La Grenouillère

After finishing both challenges (trying all the Michelin 3 Stars and all the Parisian stars in 365 days), I’m now redoing a lot of them but also trying the “main” 2 stars. Indeed, during my tour, I often ask chefs for 2 Stars advices and La Grenouillère name came up several times amongst their recommendations. So here I was. Please note that this review is one for the restaurant. So what’s extraordinary here? Well a word of advice and a second one. First one, is that indeed, La Grenouillère is often mentioned and expectations can be high, but more importantly, distorted. Just like a movie, after hearing so many feedback, your experience may be polluted. So my first advice would be not to read to many reviews about it (which is a bit ironic coming from me, I admit…). Why? Because some reviews may induce you to go into an intellectual read, where I think one must first simply relax and experience it before thinking of it. It’s a challenge indeed, not only because as I said you may have hear of the chef and his cuisine before, but also the atmosphere, the design, the foodie crowd may incline you to it. Resist. And let yourself dive into the nature first. The freshness of the radish. The pear. The scallops. Just enjoy it, and then enjoy them, and then you may wonder how they are connected, what effect they produce on you and so on. But the last part is an option, or at least a consequence, not the goal. I guess the goal is just to bring you closer to his nature, by that I mean region, by breaking it down and playing with it. The crowd was foodies and couples. The wine list had some the right names on it. A very solid two stars

We stayed at La Grenouillere to celebrate a birthday, and had an amazing experience from the apple infusion in the salon at the start all the way to buying honey from the shop 24h later. The huts are beautiful and truly special, and the restaurant offers a great gastronomic experience. Nothing to change.

My fourth visit to La Grenouillère and everything was still... amazing.||The rooms were redecorated (my last visit was in June 2020) with taste. The staff is still outstanding. The dinner was out of this world. I enjoyed each and every minute of my stay in this magical place.

What a fantastic experience ! This is true modern cuisine: daring, yet harmonious, light yet with substance, focused on the (excellence of the) products, amazing combinations. A very stubborn chef, whose cooking you adore or hate. Great service, nice (affordable) wine list. We were delighted to hear that the restaurant obtained its second * 3 days after we passed.

We stayed in one of the glamourous huts and treated ourselves to the tasting menu for an evening meal to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. It didn't disappoint. Fun amuse bouche with our aperitifs and impeccable meal beautifully presented and tasting fabulous. Our waitress Clara was an absolute delight - very knowledgeable about each course and explained the accompanying wines (we elected to have the 8 course tasting menu with matching wines) with authority and enthusiasm considering her young age. Each course was a delight but I found the most innovative one was the 'Cuir de courgette Jaune' - amazing how our 2* chef transported the humble yellow courgette into something remarkable. A chicken breast melted in the mouth and the accompanying salted brioche was delicious. Alexandre Gauthier is a master craftsman taking his love of herbs and nature to another level with his wonderful food. The breakfast was a delight too with amazing smoked ham and cheeses, delicious home made rice pudding assorted berries and juices. Can't wait to go back but will have to save up as it wasn't cheap!

Wonderful stay our room was great.|The food at dinner and breakfast is something that will stay with us for a very long time. ||Each morsel had been carefully considered by the Chef. Each course building on the last. We loved it so much.||We would highly recommend.

we were treated with two of the great "huttes" that we already loved on our first visit. the kids were amazed, too. breakfast is very nice and the lady who served us is very charming. truly a beautiful place to stay and relax.

Amazing experience for the senses. You will discover new ways of cooking and delicious combinations of food. All this in a charming yet modern environment. A once in a lifetime experience that makes you want to chance to twice or more in a lifetime.

After finishing both challenges (trying all the Michelin 3 Stars and all the Parisian stars in 365 days), I’m now redoing a lot of them but also trying the “main” 2 stars. Indeed, during my tour, I often ask chefs for 2 Stars advices and La Grenouillère name came up several times amongst their recommendations. So here I was. Please note that this review is one for the restaurant. So what’s extraordinary here? Well a word of advice and a second one. First one, is that indeed, La Grenouillère is often mentioned and expectations can be high, but more importantly, distorted. Just like a movie, after hearing so many feedback, your experience may be polluted. So my first advice would be not to read to many reviews about it (which is a bit ironic coming from me, I admit…). Why? Because some reviews may induce you to go into an intellectual read, where I think one must first simply relax and experience it before thinking of it. It’s a challenge indeed, not only because as I said you may have hear of the chef and his cuisine before, but also the atmosphere, the design, the foodie crowd may incline you to it. Resist. And let yourself dive into the nature first. The freshness of the radish. The pear. The scallops. Just enjoy it, and then enjoy them, and then you may wonder how they are connected, what effect they produce on you and so on. But the last part is an option, or at least a consequence, not the goal. I guess the goal is just to bring you closer to his nature, by that I mean region, by breaking it down and playing with it. The crowd was foodies and couples. The wine list had some the right names on it. A very solid two stars

We stayed at La Grenouillere to celebrate a birthday, and had an amazing experience from the apple infusion in the salon at the start all the way to buying honey from the shop 24h later. The huts are beautiful and truly special, and the restaurant offers a great gastronomic experience. Nothing to change.

