After some lovely meals in Caen I was looking forward to a fabulous dinner in Honfleur. Unfortunately all of the recommended restaurants were closed on Tuesday, so we decided to look for one while walking around the port area. Eventually we passed Le Lingot and we both liked the menu as well as the look of it from the outside. Right away we made a reservation for that evening.
Le Lingot @Honfleur
Once we arrived at the allotted time we got a table outside in the courtyard, albeit rain was threatening. The courtyard felt more like a prison yard, but at least the drink was good.
aperitif @Le Lingot
Le Lingot offered a fixed menu to share or á la carte. since the fixed menu was of course the better deal, we went with that. For it the table needs to choose five dishes, excluding cheese and dessert. Although I liked the menu it was hard work finding five dishes which we both enjoyed. My friend doesn’t eat lamb and tends to avoid seafood, which is difficult in a coastal town. So she had to make some concessions, but it’s always hard for vegetarians in France.
The amuse gueule was beef cheeks fried into balls, with eggplant cream and some salt on top. Plus some stuff on top that I don’t remember and I couldn’t identify. It looked like chili but didn’t taste of it. I actually missed some salt, but my friend liked it just the way it was. Overall a tasty morsel though.
fried beef cheeks with eggplant cream @Le Lingot
For starters we shared steamed oysters with whipped cream and caviar, the whipped cream didn’t work at all in my opinion. Or maybe I just disliked the steamed oysters? I missed some acidic note here, the whipped cream made it way too smooth and the whole thing lacked flavor.
steamed oyster with whipped cream @Le Lingot
A cold velouté came with cockles and whelks as well as carrots and zucchini. It was actually quite good, at least here was some flavor. But it was heavy on the cream and a tad too salty.
cold velouté with cockles @Le Lingot
The vegetarian ‘Forrest dish’, which was chanterelles and an onsen egg and a sprinkle of hazelnuts, was my favorite. My friend deemed the egg undercooked, while didn’t have a problem with it. The chanterelles were lovely and small, just the way I like them. I can’t be sure about the sauce, but I didn’t recognize it as the announced persillade.
forest dish @Le Lingot
Overall I missed a certain finesse, which would have been fine if they dishes would have been at least well executed. But honestly our whole experience at Le Lingot was a bit of a mess. It had started when we ordered the aperitif and also some water. The water never materialized. Then we ordered some wine, also with some water. Then the wine never appeared and water came from above in form of the promised rain. So we canceled the wine and sought refuge within the restaurant. The personnel was none too happy about that, but eventually made an effort to place us somewhere. Especially since the only other table still outside at that time, also decided to come in.
inside @Le Lingot
Finally our two main dishes arrived, but turned out to be something we clearly had not ordered. The plates were placed in front of us, but then unceremoniously taken away again. After a while, oh wonder, the two main courses arrived. Both dishes were fish, mackerel and haddock and they kind of looked alike. Both came with sauce Hollandaise at least that’s the way it looked. I know it was what we ordered, but the menu was not that descriptive and what was written sounded different.
The haddock was served on a bed of mushrooms, with a Beurre Nantais, a classic butter sauce. It was good, a bit mild though, with not a hint of acidity, which could have livened up the fish a bit. The caviar, which is normally salty, had no impact at all. I was not convinced by the mushrooms but the fish was delicious.
haddock with mushrooms and Beurre Nantais @Le Lingot
The mackerel on the other hand didn’t pass the test. It came with peas, some kind of pea sauce, and an airy sauce Holandaise with parsley. The peas were hard, the sauce Hollandaise way to salty and overall too much for this piece of fish, and the parsley could have done better with a finer cut. Honestly that dish was not good at all.
mackerel with sauce Hollandaise @Le Lingot
All in all this was a disappointing experience. The service really thought they could let us sit outside in the rain. Only after asking did they bring the table from outside into the restaurant. The food was more miss than hit and besides the rain we also didn’t get our drinks apart from the aperitif. Le Lingot is definitely a restaurant best to avoid. Yours, Pollybert
Le Lingot
14600 Honfleur, 14 Rue des Lingots
Tel: +33 2 31 81 07 76
Email: lelingothonfleur@gmail.com
Wed-Sun: 12:00-14:00, Tue-Sun: 19:00-22:00
https://www.lelingothonfleur.com/
