Le Purgatoire — Restaurant in Strasbourg

La Purgatoire is a marvelous restaurant which delivers on it's promise of style, quality, and experience. My wife and I secured a lunch reservation for mid-December about 1 month in advance. Evening reservations were already booked for the entire week. Reserve ahead! Food ~ The artichoke cappuccino (a soup of sorts) was easily the best we had ever had. Perfect stock, rich intriguing flavors. We will spend hours attempting to recreate it at home. The beet root tartare and salmon fume' was excellent. Both dishes were well garnished with fresh herbs and micro flavors. The Angus beef pear with marrow and potatoes was fantastic. Again, the layers of flavor from the pinot reduction sauce and herb garnish really made this dish sing.The sea bass in coconut curry had no less than 5 marvelously matched flavors, fig chutney, violets, dill, onions, and squash, The level of garnish was perfect. Good plating techniques and nice stone ware. Folks, it's time to talk price. There is no reason to buy a burger and fries in downtown Strasbourg when you can have an app and entree for the same price (16.90). The pricing was astoundingly good given the obvious pantry and line labor. House riesling and pinots were marvelous, with good presentation and communication from stewards. The service was unique, but never rushed. We enjoyed every interaction in whichever language we chose to speak. Other restaurants take note: You do not need to create over wrought origami thought experiments in food. Go to La Purgatoire, eat the food, taste the depths, listen to your body and enjoy it. They are doing it right. And selling it for a price we can all...

My wife and I made a reservation for Valentine's Day, which was also our 23rd anniversary of marriage. This reservation was confirmed by Le Purgatoire by email. When we arrived, the host told us that there had been an issue with the computer system, and that we would not be able to eat, because the restaurant was fully booked, because of it being Valentine's Day. While we understand that computer issues occur, we did not understand how brusque the host was. He seemed irritated at us--after all, didn't we understand, you were fully booked, because it's Valentine's Day. He didn't seem to appreciate that yes, we understand that Valentine's Day is a big day for restaurants, which is why WE HAD MADE A RESERVATION that was now not being honored. And now we had to figure out a new plan for celebrating our anniversary of marriage at the last minute ON VALENTINE'S DAY. We absolutely understand that computer problems can arise and impact whether reservations can be honored. We do not understand that a restaurant professional doesn't know that when that occurs, it is important to apologize for that happening. We hope that you will address that with your staff members...

Being a wine lover I had high expectations going to Le Purgatoire as I heard very good things about it. I have to say I was quite disappointed by my experience. Nothing to say about the beautiful location and the extended wine list by the bottle - they have a huge list of Alsatian wines. The wine list by the glass is limited and there’s no special of the day. I took one of the most expensive glass of wine 🍷 and the bottle was not presented to me, the wine was just poured in my glass. The waiter didn’t give us an explanation or presentation either about the wine or the estate. Also forget about seeing the cellar, the owner refused to show it to us. Staff overall not very friendly but maybe it’s because it was a Monday. We ordered a charcuterie board and a cheese board to pair with the wine. Prices are high and portions are quite small. Finally when we wanted to order desert and the wine that goes with it, the waiter disappeared for more than 20 min. We decided to pay our bill and go take our desert...