Mauritius is an ideal place to enjoy Al Fresco dining (eating outside). The temperature is ideal throughout the year. On any non rainy day, there is nothing like enjoying a great meal sitting in a beautiful garden.
This is exactly why when our internet crashed in our office and we learnt that the fixing will take quite a while, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather outside and headed for long lunch break with clear intentions to enjoy a good meal somewhere nice allowing us to enjoy some good fresh of air.
We chose the Le Fangourin restaurant; when looking back on our decision, it was definitely a good one.
Set amidst the garden of Beau Plan, Le Fangourin presents an exceptional setting: beautiful vegetation, open space a pool surrounded by luxuriant tropical flora, a veranda overlooking the central plateau’s mountains and a lot of birds chirping.
Upon sitting down, the waiter came to take our order and brought complementary garlic bread crisps and 3 types of mini salads:
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White Cabbage and vegetable salad
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Papaya and dried fish
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Tamarin sauce
All the above was nice and tasty. Regarding the Tamarin sauce, I found it a little strange to leave the pit of the tamarind fruit as part of the sauce. I am aware that many chefs leave the pit to enhance the taste of the sauce but I found it quite unpleasant to tackle it in my mouth.
Krishna (our waiter for the day – a very nice, gentle person) then brought our drinks order – a decanter of “2 oceans” Rose Wine (230Rs) which was chilled and nice.
The setting, the wine, the refreshing breeze together with the wonderful company of Mr “C” all were perfect.
Then quick after the starters arrived: Fresh salad with rock lobster, prawns, tropical citrus, mango vinaigrette and a touch of sesame oil (745Rs); Tuna fish Carpaccio with red peppers (295Rs).
The salad plate looked great and elegant, good, fresh seafood (lobster + prawns) tossed with light lemony vinaigrette and dotted with vegetables which was a great marriage…it may be the most healthful thing you can eat, full of good veggies and protein. Usually the salads in Mauritius are dressed with too much mayonnaise, but this one had no mayonnaise at all. It was very well balanced in taste, all products were fresh and the lobster was a true treat. Also, the dish was quite big, so Mr. “C” happily joined and quickly nothing was left. This was one of the best salads I had in a long logn while.
The tuna Carpaccio was very fresh and served with small fresh vegetables salads. This dish arrived about 5 minutes after the bread buns were served, so at this point I was still very busy tucking the mini salads into the buns and also spreading the bread with quality butter. The Carpaccio was dressed with lemon, on first taste I was immediately hit with the lemon flavour which was the dominant taste at first, then the tuna and red peppers proceed on the palette to make for a great combination. This was also a good dish to serve while eating with the bread, due to the additional seasoning left on the plate, as this allowed one to take a sneaky bit of bread to “mop” up the remaining oil and juices.
For main dishes, we had the Risotto with sun dried tomatoes, various mushroom and fresh vegetables (315Rs) ; Fillet of tropical sea bass cooked in garlic and lemon grass butter, stir fried wok vegetables and kikoman sauce (395Rs) ; Lamb rack under a parmesan crust with a rosemary sauce (650Rs) .
All three dishes arrived and were as beautifully decorated as the starters.
For all of us, when dinning the first sense which take place is the sight – our very first sight of the dish when it is places in front of us, then we can also smell the dish only after we actually get to taste the dish.
This is why plating and food presentation play a huge role in how we all experience food and at the Le Fangourin the chef is definitely a master in presenting each and every dish o perfection.
At Le Fangourin the presentation and plating are staples of the restaurant, as you can see here from the photos as part of the review.
The Risotto was sliced into very thin rings and it was incredibly tender. The risotto was properly al dente, and provided a creamy foundation of flavor.
The sea bass on first inspection seemed rather small. However once moving the fish I found this to be a very thick cut and I was immediately impressed with the crisp skin. The fish was cooked brilliantly with a great crisp skin and was accompanied with much success with the vegetables. This turned out to be a much more filling dish than I expected.
The rack of Lamb was nice, but not as nice as the fish and seafood dishes which are the speciality of the restaurant. The Lamb was cooked well and was good and tender, however there is no doubt that the Le Fangourin truly specialises in seafood and fish.
Desserts are especially impressive, mostly because of their home-made sugar which they turn into a beautifully decorated glazed caramel topping for all desserts.
Now don’t act surprised that I ordered the chocolate fondant (225Rs) as dessert, it was bound to happen. When the waiter took our order for this dessert he was kind enough to let us know it was fresh and that would take up to 20 minutes to prepare, not being in a rush and having thoughts of hot melting chocolate on my mind, I really did not mind the wait. As the minutes slowly ticked by my tapping feet got faster and faster until the dessert arrived. Yet again the plating was spot on and delicious to the eye, everything looked fantastic and even more important, tasted great. Moving on to the pudding through both myself and Mr “C” held our breaths as we cut into the cake to see if this was a true “Hot Chocolate fondant”, which it was….
The inside was incredible with the chocolate being moist, gooey, liquidly, and very runny, the outer cake had a slight crust which combining the 2 different textures was brilliant. At this point I will say this was the best chocolate fondant I have ever tasted, with the rich dark chocolate working well on the palette, and when combining this with the ice cream which was surprisingly light and refreshing it just made for a fantastic combo. I can safely say that if you order this dessert you will be very happy!!! Overall a clear round 10 dessert!!!!
Service - The service was very efficient and kind. All went smoothly. It was clear the service is done as a team, everyone helping everyone making sure each client is catered with personal care.
Mr “C” and I will be definitely returning to the Le Fangourin with excitement in a few weeks time!
Comments:
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All the prices mentioned in this review are VAT Exclusive
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The restaurant accepts all credit cards and cash in rupees, euro and US $ – Cheques are not accepted.
We were guests of the restaurant.
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