L'Amphitryon Restaurant, Toulouse - Saturday 29/12/12

This is one of the best restaurants we have ever been to, we cannot speak highly enough about it, it was truly awesome. It is a 2 Michelin-starred restaurant in the Colomiers district of Toulouse run by Jannick Delpech - and well worth the 40 euro taxi ride each way! The restaurant is modern, with tables spaced well apart and sectioned off so that there is a personal feel for the diners, with only 6 or 7 tables in each section. But, the best part, is the food.....We went for the Menu Degustation which is an 8-course small portioned tasting menu accompanied by wines that compliment the courses. We started with a consomme soup with a poached fish 'square' and little zingy vegetables. Then we were served a prawn cerviche with caviar, crab and lemon cream followed by pan fried scallops which were breadcrumbed and to die for. After that, it was Hake done 2 ways, one raw with pickled vegetables and one grilled, both excellent, then grilled pigeon with a pastilla of black pudding, with a light sauce. In between the fish and meat courses, we were served with a frozen 'rocket salad' sorbet which was the most delicious thing we had ever tried. It had been prepared using liquid nitrogen and the smoothness and intensity of flavour was magic and the green colour was just beautiful, like a Heston Blumenthal creation. We have never had frozen salad ever, what a superb idea. Then our cheese course consisted of an intense Roquefort cheese 'straw' combined with crispy endive - wow, heaven on a plate.. We then (thankfully) moved onto the sweets and each course just kept getting better and better. The first dessert of 'oeuf coque' was the actual shell of an egg filled with green tea flavoured creme brulee, white foam top and yellow cream yolk served with a green tea cake and mango sorbet and a fig pastry. (see picture) This was my personal favourite dish of the evening! After that they served us with little clementine segments which were injected with liquid spices and these were served with lime and orange jelly which looked like little minature pasta shapes - another work of art. The wines which accompanied the meal were perfectly balanced to compliment every dish and they were not shy to top up our glasses, which was good, as a lot of restaurants serving wine flights give you one glass only for each course and that is your lot! Definitely one of our top 5 ever meals out. www.lamphitryon.com is the website.