We had dinner at Le Vent d’Armor just over a year ago and so this time went for lunch. The food was as good as last time and this time we had the wife of the chef working the front room and she was super friendly too. It is a lovely place and a good value. Seriously, everything we ate was terrific, with great clean tastes – you need to put this place on your list to go to soon. The atmosphere is relaxed and welcoming. The room is brighter in the daytime, obviously because the windows let in the sunshine but otherwise the physical layout had not changed. The nicely spaced tables are set with white cloths and napkins and no music is in the background. They do offer two lunch menus of 2 to 3 courses, however we wanted to eat off the a la carte menu, that is like what they have at dinner.
While waiting for our food she brought thickly sliced baguette bread with Échiré butter. The bread was very fresh with a good crust and dense chewy interior and the butter had excellent flavor. It was hard not to fill up on this.
An amuse bouche was sea snails served with herrring eggs and chives. The chewy meat was well seasoned and the eggs added a fun pop. It was very good.
Razor clams were seasoned with garlic butter and espelette pepper. They came 2 to a shell and were served with a side salad. The topping is really flavor intense filled with herbs and pepper and the chewy clams underneath are perfect with it. This is really a divine dish – totally full of flavors and textures – I could eat it every day. The side salad was nicely dressed a wasn’t just for looks, it was good too.
Shelled crab was topped with spicy radish and mayonnaise and a salad were on the side. It was a wonderfully generous portion of the sweet crab meat. The lemony mayonnaise was good with it but this high quality crab was good just eaten alone too. The nicely dressed side salad was also tasty.
John Dory fillet with garlic cream was plated with a vegetable medley and potatoes. The fish was nicely moist and perfect with the thickened garlic sauce that was underneath it. The vegetables were all cooked nicely and retained wonderful color to make the plate not just great but also visually appealing. It was possibly the best John Dory I’ve ever eaten; it was totally tasty.
Sliced scallops with truffles were in a thick rich sauce. The barely cooked scallops were perfectly matched by the thickly cut truffles that added aroma and texture. This dish was rich and delicious – totally yummy. I ate every bite. It came with a side bowl of vegetables that included green beans, tomatoes, yellow pepper, potatoes, red peppers, scallions, and brussel sprouts that I wrote down. The amazing thing about it besides the color, was that each vegetable was cooked just to tender, so they must have each been cooked separately and then blended together. It was a great addition to the scallops.
For dessert we chose the Pineapple carpaccio with rum and coconut sorbet. It was thinly sliced pieces of pineapple that were sweetened and served with the coconut ice cream. They were a great mix and both parts were full of flavor. The light, sweet and fruity pineapple had just the right amount of richness added with the coconut. Wonderful.
As a last treat with coffee they served mini creme brulee, mango and honey jellies and candied peanuts. All were delicious. The brulee was made with tonka bean and was smooth and creamy. The jellies were thick, sweet and sugary with good fruit flavor. The nuts were totally addictive.
