Herb roasted Dutch turbotine, spring fava beans, morel mushrooms and whole grain mustard sauce
Salad of French Laundry garden spring onions, picked pearl onions, broccolini and red onion “gastrique”Ĭarnaroli risotto “biologico” with shaved Perigord truffles and truffle emulsion Poached Araucana hen eggs, truffled English muffins, truffled Hollandaise and grated Perigord truffles Monterey Bay Dungeness crab, green asparagus and sauce bearnaise Granite of green apple with Russian sevruga caviarĬonnecticut river shad roe with Persian lime salt and shaved, aged bonito Puree of fennel bulb soup, pickled medjol dates and Jacobsen’s farm green almonds It is worth noting that the male and female diners had different dishes for every course, 32 courses in all, as if to emphasise just how broad the kitchen’s capabilities really are. My most recent visit brought an extensive sixteen course tasting menu, which goes some way to showing the range of the kitchen, as follows. A lovely restaurant that stands above just about anywhere else in the USA at the time of writing. The tasting menu which we had the following evening had many components and was even better than the meal described above. Service was impeccable, with a visit the following evening notable for them having prepared a separate menu so that no dishes would overlap with what we had, and with a waiter quoting what dishes we had ordered the previous night impressive enough until you realise that it was not the same waiter! The wine list is very fine, and mark-ups are less fierce than in London. A passion fruit ciboulet with matching ice cream with a biscuit was good (16/20) but again not in the league of the initial courses. For main course I tried excellent squab with a sliver of warm foie gras and a red wine reduction (17/20) while my wife had tortellini stuffed with white beans, with a creamy herb sauce, fresh tomatoes and sprigs of chervil with shavings of Parmesan (19/20).Ĭheese was not quite to the same standard, with my Langres and Brie both around 15/20, but it is very difficult to get good cheese in the USA due to the ludicrous insistence on pasteurisation for most cheeses (perhaps the US government would like to check the relative life expectancy of their population with that of France before jumping to conclusions about cheese import restrictions). My wife's warm asparagus and tomato salad, drizzled with 100 year old Balsamic vinegar, was of a very high standard (18/20). Next up for me was a Maine scallop, topped with a mousse of foie gras, with a ring of superb mash, all sitting within a classic demi-glace reduction (19/20). Tuna tartare was of a high standard, on a bed of radish and cucumber drizzled with aged Tamari soy sauce (17/20). A further nibble of pike mousse in a little tart had lovely texture (18/20). An amuse-bouche of cornet of salmon mousse with crème fraiche was superb, as was a vegetarian version the following night (19/20). The dining room is simple with bare walls and no distracting music, with a corresponding room upstairs, each with about eight tables. The rustic establishment has a little garden where you can have a drink before entering the main room. Thomas Keller’s restaurant is generally reckoned the best restaurant in America, and based on my three visits here I would concur ( note - Thomas has since opened Per Se in New York). The French Laundry is in the Napa Valley, just over a one hour drive from San Francisco in the small town of Yountville.
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