Restaurant la Primatiale

When I am in a new place, I like trying out the food. This is most especially when I am in a different country since their local food won’t be something I get to try that often. French food is something that I know to be one of the world’s great cuisines but I think it is something that I have underappreciated. Probably it is because of a not so good experience the first time that I was here. However, subsequent trips have given me a better appreciation of French food. I am in the city of Nancy and it was lunch time. As usual, I would be looking up what the recommended places to eat are and it seems the Restaurant la Primatiale is one of the more highly recommended ones.

I found Restaurant la Primatiale and I managed to get there just before they opened. I was effectively the first customer for the day as I literally walked in right after the boss. I could only get a vague idea of what their menu says but if this place is highly recommended then it might not matter much what I end up eating. I ended up ordering the menu of the day as recommended by the boss. The first dish was a soup served on a large platter or bowl I can’t really describe it. The dish was large but the soup looked small in comparison. Turned out that it was deep and there was more than it looked. The whole thing was presented very beautifully that it will make you want to have the soup immediately. The soup was pumpkin soup. I can’t say that I am a big fan of pumpkin soup but this one was very nice. I didn’t realize how nice it can be. The soup is topped with shavings of parmesan cheese complementing the soup very nicely. Each spoonful was full of flavor that I couldn’t help but use the bread to wipe the bowl clean.

For my mains, the dish of the day is croustillant de veau which is croustillant of veal. Croustillant apparently is a type of cooking where the meat is wrapped in what I can only describe as spring roll wrapper and then deep fried. I have never eaten anything like this and I thought it was wonderful. The meat was from beef Wellington and it was very tender. It has to be since you would be slicing the croustillant to eat it. It won’t be nice if the meat was tough and you would end up making a mess because the wrapper fell into pieces. There seems to be different ways of making croustillant but one thing in common is that there needs to be a crispy layer outside. The dish is served with potatoes and some sauce which of course I wiped clean. This is another dish which seemed to be unimpressive in terms of size but it is actually quite substantial when you start eating it.

I normally don’t have desserts but for this place, I think I am willing to make an exception. As part of the set meal, I was served creme angloise gingembre what is Google translated to ginger custard. There is ginger bread which I eat with the creme. Somehow everything here seems very well presented. I am no expert in French cuisine but I liked this place a lot. It feels so fancy without breaking your wallet. No wonder there were a lot of people eating here. By the time I was finished eating the place was already full. I was very happy to have found this place and I wouldn’t hesitate to go back here if I have the chance. I would remember this meal for a long time and looking back on this trip, I think this is the best meal I had the whole trip.

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