Editor Pick
Le Rendez Vous de Chasse, The Grand Hotel Termi
- December 2, 2004
- Rated 5 of 5 by
Wasatch from heber ctity, Utah
Although the Michelin Red Guide says we have eaten in better restaurants, this is our favorite haut cuisine restaurant in France. The decor is old school, rich, and elegant. Tapestries depicting hunting scenes decorate the walls (the name translates as ‘meeting for the hunt’). Table cloths and napkins of white linen set off the dark wood furniture, and, of course, the waiters wear tuxes.
On our first visit, we indulged in the five-course menu. Everything was superb. On the second visit, I discovered one of my all time favorite dishes on the carte*, and have ordered it on every subsequent visit. This dish alone would make Rendez Vous de la Chasse my favorite restaurant– Medallions d’Agnue, thin slices of boneless lamb chop, perfectly cooked and displayed around the plate like the opening petals of flower with an incredible sauce in the middle of the lamb slices, and accompanied by perfectly cooked green beans (important aside, you have no idea how good green beans can be until you eat them in a great restaurant in France. This experience created one of our standard European souvenirs--taking home packages of French green bean seeds for our American garden).
Contrary to what many guide books say, a multi-course meal from the menu is not the least expensive way to eat. The proportions of each course are much smaller than the amount served if you ordered each course a la carte*. Filling up a la carte costs less. When we order a la carte*, we are usually satisfied with ordering only an entrée. Ordering an entrée at Rendez Vous de la Chasse produced a meal starting with a superb small appetizer. The purpose of this little delight is to keep you from getting bored while waiting for your main course, the same role in the meal as is played by the salad and bread basket in American restaurants. By the way, if you order a salad in a French restaurant, it will be served at the end of the meal, not as the first course.
Small boiled potatoes, bread, and green beans accompanied the lamb. Appetizer, meat, sauce, green beans, potatoes, and bread– plenty of food, and all from ordering one entrée a la carte.*
We wanted to try the desert specialty, "Le Coupe Alsacian." I ordered our two entrées and two Coupes. The waiter stopped writing our order, put down his pencil, looked up and said, "No. Not two. It is too large. One is enough for two or three people. I shall put down one." One was served. He was right. When was the last time a waiter in an American restaurant refused to let you spend $35?
* "a la carte" means making choices ‘from (a) the (le) menu (carte)’ as opposed to ordering a fixed price multi-course meal listed on the "menu".
From journal Route de Vin Alsace, France