With its name, Klein blue tones from floor to ceiling, and a quote from Bergson on the menu, is this a new age cantina? No, it’s just the latest Nantes invention to date. The sleek new joint from chef Richard Cornet has floral Jean Paul Gaultier fabrics, white walls and contemporary light fixtures. Meanwhile, the chef wears a rather hipster beard and sends out a suite of hyper-sophisticated dishes. The night we went, for €36: a complex amuse bouche made with carrot skin chips, a cube of chicken liver terrine, a buttery cabbage purée and a ginger-onion-caper condiment; then a lively appetizer with a “simple” blood pudding-apple-soubise sauce, plus a bread tuile spread with parslied butter, onion and marsala purée, apple-yuzu compote and jelly, butter and kalamansi (an Asian citrus), apple duxelles, cinnamon-meringue brioche powder and, of course, a small island of blood pudding…. What came next? Organic chicken stuffed with clams and mushrooms, served with slow-roasted new potatoes, shiitakes, asparagus – one fermented in miso, the other glazed in butter. Before a rather technical finale: a whole host of small scoops (ganaches of pistachio, white chocolate-lavender, and atsina – a plant with aniseed notes, plus rhubarb and dandelion honey sorbet) sandwiched between a shortbread base and an opaline disc. // D.C.
FEELING THIRSTY? Chosen by Ronan Bricaud (ex-Raffinerie), there’s a handful of wines served by the glass – a taut Mâcon-Verzé from the Domaine Nicolas Delfaud (€5.50), Les Hauts & les Bas, a fruity and round Chinon from the Domaine Jaulin-Plaisantin (€5) – as well as some rare finds: Gypse, an ample Alsace from Sylvie Spielmann (€55 a bottle), La Pointe, a Languedoc Carignan from the Domaine de La Banjoulière (€25).
PRICE: Set menu €19 and menu €24 (lunch), menus €36 and €46 (dinner).
