L'Alchimie — Restaurant in Bayeux

Terrific meal of imaginative flavor blending and presentation

First thing to know is not about the restaurant but planning on getting there. Bayeux center where most of the good restaurants are located is an old village lay out with lots of narrow, one way streets, little parking and what you can find is tight. On top of that, the street for most of the restaurants is closed off at 7 pm to become a pedestrian district. You will end up walking some if not a good distance and that can be difficult in the dark after restaurant closing.

Now to the restaurant. In the “Restaurant Row” the front was a store front setting with a small sign we almost missed. Inside as with many restaurants here, tables were rather close which made it noisy especially with a talkative crew like the one near us. And the tables were a bit small making it a puzzle with wine glasses, bread, appetizers, etc. With the bar and a back room as well, servers were very busy and were a little slow at times but not terrible.

The food made up for the challenges above. Kangaroo Tataki was a wonderful dish by taste and plating was visually artistic! The kangaroo was slices of a well seared but rare loin with a black and white sesame seed crust over a bed of mixed veggies lightly sautéed tender crisp with ginger pickled onions in a teriyaki/ balsamic reduction. Terrific. An artichoke appetizer paired pickled artichoke quarters with warm, sautéed artichoke bottoms with pickled red onion, beets, crème fraiche topped with mixed veggie sprouts on a focaccia. Again, the plating was terrific visually.

Mains. A cottage pie was a wonderful blend of minced veal and black pudding crumbles on a base of creamed potatoes topped with a rich gravy with plenty of herbs and more black pudding crumbles on top. The side was more buttery mashed potatoes with sautéed onions and mushrooms. Maybe a little bit too much potatoes but they were so ricih and flavorful we devoured them.

The next entrée was an unusual Tex Mex dish. Unusual in that we didn’t see tex-mex anywhere else in France and the way it was presented like a deconstructed shrimp burrito. There was a mélange of roasted corn, black beans, onions and tomato chunks in a chili sauce. On top were large shrimp seared in a taco like seasoning with dollops of guacamole and lime sour cream. Black beans and red rice were on the side. Wow!

Dessert – balls of wine poached pears over a spiced pear compote, sweet whipped cream with chocolate wafer strips. Light and just the right amount after the large entrees. More of artistic plating.

A terrific meal of imaginative flavor blending and presentation. Find your way there. Suggest...

It is sad when excellent food is so diminished by such inattentive service. Perhaps because we are from the U.S. we were relegated to the loud American section. Regardless, we were compelled to wait and wait and wait for someone to take our initial drinks order despite having the bartender, who appeared to be responsible for the back tables, walk repeatedly by and often could be seen laughing it up in the kitchen. We finally got the attention of a server for the front of the house to place our order. We finally tracked down the bartender for advice on a bottle of red wine, which he did provide, but then he completely ignored our request to open the bottle so that it could breathe. We finally gave up after enjoying our starters and entrees and had to then ask for our check twice. I really have never bought into the surly French service idea, but after having a similar experience in a Michelin restaurant in Paris, While I have always been an excellent tipper and fully support U.S. restaurants movement to incorporate tipping in the bill, I wonder given some of our experiences in France to include tonight’s dinner, whether the “service compris” completely disincentivizes services from performing respectfully. At any rate, this otherwise fine restaurant is utterly diminished by its front of the house. If service was not included I would have been able to exact some modicum of justice. Instead we end up sitting looking silly and twiddling our thumbs waiting for staff to do their jobs. Sadly my wife and I were forced to wait and wait and wait...

We were visiting the Omaha beach nearby and decided to try this place in the city of Bayeux.

We were lucky to got there right before they close for the lunch hour (lunch hour finishes at 2:30pm). The waiter told us we could only order the fixed menu. So we did!

The appetizer was tuna (Rillettes de rouget et de thon au yuzu). The acid from yuzu complemented very well with the tuna.

The entry was boulette de viande dans un bouillon, perles de pâtes. The beef was actually quite flavourful compared to the rest which was kind of bland.

For deserts, we took both the ice cream and sorbet with fresh fruits, which were great!

Overall, the dishes were very well prepared and plated. The restaurant atmosphere was quite relaxed and quiet. There were as many seatings but I suppose is sufficient for the city of Bayeux.

Service was tentative.

Overall, we were quite pleased...