Maison Dubois is the creation of Chef Arthur Dubois, who among other places worked as Sous Chef for 8 years at Pierre Gagnaire. His small place has just 6 tables and a private room for up to 6 persons. The large tables are draped with 2 cloths and large matching napkins. The pink undercloth meets the floor where its pink tones coordinate with the pink carpet and columns. One wall has a low bookcase filled with cookbooks and another wall is a combination of glass and mirrors that looks into the private dining room. The upholstered chairs are in gray or pink and match the color of the drapes covering the windows to the street. Chef Dubois was there to greet guests and also there to send them off with a bag of treats. He and other kitchen staff served some of the courses along with the friendly and amazing service staff. They had a limited bar menu but a good wine list and offered the choice of 2 tasting menus or a la carte dining. We chose the longer tasting menu, started with a glass of champagne and then ordered our own bottle of wine to go with dinner. It couldn’t have been a nicer experience. The food was fantastic and so was the personalized service (it’s old-school with ladies receiving menus without prices). I would definitely put this one on your list to visit.
Set-Up
Food
The amuse bouche arrive as soon as you settle into your table. There were a number of fun bites starting with granité of beet roots, turnip and hibiscus. It was a beautiful color with bits of vegetable underneath. Delicious
A small tart of caramelized sea urchin was okay.
A spoon held mackerel with mustard cream which was nice.
Crunchy parmesan cheese was topped with pesto for a great bite.
A potato chip was topped with thyme. They were really thin but seemed to have some thyme inside as well as on top. Lovely.
A spoon held vegetables, cabbage, ginger and flower vinegar for a fine crunchy bite where the ginger came through nicely.
As the meal started there was another gift from the kltchen, an oyster with bone marrow and green vegetables in beef bone broth. The broth had a wonderful depth of flavor and was perfect with the rich marrow and lightly poached oyster. Excellent.
Bread and butter started with a warm soft muffin topped with squid ink and Brittany butter. There was also some butter mixed with seaweed, which was milder in flavor.
Winter scallops millefeuille with Oscietre caviar was a gorgeous plate of food. Layers of green instead of pastry with raw cream. Greens included lemon balm and others to layer with the scallop and caviar. A divine mix of clean flavors.
A small individual baguette was your next bread with a note by the server that all breads were made in house. Nice.
Jumbo prawns with lettuce cream, seaweed and sea salads included a sabayon, seaweed vinegar, kiwi and tarragon to sauce the prawn and thin slices of pig’s ear. The prawn was cooked perfectly and so tasty with the various sauces, especially the tarragon. The translucent tender pig’s ear added a different texture more than a flavor.
Fish from our coast with artichoke and cockles from Pen-Bron today featured turbot. The nicely cooked fish was great with the citrus bits while the artichoke paired well with the cockles. Some artichoke was in ribbons to vary textures and made the plate look light.
Abalone from Brittany with stuffed cabbage and water cress coulis was in chicken jus with whiskey. The abalone had a good chewiness while the cabbage was well stuffed. Lots of flavor in the broth around it all with some greenery to enhance the tons of flavor already there. A good one.
Venison with pink praline, wild sloes (blackthorn) and bitter salads was on a plum wine sauce. The nicely rare and tender meat was topped with the praline made with hazelnuts. The sauce was well reduced to give it so much flavor – it was a delicious combination.
They brought a seeded bread to go with the venison.
Velvety citrus with sage sorbet and grapefruit mousse was the transition course. The grapefruit emulsion was fairly tart and whippy which blended well with the sorbet and other citrus. Light and refreshing.
Poached pear in egg cream was alongside raw cream sorbet. The pear was perfect with some sweet, spicyness in the syrupy dish and great when mixed with the sweet creamy ice sorbet. The idea was to mix the warm pear and custard and then the cold sorbet to get lots of contrast in the bites. It worked for me and was nicely light after a pretty heavy meal.
Mignardise included a chocolate ganache and some biscuits. The biscuits were a buttery crisp cookie to me and wonderful. You could dip them into the ganache for a winning treat. (or just lick off the ganache and dip again if no one is looking).
A to go bag was given to you by the chef as you prepared to leave. It had some chocolate topped with nuts and seeds.
