You could say this is one of the few great modernist restaurants in England ? even though, technically speaking, it's in FranceThe Covent Garden eatery Rules, which claims to be, and probably is, the oldest in Great Britain, used until fairly recently to have a magnificent foreigner-baiting joke on its wine list. The reds were divided into only two categories: "Burgundy" was one, and the other ? for everything else from California to Australia to South Africa to Bordeaux ? was called, quite simply, "Wines from the former colonies".In the same spirit, we can confidently assert that La Grenouill�re is one of the few genuinely first-rate avant-garde, modernist restaurants in England, with the tiny proviso that a pedant might technically regard it as being in France. From a narrow point of view, this is true, but the area around Calais was part of England as recently as 1558. Besides, La Grenouill�re is no more than 45 minutes from the Chunnel and Calais, and only 20 from Boulogne. Perfectly located, in fact, for a treat either at the beginning or end of a half-term bid for freedom.The restaurant has a fantasy-idyll location by a stream just outside the village of Montreuil ? it used to be Montreuil-sur-Mer until some pedant, maybe the same one mentioned above, pointed out that it's 20km inland. The place looks like a sleepy old family auberge, which is what it used to be, until the son of the family, Alexandre Gauthier, took over in 2003. For a few years there was, apparently, a disconnect between his full-on molecular gastronomy and the comfy, old-fashioned interior, but that's gone now, and the dining room is as right-now as the cooking. It's all glass and wood and rusted metal, with a garden view of reeds and grasses.France and Britain have large culinary differences, but one thing they do share is a relatively low tolerance for modernist cooking. Chefs such as our Heston Blumenthal and their Pierre Gagnaire are more talked about than imitated. La Grenouill�re is on a shortlist of places that genuinely try hard to be the new new thing ? a point made right at the start of the meal with a dish called "Eau de mer..." (their dots). If the dish names have dots, you know you're not in Kansas any more. "Seawater" turns out to be a bowl of salted water flavoured with nori, with a cube of pressed avocado and crevettes. The seawater was, in effect, the seasoning ? a clever dish, with a lovely sense of purity and clarity, and a mutedness to its flavour. It didn't shout.That was true throughout the meal. Gauthier uses his arsenal of 22nd-century skills to cook food that is balanced, subtle and restrained, so much so that we debated whether some flavour and oomph was missing. On reflection, I didn't mind. I really liked dishes such as tartare of rabbit (!?) with tiny slivers of white asparagus, a light mustard dressing and a generous tweak of crunchy salt. This was exquisite in its juxtaposition of texture and tastes ? subtle tastes, mind. Lobster was remarkable, too, not least because it arrived in, literally, a burning bush. Once the juniper leaves go out, you part them and tuck into the crustacean, which has taken on just the right amount (ie, not too much) of the juniper aroma. I liked polenta in a parcel of hemp, which was pretty hempy; that was one of the meal's strongest tastes, all on the same nutty and toothsome note. "Ros�, cendr�, lapin..." ? that's "Pink, ash, rabbit..." ? was a little bubble of rabbit kidney cooked sous vide then seared, in ash, the overall effect being an explosion of taste when you bit into the bubble and it popped.So, overall, pretty amazing. They're very nice with it, too. My sons really liked the simple veal dish the kitchen knocked up for them, and thought our procession of exotic courses was hilarious ("You know it's on fire, right?"). You have to be in the mood for this kind of cooking, and this is one of those places where ordering � la carte, rather than the tasting menu, misses so much of the experience that it's the same as not going there. But I'd say we're very lucky to have it so handily nearby.La Grenouill�re, Rue de la Grenouill�re, 62170 La Madeleine sous Montreuil, France, 0033 3 21 06 07 22. Open lunch Fri-Sun, dinner Weds-Mon. Set lunch ?45, � la carte ?55-85. Lunch tasting menu, from ?85 for eight courses; dinner tasting menu, ?115 for 11 courses.CalaisFranceEuropeRestaurantsFood & drinkJohn Lanchesterguardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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