Les Creations de Narisawa :: The Review

I've been meaning to write about our experience at Les Creations de Narisawa for awhile. This is, if you remember, the best restaurant in Asia according to San Pellegrino and a handful of notable chefs from around the world. My honest opinion is that...well...it's good, but it just didn't live up to the hype. I think Squidward put it best when he said that the meal just wasn't visceral. There was a lot of technique shown in the cooking -- stuff I didn't quite understand, but sounded very complex. This and the fact that all his ingredients either come from his own garden or from local sources are probably the reasons why professionals and fellow chefs rank Narisawa in the highest regard.  I still really enjoyed the experience and it is certainly one of the better (albeit, most expensive) restaurants I've eaten at in my so far, short life. I still rank Momofuku Ko as hands down, the best meal I've ever had. Twice.

The August 2010 theme was Gifts from Nature. Here are some of the highlights of my experience:

Our road map for the evening. 

Everything on this plate is edible and I liked eating it with my hands. Now THAT's getting down with nature. 

Can you guess what this is? 

Now it's in a clay pot sitting on our table for a few courses. 

Tada! It's bread! Fermented and baked right at your table! This was by far my favorite part of the meal. Neat trick. 

Not too many Michelin starred restaurants would have the balls to serve you a pot of dirt. Well this one didn't either. This is actually butter for the bread with a dehydrated olive tapenade on top. SO cute. 

Bad picture but this is one of Narisawa's signature dishes. A strawberry and fois gras salad. Very very delicious. 

The main course. Super duper tender and slow cooked steak in leek ashes. 

After 2 desserts, we were treated to anything we wanted from their petits fours cart. I definitely took advantage. Here are some mini macarons in a variety of flavors.  

I actually would be really open to returning for another meal. As the menu changes month to month and dishes dictated by seasonality, perhaps a fall or winter meal would be more up my ally.