Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of inviting out a customer to a restaurant just outside Grenoble. The customer is mainly based in France and Italy with outposts in the UK and India. One third of the diners originated from Sicily (both companies) and the rest were a mixture of French, British, American, "other Italian" and Indian.

One of the Sicilian customers is based in Grenoble and she recommended the restaurant, la Corne d'Or, just ouside Grenoble roughly a 15 min taxi ride from the city centre. In November after dark it is hard to assess the view but with floor to ceiling glass there was a wonderful view over the city from high up on the hillside.

Like many French restaurants there were a number of set multi-course menus as well as an à la carte menu. The menus are available, in French, on the website but despite normally being able to read a French menu I found many of the expressions specialised and hard to follow. Some of the waiters spoke English and could explain almost everything. Although I grabbed a copy of the English menu I failed to take it with me so sorry for seriously deminished information . I also left my digital camera at home!

There were three set menus and I went for the middle one 'Menu Capucins'

Since I left the English language menu copy at the restaurant let's go through the items based on the website:

1. Quelques mises en bouche

(something to take in the gob - OK, just joking! That was too literal.)

There were 3 small tasters. One was a spoon of absolutely delectable snail, the other was a paste of something pink we did not identify (definitely not salmon, maybe red pepper and cream???) and the third whipped yogurt

2. Le foie gras de canard :
cuit en terrine et poudré de piment doux, en émulsion avec un jus de cèpes au café, façon cappucino, une truffe glacée, foie gras et cacao amer

Foie gras is something I try roughly every 2-3 years. I do not find the way it is prepared (force feeding of ducks or geese) to be ethical, but the taste (and cholesterol) is phenomenal. I have decided that I will delay my routine blood test when I get home.

This course was very unusual in that there was the usual "terrine" foie gras and both cappucino style foie gras and foie gras ice cream. As I write this it sounds completely daft but it worked really well.

3. Une noix de coquille Saint-Jacques rôtie, cèpe caramélisé, haricots de Pimpol et crème de chataîgne

This course was one really tasty scallop with ceps, haricot beans and cream. At this point our Sicilian guests started to feel uncomfortable with the tiny dishes we were eating. After all in Sicily if this was a starter you would get a plateful of scallops and would skip some of the other poncey dishes!

4. Le filet de rouget braisé au jus d'algues, dès de légumes infusés au Géranium Rosa, roquette et trompettes de mort

This was for me the scary item on the menu. Red mullet is fine but "death trumpets" (trompettes de mort)? Anyway it tasted great and I am still alive to blog; I do not have the English translation for the mushrooms. The Sicilians lamented the tiny amound of red mullet.

5. Le dos de cerf cuit au four au Serpolet de montagne, beignets de Tussilage et chanterelles, écrasée de topinambours

Sorry, my limited French does not allow me to translate this properly. Indeed I do not believe the above faithfully describes what we ate! We certainly had back of venison and it came with a number of mashes and chanterelle mushrooms. One I am sure - based on colour and taste - was quince. BTW, where is quince grown in the UK now? My grandparents talked about growing quince but I do not recall them using it, my mother in law regularly served boiled quince with meat dishes. There also was another sweet mash, if sweet potatoes then white ones, sorry I never figured that out! I think what we got differed from the menu description.

6. Les fromages de nos montagnes, servis avec quelques confitures

This caused major confusion. The chinese waitress offered "fresh" or "dry" cheese and non-French speakers were confused. The fraiche version was served with raspberry puree and was a fromage fraiche dessert while the "dry" was the normal French cheese selection. The cheese trolley was great in choice but I could not understand why I had to stand up and look across the table to choose there was certainly a cleverer way to serve the table with the trolley.

7. Un millefeuille de fruits des Bois, crème légère à la Badiane, une mousse glacée à la Framboise sur un macaron au persil plat, un moelleux au chocolat noir, crème glacée aux marrons

By this stage I was close to my limit (apart from coffee and a calvados). The dessert was excellent in taste but I could not finish the chocolate dish.

48 € boissons non comprises

This price was amazing value for money for just the food given the obviously labour intensive preparation.

Formule n°2 : 67 € tout compris
Apéritif : cocktail Velours de pêche
Vin blanc : Viognier (vin de pays des Portes de Méditerranée)
Vin rouge : Côtes du Rhône
Café

What was amazing value for money was that you could pay for drinks chosen by the restaurant - which really worked well with the food - within a fixed budget. I do not know what wines we finally had but it was a good selection that matched the dishes well.

Ratings:

- Overall food
8/10 I would recomment this unreservedly

- Wine
8/10 They were well-chosen varied and went very well with the courses. We had just the right amount for the food.

- Service
6/10 the service was not bad but patchy in quality.

- Value for money
9/10 for the quality we had this was first class value for money and I recommend this restaurant based on this experience. Obviously a lot of effort and skill was required for the preparation.

Like the Sicilians, who longed for a smaller number of larger portions, this is not the sort of thing I would even attempt to prepare or to book for myself. My cooking is 10 times simpler. Nevertheless it was a masterpiece and good value for money (when on company expenses).