Le Verbois: a One Star Michelin Experience

Le Verbois is a one star Michelin restaurant located in St. Maximin France,
close to where we live. We received a generous gift card for the location for Christmas from my wife's sister this year, so we decided to use it a few weeks ago for our anniversary. We had done a two Michelin star restaurant previously in Paris but this was our first one star, so we were pretty excited to try it out.

The restaurant is located in a beautiful building that according to their webpage used to be an old hunting lodge. It definitely has that feel in the entrance with its large fireplace in the foyer. According to the website the restaurant has been run by the same family for well over 100 years and the Chef, who is only 24 years old, has been working in the kitchen there since he was a child. He also trained in a two star Michelin restaurant in Paris and received his own star at Le Verbois, I believe, in the year 2020, though I'm not entirely certain of that. It can be hard to research the history of a restaurants Michelin stars but I got the impression that Le Verbois has had theirs for a very long time. A book shelf in the foyer is lined with red Michelin guide books that date back all the way to 1904. They are subtly on display on the shelf like trophies. You can't help but notice them as you walk by.

The restaurants menu is created anew each day depending on market ingredients and the inspiration and creativity of the chef and owner. With that in mind I imagine that every visit would be a new experience.

It is a set menu with the option of trying the five course meal or the seven, but there is no indication at all what either entails. Everything is essentially a surprise (more on that a little later).

For our meal we chose the five course menu with two glasses of wine.

Amuse Bouche

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True to fashion in French cuisine the meal started with an amuse bouche which wasn't considered to be a course in itself even though it was a relatively significant amount of food. Bonus food, weeeeeee!!!

It started with radishes and sumac coated in a delicious type of butter (or something like that). Those were served with a caramelized onion tart that was a huge punch of flavor and a cigar that I vaguely remember tasting like celeric and/or lemon grass.

Each of these items were served as a single bite.

Salad Course

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The salad was tomatoes that were matured for 36 hours, with shaved black olives that were prepared in a way that made them slightly crunchy. They added an interesting texture to the dish.

This was served with focaccia bread to cleanse the palat, a burratta cheese tart and gazpacho soup - all were very flavorful and delicious.

Fish Course

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I believe that this was a shrimp cake wrapped in a zucchini blossom served in a shrimp (or shell fish) foam. This dish was good but it was my least favorite of the meal. The foam was salty, which was fine, but a minor critique would be that there was slightly too much of it.

Meat Course

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The host also acted as one of the waiters and I believe that she might have been one of the owners of the restaurant as well. She was super friendly and pleasant when taking our order and when describing each dish that came out. The only choice that we had in the menu other than choosing between five and seven courses was what main we wanted - meat or fish. When we asked what the fish was the woman wouldnt tell us, instead she stated that it was a surprise. It was the same with the meat as well, and I overheard her saying the same thing to all of the other tables. My wife chose the fish and I chose the meat.

The fish ended up being monkfish served with carrots and the meat was pork with mushrooms and peaches. I don't know what the grassy looking herb was but it was super bitter, which I found really interesting.

Cheese Course

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Unfortunately we forgot to take photos of the cheese course, which I very much regret because it was a particularly interesting plate. I don't recall the name of the cheese but it was super soft and silky smooth, like extra thick yogurt or like the inside of bree without the rind. It was slightly sweet and served with blueberries. It was like eating a strange but delicious yogurt of some sort (I dont know how else to describe it). It was a very interesting dish.

Dessert

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The desert was fresh raspberries and raspberry sorbet served inside a thin meringue.

That came with a small pistachio biscuit, a small square of nougat that was absolutely delicious and a passion fruit puree served inside a thin white chocolate shell that was an explosion of tart flavor when it was bit down on. The nougat melted in the mouth like marshmallows and tasted strongly of roasted almonds.

Conclusion

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Overall we thoroughly enjoyed our anniversary meal and thought that the experience of it was something special. It was definitely among the best meals that we have had in the counrty (or any for that matter). I'd like to send my thanks to my sister in law for such a great gift, we really appreciate it. I have no doubt that it will be a memory of our time in France for many years to come.

Well thats it for now. Until next time, thanks for stopping by.