Flaveur is a fairly small place, seating about 20, with a very styled and pretty bright interior . It is striking but a lot of hard surfaces that could make the noise level high in addition to the soft background music. Steel and wood cutouts decorate the room in various patterns, one being a fish skeleton. The small tables are nicely spaced and appointed with a runner rather than a full cloth but a wonderfully large napkin. Service is friendly and helpful but some of the pacing is a bit slow, probably to folks like me who ask a lot of questions and our waiter never rushed us off. But trust me, the food is worth waiting for. The menu is a tasting one and you can pick 3, 4 or 7 courses. Wine pairings are available. We chose the 4 course and selected our own bottle of wine.
While we sipped our cocktails we enjoyed an amuse of dried miso, young broccoli, skin of pig and dried gourd paste was fun and tasty.
A crisp of rice held a chunk of mackerel mixed with onion and was served on a box of fish skeletons. It was also tasty.
Sea urchin in a urchin spiked glass was with potato alongside a sardine and quinoa soufflé (creamy, crunchy with strong fish flavor) and smoked haddock and lemon (very nice). Dried beef on a cracker with a powdered top had a creamy interior with strong flavors of coriander.
Butter from Brittany was decorated with lemon, herbs and salt and served with polenta crisps. They had a nice strong corn taste and the different textures made them fun to eat.
White salted codfish with squid ink and herbs was a bit hard to eat but was exceptionally savory. It was served with blood pudding in pigskin with the juice of beef which was also very tasty.
Smoked sword fish was presented with salted lemon confit, fennel and fresh herbs. The vegetables were end of the season and a foam was made from water and shells. A layer of risotto was on the bottom which almost tasted hammy. It was cooked perfectly and the vegetables and herbs all blended nicely to make a good dish.
A seasonal local fish like sea bass was served with fennel, bouillon of Vadouvan, golden chanterelle, green tomatoes and cuttlefish. The sauce had a yellow curry like flavor. It was a combination of excellent flavors with perfect seasonings that made a wonderful dish. Nice textural varieties with even the fish skin being really good and slightly crispy. The big flake fish was cooked perfectly and the cuttlefish also, for it remained quite tender. The broth made this one the standout though – you wanted every drop of it.
Piémont veal was slowly cooked at a low temperature and then served with a reduction of the veal, green curry and sour herbs. It was tender and the sauce had achieved that stickiness that long cooked sauces get. The curry was a nice addition but the meat was also good with just a little of its drippings. Alongside was a sweetbread with white herbs and a blanc de blanc sauce. The sweetbread was under a ravioli that was filled with tasty greens. The sauce here was also very savory. Both parts of this dish left great flavors lingering on your tongue, provided the diner with a good variety of textures and were really full of flavor. A winner.
A fig slow cooked in its own juice was with almond milk, fig jam and a jelly made from fig leaves. Bits of malt adding a nice chewiness were on the side as well as a dollup of fruity orange cream. Alongside was a bowl with something creamy that had flavors of chocolate and coconut with a fig and topped with a ultra thin buttery cookie. This one definitely had the tastier fig; it was sweet like great strawberries.
The second dessert was coconut ice cream with juice from South America, coconut water with zest of thyme, fennel with caramelized almond, lemon and white chocolate macha tea and chocolate with hazelnuts.
We finished with milk with ginger and flowers, liquorice porridge (spicy).
