Yuri.m

Less than a year after orchestrating the latest culinary score for L’Amateur de Thés, the virtuoso chef Yuri Massines (winner of Le Fooding’s Best Chef of 2014 award) is back, twirling her chopsticks at Yuri.m. Discreetly tucked away in the Ateliers Hybride in Pau, the chef has designed a striking €25 lunch menu, which we devoured the day we went: delicious vegetables from the Bastelica family in Verlus (broccoli, radish, Brussels sprouts and butternut à l’orange), nestled amongst a miso-sunchoke purée doused in a persimmon sauce; sensational line-caught grilled bass from Saint-Jean-de-Luz paired with a mixture of hot and cold sensations from grated celeriac and puréed celeriac, sunchoke chips, purple shiso, pickled red onions and a ponzu vinaigrette, plus bass cheeks with sunchokes – served as a purée once again, but with jasmine this time to change things up; and an unforgettable suckling veal from the Taillefer butcher shop, served medium rare with white rice, new potatoes, miso butternut squash, sautéed scallions and fried gras-double tripe, all electrified by yuzu mustard. The outro? An incredible revisited lemon tart, with a pecan shortbread, rice pudding cream, sweet Meyer lemon and a mango meringue, tickled by white chocolate, matcha and dulce de leche. A sweet melody of contentment will wash over you with each bite. // Gérard Roubeix

FEELING THIRSTY? Natural wines at reasonable prices: a Sancerre white produced by the Domaine Thomas (€5 a glass), a Bergerac rosé from Le Pré Vert (€18 a bottle), a Montalbanais red produced by Muriel Zoldan (€20)… Along with sake (€5-6 for 50 ml) and twenty-some Chinese and Japanese teas (€4-7).
PRICE: Lunch menu €25. French-Japanese pastries €2-4, take-away bento boxes €18.