Le Rabelais Restaurant, Fontenay-le-Comte

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Hotel Le Rabelais

The new season is upon us, this year I have arrived amidst a spell of weather more befitting England and all places north than here in the normally sunny Vendée, it is cold, wet and windy, in fact it is very cold, very wet and very windy. My good friend Ron, who came out with me to help open up the house for the summer, leaves tomorrow so he is joining Trevor and I for a farewell meal.

We decided to eat at Le Rabelais for a couple of reasons, as the premier hotel in the region it has long been on our radar as a place serving excellent food, and we always like to review places that are excellent. The second reason was that it was a Monday night and finding somewhere to eat on a Monday night is a triumph at any time let alone out of season. We had booked and I would recommend that you do the same if you decide to eat here as even though it has a large dining room it does get very busy with diners numbers being substantially boosted with hotel guests. On the night we visited the restaurant wasn’t full but it was very busy. The disabled access was via the terrace, which in summer would be a lovely place to eat, the staff were very attentive and helpful in opening the terrace doors to accommodate my mobility scooter.

The dining room itself is very pleasant, the tables are well spaced so one doesn’t feel hemmed in and the decor is relaxing and tasteful. It is on two levels with the tables on the lower level and a huge hors d’oeuvre table on the upper level, being picky I would say that had I opted for the €19.50 Menu du Jour which had hors d’oeuvres as a starter I would have had to leave the dining room and go out onto the terrace, then go back into the foyer and enter the restaurant by the conventional upper level entrance. Having chosen my hors d’oeuvres I would then have had to do the journey in reverse with all of the disruption that it would have caused. We were seated and a waiter took our order for aperitifs, Ron and I had a Riccard and Trevor had tonic water as they had no alcohol free lager these were served fairly quickly with some amuse bouches. We settled down with the menus to make our selections and quite quickly we all decided to go for the €25.90 Menu Gourmand and a bottle of the house wine which was Domaine de Bellevue Rouge a decent enough Val de Loire reasonably priced at €13.50.

There were plenty of staff and they were all well turned out, as one would expect of a three star hotel, they were very attentive and very efficient and it wasn’t long after our selections that things started to arrive. Thankfully the wine was the first thing to reach us and the waitress poured it for us, it was a 2009 Gammay, a vin de pays from the Val de Loire with a good nose and a smooth dry taste which, as is usual with wine, improved with every glass and was a good accompaniment to the food and a nice bottle of wine for the money.

Trevor was starting with Oysters, they were cooked and were served with a butter and herb sauce and a good quality sea salt. Trevor was happy with the oysters, but he did say that as usual he could have eaten double the amount. Ron had chosen Foie Gras which was served with little balls of grape jelly and strips of roasted red peppers. He said that the generous serving of foie gras was excellent, the grape jelly balls and the small reduction of balsamic and fruit provided a tangy counterpoint and the peppers and small dressed salad were all very complimentary flavours and made the starter a balanced and tasty beginning to the meal. My snail and chicken pie was superb, the pastry was light, the chicken was moist the snails were a significant change of texture rather than taste, the whole thing was well balanced and delicious. It was served with a mushroom purée and a small green salad with a superb vinaigrette dressing. It was an unusual but very enjoyable starter.

The service was attentive but not pressurised and we were given just the right amount of time between courses to savour the wine, which was sufficiently good to entice us to order a second bottle, well after all it was Ron’s last night in the Vendée for a while so what the heck. Our main courses arrived, Ron had ordered Bœuf Bourguignon and when it came I was a little envious the beef was extremely tender and fell apart and the taste in the perfectly balanced sauce was everything and more that you would expect from a bourguignon, it was served with baby parsnips and chunks of warm beetroot, the smile on Ron’s face said it all. Trevor had the smoked salmon and Dover sole rolls three rolls of Sole wrapped in smoked salmon served with small balls of carrot and courgettes in a parsley cream sauce. Trevor said that everything was well balanced and the fish was cooked perfectly, his only criticism was that the dish was not very warm. My Mignon de Sanglier (fillet of wild boar) was superb, wild boar is one of my favourites and I am getting a bit of a reputation amongst my friends as I rarely miss the opportunity to eat it. This was excellent, the boar was tender and was cooked medium rare and had that unique taste that I like so much, stronger and gamier than pork. It was served with a cinnamon wine sauce, which was sweet without being cloying, I’m not a great fan of sweet sauces in savoury dishes but I have to say that this sauce was delicious and complemented the boar perfectly. The parsnip puree was very good and was served with slices of apple, I know that apple is touted as the perfect accompaniment to pork, I personally never eat the two ensemble, so I am unable to comment.

Dessert arrived all too soon, not because the staff were over jealous but because desert meant that the evening was drawing to a close and we were having a very good time. Trevor had a pear poached in local wine with a Vendéen wine mousse, Trevor said that the pear tasted great and was very well cooked, I sampled the mousse and it had a truly unique taste and consistency which I very much enjoyed. Ron and I had both opted for the Crème Brulée, the crisp sugar top gave way to a cold set custard which had a hint of Kamok the local coffee liqueur in it. On its own Kamok is a fiery drink but it gave this dessert a unique and subtle twist. The dessert was served with a couple of small slices of toasted brioche and all together it was as good a Crème Brulée as I’ve ever eaten. We finished the meal with large coffees and prepared ourselves for the bill, at €119.00 for the three of us it was certainly not a cheap evening, but it is true to say that we had all gone for the Menu Gourmand at €25.90 per head whereas there was a two course menu for €15.50 and the three course menu of the day for €19.50, so without wine and the trimmings you could certainly reduce the cost. Dinning out is a very personal experience and for me it’s about the rounded experience rather than just the quality of the cuisine, here at Le Rabelais the food is excellent and it is superbly presented, it is served in pleasant dining room by relaxed though attentive staff. I really couldn’t fault it except perhaps for the price, which at €40.00 a head is almost as expensive as the very top restaurants in the area. So if money is no object and you are looking for a decent meal especially on a Monday night then this is a good place to eat. I recommend it with the above caveats in mind. Tate - 2012

About the author: Tate spends the summers in the Vendee and is passionate about good wine and good food,he writes exclusively for the www.vendee-guide.co.uk
The coping of this article is permitted as long as the complete article along with these credits are published.

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