My fourth visit to La Grenouillère and everything was still... amazing.||The rooms were redecorated (my last visit was in June 2020) with taste. The staff is still outstanding. The dinner was out of this world. I enjoyed each and every minute of my stay in this magical place.

What a fantastic experience ! This is true modern cuisine: daring, yet harmonious, light yet with substance, focused on the (excellence of the) products, amazing combinations. A very stubborn chef, whose cooking you adore or hate. Great service, nice (affordable) wine list. We were delighted to hear that the restaurant obtained its second * 3 days after we passed.

We stayed in one of the glamourous huts and treated ourselves to the tasting menu for an evening meal to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. It didn't disappoint. Fun amuse bouche with our aperitifs and impeccable meal beautifully presented and tasting fabulous. Our waitress Clara was an absolute delight - very knowledgeable about each course and explained the accompanying wines (we elected to have the 8 course tasting menu with matching wines) with authority and enthusiasm considering her young age. Each course was a delight but I found the most innovative one was the 'Cuir de courgette Jaune' - amazing how our 2* chef transported the humble yellow courgette into something remarkable. A chicken breast melted in the mouth and the accompanying salted brioche was delicious. Alexandre Gauthier is a master craftsman taking his love of herbs and nature to another level with his wonderful food. The breakfast was a delight too with amazing smoked ham and cheeses, delicious home made rice pudding assorted berries and juices. Can't wait to go back but will have to save up as it wasn't cheap!

Wonderful stay our room was great.|The food at dinner and breakfast is something that will stay with us for a very long time. ||Each morsel had been carefully considered by the Chef. Each course building on the last. We loved it so much.||We would highly recommend.

we were treated with two of the great "huttes" that we already loved on our first visit. the kids were amazed, too. breakfast is very nice and the lady who served us is very charming. truly a beautiful place to stay and relax.

Amazing experience for the senses. You will discover new ways of cooking and delicious combinations of food. All this in a charming yet modern environment. A once in a lifetime experience that makes you want to chance to twice or more in a lifetime.

Alexandre Gauthier is an up and coming chef that was prominently introduced to the food world by Alain Ducasse. La Grenouillere received its Michelin Star in 2007 with his combination of Japanese and French styles. Similar to that of David Kinch, Chef Gauthier brought his cooking to Manresa's kitchen in a weekend of excellent dinners. As with most progressive cooking, sometimes it's hard to find a point of reference. To relate a chefs vision to something you had before or at least something similar. I'm currently very enamored with this movement which has brought me new experiences and made me think what food could all be about. With that, onto the Gauthier/Kinch menu, in which you will probably need some translation unless you're fluent in Francais... Tasting Menu: Amuse bouche of sea bream, shellfish Tasse d'eau de mer, Corn and tomato salad Huitres grilllees, jeunes courgettes et herbes du jardin Kin-medai, vivhysoisse of coastal herbs and green grapes, crisp green vegetables Ormeaux cuits aux pedoncules de tomates, tomates.... Farm chicken roasted with pine, matsutake mushrooms, summer corn with wild huckleberries ...Ferres, ail et girolles blanches Bulle d'oseille Goat cheese with port, walnuts, pain d'epice, figs Schistes de NIosettes Wines: 2005 Les Verges, Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard, Chassagne-Montrachet 2006 Mas Amiel, Vin Doux Naturel, Maury, fortified Grenache Chateau de L'Aulee, Cremant de Loire, Touraine, Sparkling Chenin Blanc. As I do with most of these dinners, I get very analytical. Everything is tasted, studied, savored, thought over. At the end of the meal, it is just food and you have to decide whether it tastes good. As some of you may know I don't care for zucchini. Somehow Chef Gauthier made it ok with his oysters on the plancha. Now I didn't love it, but I wasn't opposed to it either. The 40 day aged beef, however was insanely mind blowing. I could have sat there all night eating that Rodizio style. The chefs came out at the end of the night and we got to chat about the food, what they were doing, and how they would ultimately enjoy themselves after the cooking was all done with. I'll quote what others have said of Gauthier's skills: "precise, delicate, elegant yet provocative, wild, and robust."

What a nice setting ! An unassuming farm house opens up to a cosy, english manor-like salon where guest can enjoy a coffee or a before dinner drink. You are then taken to modern structure reminiscent of lodges of some nature preserve above the rain forest. But no ! You are overlooking a simple garden but the magic is there nonetheless. And there comes the meal. And you know it already it will be modern but anchored in local traditions using ingredients treated simply but ....magically. The menu changes with the season and like a walk in nature, you will have to explore by yourself. The menu has a list of ingredients and a few key words that guided the chef's inspiration. We had a fantastic family meal from end to finish. The highlight was the combination of roasted white peaches and fish. Simply divine. That's all I am going to share about the food. You have to experience it for yourself. It's Michelin level in its inventiveness, the execution and the mariage of flavors and inspired elevation of the Pas-de-Calais terroir. Beware, prétention or ostentatious luxury do not belong here.

