The Legendary Le Cirque

Yep, I had the oppportunity to eat at the legendary Le Cirque. YES, THE Le Cirque…. Now a dinner here is nothing to be messed around with. A dinner here is hardcore. Prepare for one of the most amazing meals of your life [yes yes I know I say that all the time] but this is definitely a great experience. The environment, your surroundings.. the servers, the sommeliers… the people, the decor, even the cute monkeys on the plates [yes they have their own plates]…

Prepare for the best and still be surprised…

The first plate you see:

Delicious assortment of breads…

We ordered two glasses of champagne to start while we ordered and waited for our meal to arrive…

We were surprised with a set of beet amuses from the chef.

Amuse Bouche [L-R] Yellow Beet with Sliced Apple, Yogurt [Goat] and Spiced Pine Nuts Red Beet with Orange Foam and Ginger Touille

Loved the Red Beet with the Orange and the Ginger… mine was perfectly flavor-balanced [altho date says his orange and ginger was too light] The yellow beet [and the slice of apple] on the other hand was wayyy overpowered by the goat milk yogurt… the spiced pine nuts added a great crunch…

Since we asked for a glass of wine with their wine pairings for every dish we ordered… we were given another glass of champagne to have with our caviar and oysters!!!!….

I love my bubbly….

Galilee Golden Osetra Caviar

Fresh, delicious and warm bilinis

Usually restaurants give us, both, bilinis and toast… I loved that they only gave us bilinis… I love caviar with them :] — altho there never seems to be enough, that or we’re too stingy in the beginning with piling on our caviar.

Half Shell Oysters East Coast & West Coast

Usually I’m more of a cocktail sauce girl but it seemed kind of light on the horseradish… and I was actually really digging the vinaigrette with the chives. Yum yum….

East Coast Oysters FTW [always]

AND THEN came my  absolute favorite dish of the night:

Wild Burgundy Escargot with Gruyere gnocchi, pickled chanterelles, and bottarga

This was just so perfectly executed and caught me TOTALLY by surprise. The fried Gruyere “gnocchi” or more like cubes were SOOO creamy inside the crisp fried outside. SO GOOD SO GOOD SO GOODDDDDD….. love love love.

BTW, bottarga is cured fish roe…. which is apparently a “poor man’s caviar”… us Taiwanese have a similar, mullet roe, Karasumi but it’s really really expensive and a total delicacy in Taiwan.. altho I don’t like it, too salty and fishy for me.  BUT this tasted nothing like that and according to wiki it’s kind of similar to anchovies…

Brandade “Fraîche”, truffles and soft cooked egg

Poked the egg and dipped the garlicky toast. SO GOOD. Nothing else can describe. White truffles are just simply an amazing sort of thing.

Torchon of Foie Gras with poached pears and cocoa syrup

Another great delight of the night was the Foie Gras Ravioli……
Foie Gras Ravioli in a truffle-cabbage marmelade

The gorgeous innards.  The pasta around the foie was thick [but not too thick] and so tender… I’m so hesitant about liking foams [haha and reminds me of Marcel from Top Chef] but this was DELICIOUS.

Then came our main courses.. they first brought out the whole fillet for us to see and then de-boned it for us.  There were three variations to choose from for the Sole and we chose a simple grilled :] With generously squeezed lemon on top – of course.

Grilled Dover Sole

Side of veggies…

We also ordered something off of their prix fixe menu…. because of course, how could I see something with Pork Belly and let myself get away with not having it :]

Berkshire Pork Belly with carrot, caraway and parsley

The top was crisp and the innards were tender and juicy. Delish and perfectly portioned… just in time for dessert.. a lot of dessert….

All the wines that went with our dinner…

They were all simply magic. SUCH good wine pairings and all absolutely delicious.

Then came time for the dessert… we were actually going to order another dessert but they were OUT [since we were one of the last people at the restaurant]

Chocolate Soufflé traditional chocolate soufflé with vanilla gelato

Perfectly made soufflé. I NEED to learn how to make perfect soufflé. Such a simple yet complicated dessert. YUM.

Floating Island “Le Cirque” old-fashioned style island over light vanilla cream

This was really good. I’ve had floating islands before and don’t think too much of it really. But this was one of the best ones I’ve had. Usually it’s just a fluff of toasted meringue in a twizzle of  some sort of slighty creamy sauce.. and that’s that. I’ve had really horrible ones too.. [which is weird cuz how can anyone mess up meringue?] But this was great.

Napoleon puff pastry, mousseline, and berries

LOVE LOVE Napoleons and this did NOT disappoint. The only thing about napoleons that really get me is when I cut it apart to eat it gets all mushed up *pout*

Crêpes Suzette oriental orange and Grand Marnier parfait

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. Very orangey. I love crepes. :] Always.

Baba Rhum

Rum cakey sort of bread. Simple and sweet. It looks really really simple but it’s actually a pretty long process [since I’ve made it once before]

Pear Belle Hélène caramel angel hair, almond nougatine

Giddy drunkenness, full and happy, fun :D

This is what happens when you have a billion courses and a glass of wine to go with each dish….. [per person]