A nice quiet restaurant with a Michelin star in a small town in the Rhone-Alps region of France, Le Belvédère is truly a gem – fabulous food at reasonable prices, a cosy ambience perfect for a romantic date or just a nice, long dinner with friends, and with impeccable service. Fantastic view, too. Possibly the best restaurant I have ever been to.

And also in an amazingly beautiful town, Annecy.

And now, on to the food.

First off, we began with the amuse-bouche, which was made up of a glass of carrot mousse, a slice of star anise with fluffy egg white, and green apple shreds. Sounds rather bizarre, but the curious mix of flavours was quite delightful to the palate indeed.

The starter was a medley of minced beef, carrot puree, and mushroom. “Cuisinés comme à l’ancienne avec les Technologies d’aujourd’hui, crème légère de bolets” – I believe it means something like ‘cuisines from olden days cooked with modern technologies’. I liked that they put small portions of various things there so I could eat little bits of everything together – the little cherry tomatos and alfalfa sprouts (I think) were absolutely delicious when combined with the minced beef and tasty mushroom cream.

And the main course – I would pretend to know what that really means, but I don’t really. However it’s basically caramelized pork breast with spices, and fir mashed potatoes, and the pork was… OH-SO-JUICY and succulent – lined with fats and probably rather unhealthy, but so good anyway. The fir potatoes were interesting, I rather liked the herbal nature of it, but my companion disliked them, so it’s an acquired taste, I suppose.

The really awesome cheese trolley with a wide variety of French cheeses.

I’m not quite sure how to describe cheese – it was my first time eating a whole lot of French cheeses at once – I’d say it was a… unique experience, worth a try!

The dessert, on the other hand…

“Superposition de chocolats le noir 64 % croustillant, léger parfum de menthe, le lait et le blanc en douceur crémeuse le tout accompagné d’une terrine translucide à la menthe”. I loved the curly crisp chocolate wave, and the smooth white and milk chocolate mousses accompanied by a light mint jelly. Totally awesome.

The other dessert was “Prémices de l’hiver – Soupe d’ananas vanillée, moelleux marrons, quenelle glacée de saison, bugne tiède” – flavours of autumn I think, it was a delightful little paste/liquid thing with the most wonderful flavours and textures… think pop rocks!

Le Belvédère – great food, service and ambience, with the bonus of interesting cutlery and a cheese trolley – was an absolutely fabulous dining experience.

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Le Belvédère
7, chemin du Belvédère
74000 Annecy, France
Tel: +33 4 50 45 04 90
Website: http://www.belvedere-annecy.com/resataurant/index-en.html