I can't really find the words the explain the reason I found myself here. In short, my company away day consisted of a private jet over to France. So yeah I'll take that. After landing and jumping in a local taxi, we were delivered to this delightful place tucked away in the delightful French countryside. I still had no idea where we were, but spent some time walking around the grounds to try and work something out. Quaint cottages were surrounded by freshly budding flowers and of course there was a slowly running stream flowing through it all. Just great. The first point I'd say here is the service. Our personal waiter and sommelier came out the front to great us personally and take us through the next few hours (and feast) that awaited. We were then taken in and sat down, presented with the menu and asked to delve into the wine list. To say something about it, it's bloody massive. The wines on offer seem endless but all are just as good as this amazing location. The decor was classy, very modern and comfortable. Handy given we were set for a couple of hours here. The food then. Where to start. We were tasked with the tasting menu, a six course journey through seafood, sweets, savoury and everything in between. Highlights for me included a beautifully soft pea and crab ball, almost like a truffle but just melt in your mouth excellence. Another was the ravioli. Lobster stuffed of course but to be honest the best pasta i've ever enjoyed. The wait between each course was again brilliant. You need the time to get over the course previously and prepare for the next. The food kept on coming in and yes it was a delight to take down. We finished with fresh honeycomb cut table side and then a small glass of mead to accompany. Such great thought goes into this menu. On the drink menu, I swung toward a locally sourced cider. Very subtle fizz but so fresh you could almost pick out the apples to the tree. The bottle was a huge serving and opened to finish in one sitting which i was totally fine with. Between the final course and coffee, the team at the restaurant and the chef took us for a tour of the grounds. It was such a beautiful afternoon with cider in hand we were shown the ingredients growing that we just ate and how each course was constructed. I see this trip and a total one-off and i'm more than lucky to experience such a thing. If you're ever within the chance to go here. Go here. It will be DOPE. 5 star blammy

I first came across Chef Alexandre Gauthier's inventively fresh and modern French cuisine, when I stayed at the Auberge de la Grenouillere, pre-renovation. Back then, the restaurant dining rooms were scattered around the charming, slightly leaning historic inn. The antiquated dining rooms were of an era, somewhat too dated to match such innovative youthful cuisine we were served. Something had to change... Fast forward some years, and on my recent return to Montreuil-sur-Mer, to stay inside one of the cool newly constructed 'huts' built behind the old auberge, we were not let down during our second dinner experience. My partner and I enjoyed the multi-course tasting menu to the fullest - all dishes we sampled were excellent, expertly prepared by Chef Gauthier and his team. Wine pairings were novel, and added to the experience. Service was polished to perfection, yet, still friendly and caring. Returning was even better than our first memorable visit. The restaurant is now what I would call a 'total experience' deftly fusing modern architecture and design, with some of the finest modern French cuisine and service. Staying and dining here is like doing so at a fine ryokan in Japan. The new version of Auberge de la Grenouillere mixes rusticity and luxury so well. This is a place to truly get away from it all, but, still have creature comforts.

Having read a very mixed bag of reviews on Trip Advisor - it seems people run either hot or cold on this place - I took the plunge and booked dinner for my husband's 65th birthday. We were staying up in town at the Ch. de Montreuil, where the night before we'd had a perfectly lovely meal. Both locations are members of Relais & Chateau, an organization we've come to trust over the years we've been traveling in France. I give La Grenouiillere one star, for the food. The menu was whimsical and charming, and the courses arrived: delicious, modern cuisine. But, a meal is so much more than the food! We'd driven down earlier in the day to make sure we knew where we were going at dinnertime. We barely found it - construction work all around the entrance had obscured or eliminated any signage and it was only by guess that we knew we'd arrived. We are well acquainted with the charm of worn-French-chic, but the foyer and salons go beyond. Frankly, it looks like a dump. The new dining room, however, offered a different feel: modern; glass walls opening onto greenspace... we were looking forward to the evening. We returned at our reserved time and were shown into the salon (the old dining room) for an aperitif. The darkness of the old room might have been relieved by the little window we were seated near, but a stack of hay bales inexplicably piled just outside blocked any view or much light. On to dinner. As previously noted, the food really was wonderful. But the service (and reception) was lukewarm, and the wines they served to accompany our courses were just plain bad - looked (and tasted) like bottom shelf to me. And unfortunately, though my husband can overlook some shortcomings in a restaurant, if the wine is bad, the evening is a wreck. As night fell and the greenery of outdoors faded to black, bringing our attention inside, the more the dining room's "modern" surfaces and sparsely decorated space began to feel like a cheap cafeteria. My husband is trying to think of the prior night's meal as his birthday celebration; neither of us can believe that La Grenouillere is a Relais & Chateau property or retains its Michelin star.