Sad about 42 Grams! Had not yet been but have heard great things. Will be in Chicago next month and was close to booking it but settled on 3-star Grace instead.

I went to The Waterside Inn (3*) in the UK yesterday. What a stunning experience. The setting is gorgeous, right on the river Thames, and I took my coffee, cognac (had some Hennessy Paradis), and mignardises out on the terrace watching the ducks and swans and boats go by. The food was delicious and well constructed. Not the most amazing or avant-garde food I've ever had but the overall experience was absolutely one of my favorites.

Dinner at Alain Ducasse Le Louis XV Monte Carlo, the first and only Michelin 3-star restaurant in Monaco.
The restaurant is located in the Hotel de Paris. After we made our way through the barriers (police was very helpful) we were greeted at the entrance and doorman took care of our car.
We were escorted to the restaurant and got a table at the window. The restaurant is � let�s say � golden and were recently renovated.



It�s a matter of taste if you like the design, it�s at least not understated
We could choose between a la carte, Jardins de Provence menu and Gourmet menu. As the Jardins de Provence menu didn�t contain meat we opted for this one, it was 240,00 � per person. While the courses came by surprise were able to choose our dessert from the menu.


First they brought bread with vegetables and olives which looked great.


Taste was OK but not as gregarious as the visual appearance.

Some very nice vegetarian canap�s with olive-paste



Now it was time for the first Monaco-aria. They braught hot stones with raw fish on it, poured water over it and took a cap over it. This way the fish cooked. You can say whatever you want but they really try hard to offer a show....


They didn�t offer a bread wagon, they had a bread and a butter/ oil station.....



The bread came beside the butter with a surprisingly good (generally not a fan of French oil) olive oil from Grasse


The bread was of good quality but not as good as the bread at Joel Robouchon



Interesting cutlery


First course with several vegetables

The dish was very tasty!

Second course, the obligatory green asparagus

Also very good

Next a bowl with morels and rice from the famous cook pot

This was the way such a dish must be! Outstanding!

Next I was a little bit confused, they serve gnocchi with asparagus, salad, peas and mushrooms

Well, asparagus again and somewhat wired in a 3-star restaurant but after I tried it I couldn�t find anything to complain about. Again a delicious dish.

Some ice to refresh....


Next came the cheese wagon.


As we hadn�t a menu we wasn�t sure if it�s included. As my company had already enough she declined and only I took a selection.


Already before again an aria started and a cook chopped salad at the butter station. That�s the result:

Later I learned that the cheese was part of the menu but to be fait it wouldn�t have been such a great idea to eat 2 cheese-plates.

Napkin


Time for dessert! First the warm mango and passion fruit souffl� with pink pepper sorbet.

I�m not a fan of pink pepper sorbet but the souffl� was delicious

Soft chocolate cake with cocoa and nib

Also very good

Again a tea-wagon

This time it wasn�t included.......

Some more sweets


nuts


chocolates


and ice-cream.


In the end we got a �present�, a nice cake



During the whole evening service was top notch and without any failure.

We had a very good dinner which came at 514,00 � (no alcohol, only water). If I compared it to our dinner at Joel Robouchon it offered without question the better food and the better service. If you want the best performance quality-wise go for Alain Ducasse. If you consider value I would opt for Joel Robouchon as the difference in quality doesn�t justify the price-difference in my eyes. Which restaurant I would return? Hard to say, in best case both. Otherwise I guess Louis XV.

Looks great. I'm still thinking about the saute of lobster, chicken quenelles and homemade pasta at Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester. That was an amazing signature dish. When I have the opportunity of trying another of his restaurants will definitely go.

Last week I was at the three star Waldhaus Sonnora in Germany. Fabulous experience but useless to describe without the pictures.

Only visited once in my life and it was over 20 years ago

Ate at Ushiwakamaru (1 star) tonight. Very good as usual. The stripejack sashimi was a highlight, as well as the ending toro hand roll - they put onions in it, which actually worked quite nicely. The only thing that ruined it were drunk hedge fund traders being obnoxiously loud next to us at the sushi counter.

I totally feel you on the obnoxious drunk finance bros!

One time at La Pergola (3 stars) in Rome, some guy was there with his wife and kids, shouting "bring me something exciting! I've had all the Gajas!" so loud the entire restaurant heard him. <-- this will be the finance bros in 20 yrs.

