Adeline Grattard, Best cuisinière Guide 2010
Ten years after launching her Polly Pocket-sized restaurant, and four years after leaving it for a more comfortably chic haven right nearby (walls with hazy ombré tones, walnut wood tables, smaller tables to place your purse on, spacious toilets), Adeline Grattard and Chi Wah Chan continue sculpting their singular vision, combining seasonal delights, incredible infused waters and Asia-tomic flavor bombs. In addition to their bao bun tea house and their Café Laï’tcha bistro, the fine dining establishment boasts the merits of this instinctive cuisine more than ever before, made by a woman with a rare gift. The day we went for lunch, the menu began with astronomical shrimp chips and a really delicious pork wonton soup; followed by enchanting slivers of raw tuna from Saint-Jean-de-Luz dancing over five-spice eggplant with quail eggs preserved in soy sauce; line-caught bass with porcini, cream of foie gras and Iberian ham; a bao bun that had us over the moon with its stilton and Morello cherry stuffing, which paired perfectly with a glass of port; and the pineapple, raspberry, litchi, ginger, physalis and passion fruit soup was a true delight, before a ball of sticky rice stuffed with whipped cream, mango and melon for the grand finale. // J.G.
FEELING THIRSTY? There are iconoclastic gems hand-selected by Marine Delaporte: a Chablis from the Domaine Billaud-Simon; a French sake, La Vague des Larmes du Levant; a Jurançon Caubeigt, along with Burgundy wines from Roulot (€55); and teas selected by Chi Wah for the full yam’tcha effect! Food and tea pairings €20 and €40, tea-wine-food pairings €30-50, food-wine pairings €40-70.
PRICE: Menu €150.
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