Still in France, we decided to go outside Grenoble for a delicious seafood lunch. We ended up in Coublevie, at L'Eden. Nice name for hopefully a paradisiac meal!
The restaurant is located on the highs of the city of Coublevie and the view of the town is beautiful. The decor is all about the sea with a large fish tank where you can see live lobster that most likely will end up in your plate.
The service was a bit slow, but courteous and the restaurant was busy (it was a Sunday).
In term of food, they have a large menu offering traditional specialties such as the bouillabaisse that is a fish soup from Marseille in the South of France, or some plates featuring various seafood.
They also propose different prix fixe menu. We went for the Madrague menu that, for 26.50 Eur ($34) offers an appetizer, an entree and a dessert.
As an appetizer, I picked the seafood plate that consisted of prawns, oysters from Marennes Oleron in Brittany, Bulots (buccin), mussels from Spain and clams.
This was a nice presentation and the various seafood tasted very fresh. The clams were not rubbery and the prawns were perfectly cooked. First time I had mussels from Spain and I liked them. The only thing I did not like was the bulot: I did not like the taste and the texture.
Then, I picked the Veloute de Homard, that is a lobster cream soup.
Presentation wise, again, very nice and appetizing! The soup was perfect: correct amount of spice, creamy with a delicious lobster taste. It was served with sun roots (Topinambour in French) on the side: I do not like sun roots, so I did not finish it.
As I was with my Family, I had a chance to try other plates (he he!)...First there was the Saint Marcelin salad.
Saint Marcelin is a small town few miles from Grenoble where they produce this deliciously creamy cheese that you can toast on a piece of bread and serve with a salad. You can in fact find this cheese at any good cheese store in the US.
They also proposed a salmon tartare served with apples, citrus and an avocado mousse.
This was a very refreshing dish. The salmon tartare was perfectly made and seasoned.
Of course, last, came dessert!
They had this great idea of proposing a dessert sampler (I wish all restaurants would do that)! It was composed of vanilla ice cream, a creme brulee and strawberries. They were all very good!
There was also the "mushroom" that is a succession of homemade meringue cookie and vanilla ice cream shaped like a mushroom and topped with a thick chocolate fudge. This was very good, but a bit sweet and after having eaten the dessert sampler and all the food described above, it was tough to finish it!
This was a nice lunch, very refine, in a very relax atmosphere. I definitely suggest L'Eden if you can go to Coublevie. After lunch, you can even walk around to help your digestion: the landscape if beautiful!
L'Eden
Route de Chartreuse
38500 Coublevie
So this is it for the food in France! Next stop: Germany!
Enjoy (I did)!
And remember: I Just Want To Eat!