We had dinner at Alcyone, the fine dining restaurant at the IC Marseille. It has 1 Michelin star. When we arrived we were the first guests, later all tables were occupied.
We got a table with a view:
[


We could choose between a la carte or a 5-course Tasting Menu at 139,00 �. It was no problem to get the menu without meat, so we took it.
Amuse Bouche


Bread


Second Amuse Bouche


Stuffed green asparagus with asparagus ice cream

Creative, stuffed asparagus I never had before....

Bouillabaisse


A must in Marseille

Scallops with peas

Good

Artichoke with red mullet

Not my all-time favourite but OK

Dessert

Tasty

Cr�me Brule

Very good!

Nice chocolates


Over all a nice diner with solid 1 star quality. I I compare the price with other meals we had during our vacation it was overpriced, but you can expect this in a hotel like the IC.

I had 3 consecutive meals (dinner, breakfast, then lunch) at Blue Duck Tavern in DC. All meals were very nice, I was just disappointed I couldn't make it to some other restaurants. But that's what delayed flights and holidays do to trips

Had a very nice meal at the 2 star Ristorante Il Pagliaccio in Rome.

An inventive but not too precious menu (two different tasting menus and al a carte as well), a very engaged and helpful sommeiller and efficient but not stuffy service.

Probably one of the best meals I've had at a starred restaurant in Rome.

Thank you so much for the superb review. Always wanted to go there. That bread looks awesome!

I was quite disappointed with my meal at Il Pagliaccio. Seemed like they were just going through the motions on the night I was there. I had the full tasting menu and I left very, very hungry, which almost never happens to me. Just a bad energy night.

As to Rome, I ate at Imago in May and it was a tremendous dinner, even more impressive than the meal I had at La Pergola.

Definitively go

I will have to check that out - thanks for highlighting them!

Another restaurant we went to in June was two star Uliassi in the beach town of Senigallia. We went there specifically because we had a great lunch experience there last year and wanted to have the full experience. Sadly, we were disappointed.

We opted for the 'Lab 2017' menu, a degustation of new and creative seasonal food. There were hits and misses but the best dishes tended to be the simpler ones which had less confused flavours. One of the more challenging dishes was advertised as fish offal, which I really enjoyed but Ms. Boh found off-putting. Ups and downs for sure.

We got the distinct impression that night that this was more of a 'show off' menu, with more process and style than substance. For some reason there was a common thread of oyster (meat, liquor, essence ...) running through most of the dishes, including the butter. I love oysters, but at some point it came to dull our taste for anything else.

Also, for a tasting menu, the portions were all both large and very rich, so towards the end of the meal some plates were going back unfinished. This prompted a visit from Chef Mauro to make sure everything was okay.

All in all we are glad we went back, but doubt we will go there again. Maybe next time we will try the starred Madonnina del Pescatore nearby.

I had booked a table at Une Table, au Sud. It�s an one star restaurant which is located at the harbour. From outside it�s rather impressive:


They offered a small menu at 48,00 � and the degustation menu at 115,00 �. We took the large menu, I did a picture the next morning:

Our menu was a little bit customized without meat.

Table with some kind of view:


Nice tableware:


Fruit juice


Amuse Bouche



Good start

Bread



OK, after the bread orgies of the last days I would call it OK

First course: Asparagus

I can�t say anything against this dish. It was tasty and looked very good. Not the best asparagus I had over the last days but nevertheless good.

Something with ink:

Still not sure what to think about this. Not totally bad but also nothing I must eat often.

Second course: Sea urchin

Of course I had two. While I could eat it it�s not really my favourite. Very salty and the typical taste of the sea urchin. Also not a dish I need a second time.

Third course: Green risotto

I like it, a nice dish

Forth course: Bouillabaisse


A fine variation of the classic dish. Without question tasty.

Some surprise:

If you judge on the optic it�s a world class dish. On taste it was solid

Fifth course: Local fishery

It tasted better than it looked but I don�t have strong emotions about this dish.

Sixth course: cheese

Let�s make it short: I only ate a few bites. It tasted dry and was not my taste.

Seventh course: Citrus with hibiscus

I can�t really call it successful. In my eyes it didn�t work too well.

Eight course: chocolate

This was a good finish

This was surely not the best dinner during our journey but also not a letdown. I would rate it as a 1 star restaurant in the lower area. Still solid with some good moments but not as memorable as other restaurants. Compared to Alcyone without doubt weaker. Over all it was nevertheless not unhappy.