Alain Senderens- one more French chef that has transformed his three Michelin stars restaurant Lucas Carton to a cheaper and more relaxed place that carries his name. Of course, since its reopening Senderens has been on my wish list, but considering that it is always full and that I rarely make reservations in advance, there was no chance to get a table in this highly popular place…
It was Easter night and, plus, Sunday, so obviously, everything was closed in Paris. My friend and I passed by L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, which is always opened ( the new generation of Haute gastronomy restaurants in Paris have borrowed the American way of working hours), but the waiting time was .. 3 hours… We decided to try Senderen in place de la Madeleine then and this time we were lucky – there was still one more table left in the “salle” upstairs. In the first image above you can see the view of place de la Madeleine, I had from where we were seated.
On one side I was very happy that we managed to get to a restaurant I’ve always wanted to go, on the other hand, I was very disappointed with what I saw on the menu. There was nothing that I loved and the choice was very narrow. (You can see the full menu here )The menu reminded me a little the one of Guy Martin’s Sensing – hastingly created and not very well thought of… I went for two starters as I didn’t like anything from the main courses…
My first entrée was “warm Belon oysters, butter “à la Manzanilla” and “Bellota-Bellota”. How I regretted to have chosen this one.. The oysters were “swimming” in the butter and you could barely feel the flavour of the oysters and Bellota ham. The rest of the evening I was even feeling a little dizzy of all this fat intake!
“Warm, half-smoked Scottish salmon, green spring cabbages flavoured with “baies de genièvre”, 10 years Thalisker Whisky, “drowned” in Scottish mineral water”. No matter how creative the name of this dish sounds, the salmon was very greasy. It was ok, but after my very greasy first dish, the fatty salmon was overwhelming.
“Rose macaron, litchis, “Gewurztraminer “Vendanges Tardives” Clos Saint Landelin 1997 – R. Muré”. An average copy of Pierre Herme’s rose macaron with raspberries and litchis…
Senderens would probably get the last place in Paris fine dining scene… Even lower than Sensing … I will probably not return to Senderens any time soon…
