Carefully selected fish, vegetables from the garden, incredible jus de viande and fumets, an organic/natural wine selection…. Camped out on the Port de l’Herbaudière, La Table d’Elise has no reason to envy Alexandre Couillon’s La Marine, its famous older sister. The other day at lunch, in the chic, maritime dining room (woodwork, an old rudder, coppery lanterns), we happily dug into the €33 menu: good tuna and coriander rillettes served with homemade bread; a perfect mullet carpaccio smoked over pinecones, plus cherry tomatoes, raspberries, cosmos petals, cornflowers and a tangy vinaigrette; thin slices of flash-seared Albacore tuna that was still raw in the middle, zucchini spaghetti, black olives and a rich piquillo pepper cream; before some refreshing whole strawberries, a Breton shortbread cookie and a fromage blanc sorbet. Another good option? The €22 market menu – eg.: mackerel marinated in soy sauce with radish barigoule; line-caught blue ling and grilled garden cornichons; melon soup with vanilla ice cream. // G.LeP.
FEELING THIRSTY? A dozen Vendée beers (including a lager from L’Avocette at €6.80 for 330 ml), homemade sangria (€6 a glass) and around 30 low-intervention wines: a Muscadet from the Domaine des Cognettes (€6.50 a glass), a Mâcon white from the Domaine des Romarins (€38 a bottle), a Savennières from Loïc Mahé (€46)…
PRICE: Menus €22 (weekday lunch) and €33, menu-carte €40.
