Pintadeau

Hotel la Comédie, Montpellier, France, March 15, 2012—

FOUND A VERY NICE restaurant last night, whose chef knows how to source his ingredients and to prepare them for maximum taste. After the amuses, little glasses of well-flavored thick vegetable soup, we began by sharing a fine composed “salade méditerranée”: lettuces, delicious à la grècque artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, and shavings of Parmesan cheese.

I went on to grilled Guinea fowl served as a ragoût on a bed of beautifully made gnocchi in a sage-flavored sauce and garnished with strips of Iberian ham; Lindsey's plat was completely Spanish: braised Iberian pork with green lentils and a sauce involving shallots, tomato, garlic, amd black pepper.

Only my cheese course disappointed: Chèvre, St. Nectaire, and a couple of soft cheeses cut too soon, all served too cold, with what seemed to me an irrelevant salad. I should have ordered a dessert.

Local white en carafe; coteaux de Languedoc “Le Marteau,” Pierre Clavel, 2009

•Le Grillardin, 3, Place de la Chapelle Neuve, Montpellier; +33 04 67 66 24 33