs from the garden (darker green) and a butter sauce made from wild fennel (lighter green). Interestingly, a red wine was paired with this dish - I suppose either choice would have worked. The herbal sauce was very strongly flavored, but I actually preferred the excellent, more subtle fennel sauce. The fish was tender, maybe a tad oily, and probably the “heaviest” fish served in this meal (hence the red wine). The turnip was disappointingly watery, with barely any taste. The cabbage was ok, just a bit oily from its preparation. Another good, but not necessarily mind-blowing dish 17.
Turbot was also served with two sauces. In the middle of the plate was a brownish jus made from the turbot's head, while a white buttery sauce containing fish roe was added table-side. Next to the fish was some chard: its charred leaves had been wrapped around its peeled stalk - a nice presentation that I'd never seen before. The chard had a light flavor, and went well with the rest of the dish. Among the two sauces, the butter sauce was the hands-down favorite - it was pure buttery goodness (18 or 19 by itself). The fish was cooked firm, and decent enough. There was also a small piece of skin-on fish - it was a bit weird, full of fat and bones. I must have missed the explanation for this one, and the dish would have been fine without it 17.
The last savory course starred pollock, and it was paired with carrots prepared two ways: a whole carrot and a carrot mousse. A dollop of black garlic was topped with a baby pine cone. At the table, the dish was completed with a vinegary butter sauce containing pine nuts. Again a good, but mostly unremarkable fish, whose sides were more interesting. The carrot mousse had an intense flavor, the whole carrot less so. The sauce was very sour with a light pine flavor. A decent dish, but probably my least favorite among the savory dishes today 17.
Our first dessert was made from artichokes. An artichoke confit was seasoned with honey and topped by a fig mousse, a pear sorbet and a caramelized artichoke leaf. There were also pieces of nougatine in the dessert. The pear sorbet was great by itself, and the combination of all ingredients was also tasty. For better or worse, there was no strong artichoke taste in this dish. Good, but not amazing 17.
Next came a dessert with many ingredients. Starting at the bottom: caramelized buckwheat and a lemon confit. This was topped by a seaweed sorbet covered with a caramel mousse, and dusted with seaweed powder. On the side was a seaweed meringue that looked a bit like a thick drinking straw. The latter tasted indeed strongly of seaweed - not bad at all! The seaweed sorbet was more sweet than seaweed-flavored, but it went great with the crunchy buckwheat. It was exciting to have a such a successful dessert based on seaweed - very tasty 18.
Some petit fours concluded our meal. A bergamot sorbet was ostensibly simple, but also very tasty 19. A licorice marshmallow had been rolled into a snail shape. The licorice was more of an aftertaste, this felt like “just” a marshmallow topped with powdered sugar 17. An apple pate de fruit had a cooked flavor 16. Chocolate and caramel macaroons were nice enough - crunchy and caramelly 16. Finally, a citrus lemon pate de fruit was quite sour, and cracker underneath it had a somewhat mealy crunch 16.
Overall: A wonderful lunch consisting of local seafood and vegetables. Several dishes, especially at the beginning of our meal, were amazing - the kitchen deserves three stars just for those. But later in the proceedings, the courses became a bit repetitive: all were cooked white fish with sides of vegetables. I've seen other three-star seafood restaurants mix things up a bit more: maybe raw fish, maybe a soup, shellfish instead of fish, etc. Based on a single visit it's hard to tell whether this sameness was due to what was in season, or whether La Marine is simply more traditional in its approach to cooking than other restaurants. For sure, there were no “trendy” Asian or Japanese influences to be had anywhere. But since the high points here were indeed really high, I'm intrigued to come back during a different season 18.
