(This story has a happy ending)
Dinner last Christmas at ⭐️⭐️⭐️🍀 Mirazur in Menton. I’ve had a bit of a rollercoaster ride with this restaurant over the years, having visited probably 7 or 8 times. Back before they got onto the World’s 50 Best list when you could ring up and get a table for dinner the same day. Good times and great food. Then I soured on it a bit after they got the W50B number one spot and the third Michelin star. I had a couple of not so great experiences where it seemed clear that they were packing in the diners and making the most of the wave of publicity that 50 Best number one spot gives you. And to be fair to them, why wouldn’t they? It’s a business after all. But I certainly felt that the food suffered for it and the service definitely did. On my last visit the place was packed to the rafters with diners on three floors and a menu that I felt had been watered down just in order to allow the kitchen to keep up with these increased numbers. The service was just plain bad and I left feeling pretty disappointed.
I’m glad to say that things have changed drastically for the better. They have reduced covers through a beautifully done kitchen renovation where the ground floor is now fully taken over by the new kitchen. The lower floor is now a very nice looking private dining room for up to 14 guests complete with your own wine room and vinyl record player and also used as a small R & D kitchen. The main dining room is now a relaxed, peaceful space with the world class service that you would expect from a restaurant of this calibre. While aspects of the menu that I had may not have been completely to my taste, with a strong focus on root vegetables running through the entirety of it (it’s that time of year 🤷🏻‍♂️), including the desserts and a main course that instead of a protein turned out to be a celeriac tart, I do recognise that it was all expertly cooked and more than worthy of the three stars it currently holds. It was one of those menus that I recognised to be technically perfect but unfortunately, for me anyway, lacked that deliciousness that we all crave in a meal. Again, personal taste, I’m sure the rest of the room enjoyed it.