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Le Saint
Georges Restaurant
St. Juire-Champgillon. Tel.02 51 27 86
91
It
was a time of celebration, last week I had celebrated a significant birthday and
this week I was celebrating the sale of my house in England, which had been on
the market for three years. So yet again Trevor and I were pushing the boat out.
This time it was my treat and we had decided to try the Restaurant Le Saint
Georges in St. Juire Champgillon. We arrived at the restaurant and Trevor
dropped me off and I entered the restaurant through the rear door while he went
to David’s house to deliver some home grown vegetables. David is one of Trevor’s
oldest friends, he has a house virtually opposite the restaurant and was joining
us for the meal. Meanwhile I had entered the upper tier of the restaurant, which
was more cafe style than fancy restaurant decked out as it was in a very vibrant
orange, but on going down the stairs into the main restaurant area I was
immediately struck by the light and contemporary feel that the owners had given
to what had almost certainly started life as an old barn. The walls were
plastered, painted white and festooned with modern impressionist paintings.
There was a feature wall of the old stone and strategically placed furniture
that would have long ago been destined for the bonfire had it not been saved and
given a lime wash and a new lease of life. The floor was tiled in grey slate,
the chairs were ironwork out of the blacksmith’s forge with comfortable padded
seats and the tables were decorated with cream tablecloths and serviettes. All
in all the mixture of old and new was a rustic chic which was pleasing on the
eye and gave the restaurant an open airy feel.
On entering the
restaurant proper I was greeted with a profound silence, I called out but to no
avail, had the crown jewels been there I could have walked off with them and no
one would have been the wiser but instead I found a table that had an envelope
addressed to Trevor and I so I sat down and opened it and read the note within.
Disappointingly the note was from David saying that due to illness he would be
unable to join us. Soon after Trevor joined me and we were spotted, given the
menus and ordered an aperitif, I had a Kir Royal and Trevor had tonic water. Now
it is at this stage that I have a confession to make, I had forgotten to bring
my voice recorder upon which I normally make little aides memoire and so I was
faced with using the back of David’s note and the envelope both of which were
cream to write notes on, the second problem was that the only writing implement
we could rustle up between us was a yellow crayon, so if my recollection of the
evening is at all wayward I can only apologise. David had recommended the menu,
which I think was called “collection d’été 2010” and as he is very good friends
with the chef/proprietor it seemed crazy not to follow his recommendation, so we
ordered and waited for the food. First the Mise en Bouche arrived, one plate
with a dish of tapenade and a delightfully crispy biscuit, while served on an
oblong slate were three different offerings a melon jelly, a petit pain topped
with a vegetable puree and a salmon mousse served in a spoon apparently touched
by the hand of Uri Geller. They were all delicious and did exactly what they
were supposed to. I liken Mise en Bouche to the diner’s equivalent of an
athlete’s warm up toning and honing the taste buds to a high state of
anticipation in readiness for the feast to come. Just when we expected our
entrees a final small delight arrived, it was a small dish of lobster bisque
with finely diced cucumber and a parmesan mousse, and I loved it. The entrees
came and they were also fabulous I had foie gras with a verbena and citronella
cream and slices of poached pear while Trevor had a a dish of salmon which was
simply a work of art. There was salmon, and gravalax on a bed of avocado with a
salad of fresh herbs and flowers picked by the restaurateur’s friend Jean
Claude, it looked fantastic and Trevor said it tasted fabulous. For an extra
€12 I had a house selected glass of wine with each of my courses
and with the entree I was served a white wine called Pelerin. I was surprised
that it was not sweet as sauternes are often served with foie gras, but though
surprised I was not disappointed because I’m not a great sweet wine drinker and
it complimented the foi gras perfectly.
There was a leisurely feel to the
service, the staff were friendly and extremely knowledgeable about the food and
wine that they served and anything that they didn’t know they were only too
pleased to find out. Our main courses arrived and they were every bit as good as
the entrees, my fillet steak was perfectly cooked, and very tasty. True it
wasn’t Parthenais but it was very good. It was served with a tasty clam and
parsley sauce and a dish of sautéed potatoes paysanne, which were cubed potatoes
mixed with lardons and onions, they were just perfect. I must confess that I
forgot to take down the name of the red wine which was served with the main
course but it was I remember very good, if not exceptional. Trevor had chicken
stuffed with langoustines served on a sauce vierge with artichoke and fennel and
said that it was as good as chicken gets. Next came a pre-dessert to re-tune our
taste buds to the sweet end of the taste spectrum, which was chocolate on orange
crème on a biscuit with a curl of white chocolate on top, it was beautiful but
Trevor’s curl was broken and mine came with the plastic support still attached,
it didn’t detract from the taste but I do think that if you serve something
fancy you should have at least a fifty per cent success rate in its
presentation. For dessert I had a chocolate shortbread tartlet covered with
liquid chocolate, chocolate shards and an orange granité. It was heaven and it
was served with a Chinon Blanc, which was not too sweet and went superbly with
the chocolate. Trevor’s dessert was a brandy snap biscuit tower filled with a
strawberry cream shot through with small wild strawberries, served in a
strawberry coulis, it looked fabulous and Trevor said it tasted every bit as
good as it looked. We finished the meal with two large coffees at €2.10 each which I
thought were unusually great value for money, they are often twice that price.
Trevor was ready to mark the restaurant down as there was no chocolate with the
coffee, but he had to recant when along came a Madeleine, a small coconut cake
and a cannele. The whole evening had been a delight. At €90 for the two of us
it wasn’t the cheapest meal that we had ever eaten, but the food, the
presentation, and the service were of a very high standard and the ambience of
the evening was such that for a special night out this restaurant would rank
high on my list of recommendations. - Tate 2010
About the author: Tate
spends the summers in the Vendee and is passionate about good wine and good
food,he writes exclusively for the http://www.vendee-guide.co.uk/
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coping of this article is permitted as long as the complete article along with
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