La Promenade

We seem to have a 'nose' for picking homes in small villages with excellent places to eat. In Staffordshire it is the Hollybush, and in Le Petit-Pressigny La Promenade and Le Bon Coin. Different in price and ambiance but each offering good quality food. Last week we ate at La Promenade which is a Michelin starred restaurant run by Jacky Dallais. The food was fantastic and the wines of excellent quality and value. We've eaten here before and really think that it is an experience to savour and better shared with other people. Our partners in the gourmet experience this time were Maureen, John and their son Daniel (who live near to us in the UK and have a lovely home and gite near Chatillion sur Indre) together with Nick and Janet.

We all decided to take the 'Menu Tradition' and were expecting the fish course but somehow this was ‘lost in translation’, possibly because the first of our party to order asked for the fish as a main course. As things turned out it would have been hard to fit in the fish as well!

The tasters...

Janet, Gaynor, Maureen, Dan, John, Nick and the invisible camera man, aka Tim!

The menu - if you look closely you'll see Gaynor. Also if you click you'll see exactly what we ate. Better than my potted descriptions.

A glimpse of the food we enjoyed.

The amuses-bouche...

Thin potato crisp with black olive,a savoury concoction with onion and radish followed by a wonderful stuffed tomato.

The entrées

Salmon (yummy!)

Foie gras

Oysters - really inventive!

Chicken ravioli

Fish...

Roasted plaice

Plats

Roasted geline de Touraine -chicken (scrumptious!) 

Sauteed kid

Shoulder of veal

Cheese

Desserts…

Strawberry cheesecake

Paris Brest

Mandarin baba (perfection!)

Chocolate and coffee dessert

Petit fours…

With coffee we paid the princely sum of 41€! Cocktails and wines were extra (as you would expect) but due to the extensive and carefully chosen wine list didn’t break the bank! Not an everyday place to eat but certainly worth every cent and a real treat.

So if you are in the Sud Touraine and are feeling peckish give it a try, but remember to book first!

Dinner tonight ...

We'll be eating dinner at a restaurant in Le Petit-Pressigny with friends tonight, so prepare yourself for a virtual (via blogger) gastronomic feast at the weekend!

To prepare, our lunch was made up of very meagre rations ...

Masterchef?

On our recent visit to Le Petit-Pressigny we decided to treat ourselves to a belated Valentines Day celebration at La Promenade.  La Promenade is a restaurant about a five minute walk away from our house. This was to be our first visit, and what a treat it turned out to be!


Many people have written about La Promenade and the chef Jacky Dallais, all complimentary and all right. We went with our friends Chris and Sally, who also live in Staffordshire, and have a lovely home near Angles sur l'Anglin.

The meal was a culinary experience from beginning to end. We arrived at 12.45 and left at 5.15 and enjoyed every minute! The ambiance, food and service were all superb. The restaurant was fairly busy; most tables were taken and generally occupied by groups of four to eight diners. We think it is possibly an experience that is good to share with others. Between us we tasted most of what was on offer! I am a typical Libran and find it really hard to choose from a menu, and when the food arrives I usually wish I had ordered something diferent. Tim enjoys just about anything, so is usually happy to swap (I think he likes a quiet life!)

You can see our menu from the photographs, and although it is impossible to convey any impression of the taste, it tasted as good as it looks! I had forgotten to take the camera, but after we had eaten the amuse- bouches, Tim ran home to collect it.



We chose the menu Tradition.



Chris with the wine list.

I can't quite describe the taste of this course which was like a rich creamy soup, but it was yummy!

Tim chose St Jacques  for his entree.

Sally and I both went for the smoked salmon.

Chris' choice the foie gras de canard.

The fish course was merlu en croute.

Wild boar with a delicious creamed cabbage.

Duck breast.

Cheeses.



The dessert menu from which we ordered four different desserts.

 

Grapefruit beignet.

Creme caramel.

Apple lasagne with Granny Smith spaghetti.

Profiterole with hot white chocolate sauce - I wasn't quick enough with the camera here, so it melted a bit.

Petits fours.

Jacky Dallais - the man himself!

After our meal - about to roll home! We then went on a long, long walk.......