FIEF was a small place with 8 seats at the counter where you get only the 10 course tasting menu.  The other 30 other places are 4-course menus.  The name stands for “Made Here In France”.  There was no printed menu and the promised email menu never arrived. In 2022 they received a one Michelin star rating.  The long concrete counter and stools became less comfortable as the evening wore on and the purse hooks are so far under the counter the server had to put it there.   While you are seated right across from the people making your meal there is little to no interaction.  They really pushed cocktails rather than wine which I thought odd.  There was a chaos in the kitchen which I found distracting and unpleasant.  You didn’t feel stuffed since there was little richness in the food but you didn’t leave hungry.   It was a weird vibe and probably my least favorite meal of our trip.

Set-Up

 

Food

The tasting started with some snacks.  In the middle was a cauliflower and sesame tart.  It was messy and definitely tasted of cauliflower.  On the right was a “savory oreo” made with smoked sunflower purée.  It was indeed smokey and there was some curry in the filling.  The outside crackers were not that crisp.  On the left were 2 long strips of crust filled with caramelized onion that almost had a minty flavor.  It was the best of the three.

 

A fig leaf infusion had flavors of cinnamon and vinegar.  It was non-alcoholic, cold and fairly fruity.  I’d rate it okay.

 

Chanterelles and Rooster Head mushrooms were topped with truffles in a creamy emulsion.  It had a lovely strong mushroom flavor but the truffles were more aroma than taste.  It was excellent.

 

Leeks were mixed with sea urchin in a bergamot oil and a ‘donut’ was topped with leek mayo and sea urchin alongside.  The leeks were nicely cooked and the sea urchin had the proper amount of ‘funk’.  Mixed in the broth were some herbs that helped the flavor.  The mayo on the donut sort of neutralized the funk of the sea urchin and its choux pastry was very good.  It was the better of the two options.

 

A small round of brown bread was served.  It was a fairly dense interior with a reasonably crisp crust however it needed salt or salted butter to finish the flavor.  Butter was served after the next course and it was a miso-infused whipped butter.

 

A scallop from Brittany was gently cooked with lemon and plated with celeriac on a reduced celeriac sauce.  The scallop was perfectly cooked and the sauce lovely but it too needed a touch of salt to sharpen the flavor of this otherwise simple and well-done dish.

 

Brill was covered with a geranium beurre blanc alongside Swiss chard topped with caviar.  The nice piece of fish was good with the sauce and also blended well with the caviar.  Inside the chard leaf were the white chopped chard stems.  The green powder was made from the leaves of the flowers in the restaurant, that were ground when dried according to one of the chefs.  Both were good but not spectacular.

 

A Chinese dumpling was filled with pig and spider crab in a sauce of crab oil and XO.   The spider crab was by far the stronger flavor and this one bordered on salty.  The top had been tediously decorated with tweezer action which all fell apart once you cut the dumpling to make edible pieces.  Some pepper gave it a little zip otherwise, way too much time was spent on this average dish.

 

Deer meat was sauced with red wine, shallots and deer sauce then decorated with red currant dots and red beet slices.  Some juniper was in the deer sauce.  The deer was kept nicely rare and tender but the currants contained some very tough and bitter seeds.  The beets were thinly sliced and cooked to tender and made a nice blend with the venison, but the seeds really brought this dish down.

 

A brioche bun (from a local bakery) was served with goat cheese.  Some quince was under the cheese and the foam made from the rind of the cheese.  The brioche was mediocre but the mix of the cheese and foamed rind was nice enough.

 

A palate cleanser was lemon coulis, foam and jelly.  All I can say is weird.

 

The first dessert was pear with Jerusalem artichokes and peanuts.  They proudly noted it was a fully vegan dessert.  It was okay.  Some of the bits were quite dry and didn’t blend well with the frozen balls.  It was a tough mix of ingredients.

 

A take of crepe suzette was made with fresh orange and citrus liqueur – in 2 dishes.  Some orange blossom water was in the mix of this not-quite-classic dessert.  It was fresh tasting with some sweetness.  The crepe part was nicely buttery and good with the orange sauce on it, but I’d use a bit less rind.  The bowl part was watery and here you couldn’t taste the sweet over the bitter rind.

 

Last treats were a jelly of Espellete pepper sprinkled with acidic sugar.  It was a good combination of sweet and spicy.  A Brazilian fruit that was a cross between pineapple and passion fruit.  You could eat off the skin or eat the entire bit.  It was decorated with a blossom.  It had the grit of a pear with the sweetness of pineapple.  The clam shells were stuffed with a caramel-like substance seasoned with seaweed.  The seaweed dominated the flavor.  All were okay but none I would have asked for seconds of.