Food Review: LPQ's New Tasting Menu

LPQ's mini Mediterranean platter

We told you Le Pain Quotidien (LPQ) has introduced special tasting menus for a limited time only. So we decided to sample the food, and can tell you they've served up some fab dishes.
 
Le Pain Quotidien is offering two menus - veg and non-veg - each offering 10 dishes. While the soup, salads and desserts are common, such hearty dishes as the creamy pot pies, Meatball Liegeois - a version of the Belgian dish served with syrup made from green apple - and grilled vegetable cous cous paella are also showcased.

The vegetable cous cous paella

Our first course was a perfectly toasted forest mushroom tartine topped with a thick layer of gruyere cheese; a new addition to LPQ's signature line of open face sandwiches, it tastes as good as it sounds. Next came a prettily arranged mini Mediterranean platter with wonderfully flavoured baguette bread. A more stylized version of the humble mezze platter, it wins points for its innovative green pea hummus and beetroot caviar.

Both the salads -mixed beans and Quiona sprouts with a lemon tahini dressing and a Florentine Panzanella - are light and healthy - enough to balance out the calorie count of the sinful desserts (more on that later).

The new menus have been devised after a gather of LPQ chefs from across the world at head chef Alain Coumont's organic farm outside Montpellier, in the South of France.
 
We were told the braised pork belly, served with a sweet-and-tart apple fondue, which is also available on the regular menu, and the chicken tagine are favourites so far. Some of the most popular dishes will make their way the regular menu, we are told.

The vegetable lasagna

Also worth a mention are the vegetable lasagna - stripped free of the traditional heavy white sauce, the lasagna allows the meaty taste of the mushroom and smoked tomato sauce to come through - and the cold, tart gazpacho soup, served in a shot glass that works as a nice break between courses.
  
LPQ has always served up great desserts; on this menu, they include a cinnamon and poached pear tart, a great Belgian chocolate mousse slice and a raspberry cheesecake. Like the rest of the menu, the desserts are yum. But they are sinful. We suggest you forget about the calories, and dig into this tasty tasting menu.

The tasting menu is available till December 13 for dinner only at LPQ Colaba and LPQ BKC. Prices: Rs 700 for the veg menu and Rs 800 for the non-veg menu, exclusive of drinks and taxes.