Le Bon Vivant, Maastricht

For dinner last night we went to Le Bon Vivant and had their three course meal (well actually I had four) with accompanying wine. The restaurant is located in what used to be an old vaulted cellar that used to be a brewery. There is also a well in the restaurant that used to be used for the beer.

There was only one other table occupied in the restaurant throughout our visit, and consequently the atmosphere was lacking a bit. The waiter was however very good and the food did arrive in a timely manner.

A complementary starter was provided of a cold fish dish that was okay, although nothing overly special.

We both had the Breast of duckling fillet, rucola lettuce, duck's liver and ramsons mayonnaise for our first course. This was beautifully prepared and in fact the duck liver was probably one of my favourite parts of this dish, Jane however preferred the breast. A nice dish.

For the main course, Jane had the Irish beef entrecôte O'Sullivan with vegetable stew, shallots and black pepper sauce that was okay but did not have any wow factor. I had the Halibut with sautéed green asparagus, capers and beurre blanc sauce and found the fish to be bland (admittedly I don’t think I’ve had halibut before so didn’t know what to expect) but the accompanying sauce was very enjoyable.

I then had the Artisanal cheeses from South Limburg and  the 'Voerstreek', pear treacle, fruit jelly and figs bread. The cheeses were all excellent and the bread was superb.

For dessert we both had the Dessert composition: chocolate, fruit terrine, orange sorbet with vanilla ice-cream of which the chocolate tart was divine and Jane thoroughly enjoyed the fruit terrine that was very jelly-like. The orange sorbet tasted like Jafas and was good too.

The accompanying wines for all dishes were all okay although other than the Moscatel Navarra, Bodegas Corellanas that accompanied the dessert, none of the other wines stood out. They were however very generously poured for the price, and we also had our glass topped up occasionally.

For what it was, I think the meal was slightly overpriced, but I think this may in fact be more that we are more spoilt at home in Auckland than we actually realise.