L'Amphitryon Pezenas June 2012

We came to L’Amphitryon after a recommendation by our dear friend Bruno who was our wine tour guide. He told us that there was a new chef who seemed to be creating some interesting food so we were intrigued to try it. We booked a table for the Saturday night of our stay in Pezenas.

We started with a Kir Royal each, one with crème de cassis and one with crème de peche. The waitress brought us an appetiser of cured salmon with crème fraiche. Although neither of us are big fans of salmon, it was delicious and well balanced.

Our starters arrived promptly which we shared. We had courgette flowers stuffed with spring vegetables with a white wine emulsion and warm goats cheese stack with tomato and chorizo with a magic gazpacho.

The courgette flowers were beautifully delicate but packed full of flavour. Each flower was filled with a mix of finely cubed courgette and carrot gently fried and then topped with the emulsion which complemented the other subtle flavours. The dish was creatively presented with a small savoury ice cream cone filled with dressed leaves and edible flowers were scattered all over the plate.

The goats cheese stick was a balance of rich creamy cheese, salty peppery chorizo and oven roasted tomato slices, these were stacked on top of a flavoursome doughy base. The magic gazpacho was sensational, and just like the title suggests it was magical. The soup had a rich red pepper flavour but the addition of tomato meant it was clean on the palate, this was then followed by the delight of pop rocks sparkling around your mouth. A really exciting and creative starter which urges you to try it just from the description and doesn’t disappoint.

For the main course we picked a sharing dish which was simply described as rib of beef. It’s safe to say it was so much more than that! It came to the table on a wooden chopping board with a pile of rock salt and gooey roast onions and garlic cloves. The smell was sensational and we couldn’t wait to dig in. However the waitress then disappeared to bring us our plates, which featured a stack of potato dauphinoise pierced with a sprig of rosemary which was on fire as it came to the table. There was also a little pot of rosemary jus which when we opened it, it took over the senses and made us even more eager to tuck in. The waitress then carved the rib excellently into two equal steaks and put them on our plate.

The steak was cooked rare to our liking and was succulent and caramelised on the surface, which complemented the sweet sticky onions and garlic. The potato dauphinoise stack was incredible; soft potatoes layered with smoky bacon and topped with cheese, we thought that it may have been smoked as this was a consistent flavour throughout all the layers and really brought a different element to the dish. The rosemary jus packed a punch and tied all the flavours together.  A truly inspiring and beautiful way to cook and present a traditional dish.

Although we were very full from the starters and main course the standard of the food had been exceptional so we didn't want to miss out on any hidden gems from the desert menu. We were very tempted by Le Barry White which translated as “chestnut and chocolate sweetness” but instead decided to share the strawberry macaroon. It came out as a large macaroon, which considering the size, the texture was spot on. It was filled with delicious strawberries from southern France, strawberry sorbet and more pop rocks. In the top on the macaroon was a pipette with strawberry juice which we think we were meant to squeeze inside but due to the language barrier we weren't sure. It was served with a naturally sweet strawberry juice in a shot glass and strawberry coulis that shimmered gold in lines along the plate. The flavours were fairly one dimensional but the creativity and interactivity was an exciting feature that made up for this.

L'Amphitryon is a great restaurant with new and exciting ideas, it would have been nice to talk to the wait staff about the food and produce but due to our lack of conversational French this was not easy, but this was in no way the fault of the restaurant. L'Amphitryon is increasing in positive reviews on Trip Advisor and rightly so; it was one of the best nights of our stay and I only wish we had found it earlier in the week so we could have eaten there more!