The restaurant Le Chef et sa Femme is a bit off the beaten path in Caen. Not that the city was overrun by tourists, when we were there in July. But it’s always nice to go somewhere less touristy. That was at least the plan, although I found that Le Chef et sa Femme probably caters to tourists nonetheless, since most online reviews are in English. Or maybe it is only tourists, who leave a review? In any case it looked inviting and we were hungry, so in we went.
dining room @Le Chef et sa Femme
What I love about France is that you can get a really good deal and a delicious meal, when you order the standard menu. Exactly what we did for our first dinner on this road trip. Both of us ordered the three course meal, but chose different dishes. I started with mussels and artichokes in saffron sauce. The color looked more like curry, but the flavor was there. The mussels came without shells and were therefore plenty. To combine it with artichokes was a great idea, a lovely combination.
mussels and artichokes in saffron sauce @Le Chef et sa Femme
My main course was pork with potatoes, which sounds very simple and it was really nothing special. A couple of roasted potatoe slices with a nice piece of pork. The additional bacon in the sauce was not needed, I would have been just happy with the few veggies.
pork and potatoes @Le Chef et sa Femme
My dessert on the other hand, roasted apple with crumble and salted caramel ice cream, was fantastic. As Normandy is the place to eat apples and cheese, what better fruit to finish dinner with than an apple. It was rich and buttery, the crumble crunchy and flaky, and topped with a generous scoop of ice cream. A flavor bomb!
roasted apple with crumble and salted caramel ice cream @Le Chef et sa Femme
My friend started her meal with a tomato confit with goat cheese and bread crumble. It was delicious and had a really delicate taste, only the parsley on top marred the picture. Not really sure why the kitchen needed to top it with such a large piece of herb. The confit had a beautiful color and the whole arrangement was perfectly structured. What a lovely starter.
tomato confit with goat cheese and bread crumble @Le Chef et sa Femme
As a main course she ordered the fish dish, which was hake with zucchini noodles. In a way it looked a bit like the tomato confit, also structured in a tower. Unlike the starter, this main dish used a lot of vegetables. A rarity in France. Normally vegetables can only be found at the market and not on the plates. My friend made a happy face while eating, so I assume she liked it a lot.
hake with zucchini noodles @Le Chef et sa Femme
Unfortunately her dessert was a really dense slice of chocolate noisette cake. I cannot say if this was the way it should be, I was just glad that I had ordered something else. Even for chocolate lovers that would have been too much of the good stuff. It came with crème anglaise, which didn’t help to cut through the richness.
chocolate noisette cake @Le Chef et sa Femme
Service was very friendly and the wine lovely. Le Chef et sa Femme is definitely worth a detour and we got great value for money. Yours, Pollybert
Le Chef et sa Femme
14000 Caen, 11 Rue du 11 Novembre
Tel: +33 2 31844653
Tue-Sat: 12:00-14:00, 19:00-21:00
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