Services: 9/10
If you happen to be visiting Loire Valley and are thinking of a fine cuisine with excellent surrounding, Domaine des Hauts de Loire at Onzain may be an answer. The place is kind of isolated in the rural area of Loire region: driving at night to search for this place can be difficult as there are hardly street light along the way (T.T)" Upon arrival, I was already impressed with the beautiful building of the domaine which is like a mansion in small forest.
 |
| entrance sign to Domaine des Hauts de Loire |
 |
| the beautiful building of Domaine des Hauts de Loire |
 |
| a member of Relais & Chateaux |
The dining room is cosy and elegant and decorated in yellow tone. It is spacious with perhaps 25 tables or more in total. Staffs are up to its standard: friendly and helpful as well as having good knowledge. The good impression with this restaurant was that it is somewhat grand but it did not give us the harsh and heavy feeling like many other fine restaurants.
 |
| elegant and beautiful dining room |
 |
| yellow theme ^^ |
 |
| cutlery setting |
For the night, there were 4 of us and we decided to go for the 5-courses menu which costed EUR96 each. To accompany the night, we asked the sommelier for an advice on a bottle of local wine selection. The recommendation was
Domaine du Clos Naudin Vouvray demi sec Foreau 2002 (92 pts). Though the price of EUR45 was around double of high-street price, it was surely a deadly gorgeous bottle of off-dry chenin blanc based white wine. The appearance was yellowish green. On the nose, it presented sweet aroma of apricot and peach. It was slightly sweet on the palate but balanced well with crisp acidity. Cool and remarkable. It offered complex lime and apple flavour. Good quality bottle at its matured peak indeed.
 |
| menu of the night |
 |
| bread choices....lovely indeed |
 |
| Domaine du Clos Naudin Vouvray Demi Sec Foreau 2002 |
As usual, before starting of our courses, a few of small dishes were served to get our stomachs a start. The first one was
crab tartare with strawberry and avocado (6/10). My first impression was not so well with the standard of 2 Michelin Stars restaurant. Though it was fresh and light which is great for 1st course but the sweetness of strawberry did not seem to pair splendidly with crab.
The next one was
foie gras with apricot and wrapped duck (8/10). This one was better in term of my expectation. A really awesome smooth and creamy foie gras with tender duck wrapped as outside layer.
 |
| crab tartare with strawberry and avocado |
 |
| foie gras with apricot |
 |
| foie gras with apricot and wrapped duck |
 |
| foie gras zoomed up |
The last of pre-courses was
salmon with sesame and beetroot terrine (9/10). This was a near perfect dish. The smoke salmon was little salty but so balance when having together with beetroot terrine. The sesame offered a step more complex dimension. I just love this plate.
 |
| beetroot terrine |
 |
| salmon with sesame and beetroot terrine |
 |
| zoomed up to salmon |
Now let's see the ordered courses. The starter was eel as salad with fried bread and celery seeds, shallots dressing (8/10). Apart from Japanese food, eel can be a rare ingredient in typical restaurant. Eel was fried to delicious crispness. To me it tasted more like white fish rather than eel for the texture. It was just a simple salad dish but fine ingredients offered so much pleasure. The accompanied fried shallots gave fabulous aroma to overall.
 |
| eel as salad with fried bread and celery seeds, shallots dressing |
 |
| top view of eel salad |
For seafood course, it was scallops with crispy, crushed shells and truffle, tuberous chervil (7/10). So fine scallops were covered with crispy wraps and served with turnip purée and light touch of cream sauce. This was a delicate dish for the whole picture but the vege taste was not really my kind.
 |
| scallops with crispy, crushed shells and truffle, tuberous chervil |
 |
| cutting of scallop |
The highlight of the meal was young pigeon, roast crispy potatoes and colonata lard cacao flavour served with turnip "boule d'or" (9/10). A delicacy of pigeon dish it was. So fine, so tender and so special. This classic dish came with classic gravy jus, fried onion, and mash. Ones would not decline its savoury, I swear. It would be perfect with fine full-bodied red wine.
 |
| young pigeon, roast crispy potatoes and colonata lard cacao flavour served with turnip "boule d'or" |
 |
| another view of delicious pigeon |
Pre-dessert dish was of course selection of fine cheese, else season's salad was the second choice.
Season's salad (5/10) was just fresh greens with balsamic sauce. It was nice but it was just green salad so it could not be so amazing whatsoever. For
cheese selection (8/10), they were selections from local farms and served with fruit bread. So fine and so delicious.
 |
| season's salad |
 |
| cheese trolley |
 |
| creamy cheese on fruit bread |
For desserts, the first choice was polenta vanilla flavour in crispy biscuit, steaming fruits, lychee sorbet (9/10). So fresh and so refreshing, it just washed away after-taste of main courses. Tropical indeed. I particularly like the lychee sorbet: not too sweet and aromatic. The other choice of desserts was chocolate with anis flavour, coffee and caramel "irish", vanilla ice-cream. If chocolate is what you love, then this is the choice for you. Unfortunately, I enjoyed the dishes so much such that I totally forgot to take note of this dessert (T_T)"
All in all, I just wish that I would get another chance to visit this place. So beautiful and so delicate. A must visit venue.
 |
| pre-dessert of chocolate mousse and raspberry |
 |
| chocolate with anis flavour, coffee and caramel "irish", vanilla ice-cream |
 |
| polenta vanilla flavour in crispy biscuit, steaming fruits, lychee sorbet |
 |
| selection of petit fours |
 |
| chocolate selection |
Les Gueules Noires (à la cave Martin) @ Vouvray, France
