Late last year, a small French restaurant in Schwabing was awarded with a Michelin star. Restaurant No. 15 is led by husband and wife team Michel and Aysun Dupuis, and the restaurant’s only been open since 2013. Breton Michel Dupuis used to manage the Munich patisserie Dukatz, and is well known on Munich’s restaurant scene.
I visited one Saturday night with F., as one final delicious, exquisite meal as a couple before I pop a baby out.
The menu was surprisingly extensive – there were plenty of starters and main courses to choose from, and the set menu included some very different delights. We opted for the five course menu (90 € – four courses would have cost 76 €).
Fresh radishes and quail’s eggs arrived at the table, along with our aperitifs (elderflower cordial for me, cremant for F.), freshly baked bread and salted butter. Emma had visited Restaurant No. 15 just after they’d been awarded with a Michelin star last year, and said that the bread might have been the best she’s had in her life. I’m inclined to agree – it was so good, and I had to be so careful to hold back to leave room for the other courses!
An amuse bouche arrived after we’d finished mmhing and aahing over the baguette – a trio of pumpkin dishes – a pumpkin soup, pumpkin dim sum and pumpkin chutney. All perfect.
We then got started on the menu. F. had chosen the wine accompaniment (40 €, or 32 € if you just have the four courses), and Aysun Dupuis provided a short introduction to the wine before generously pouring. We started with duck foie gras with figs, paired with a Gewürztraminer. I’m not a huge fan of foie gras, and the portion was substantial, but it was actually rather good.
We then had Normandy scallops with cauliflower and beurre aux algues – churned seaweed butter – by far the best course in my eyes, though I would do almost anything for good scallops. Thereafter, we were brought a celery raviolo with pork belly and pureed plums, served with F.’s favourite wine of the night, a Chateau Melin Saint-Emilion 2011.
The main course was pheasant breast, served with kale, boudin noir (French black pudding) and a hibiscus sauce. By this stage, I had eaten so much bread, that I struggled to finish the pheasant. It was delicious, but there was a little too much of it – I’d have preferred some veg to go with it instead of the black pudding.
Finally, we rounded the meal off with a mulberry cheesecake served with raspberry coulis. There’s always room for dessert, right? Much to our astonishment, that wasn’t quite the end – we were then presented with a creme brulee, and once we’d polished that off, we were offered a madeleine. So, all in all, we mopped up nine courses over the course of three and a half hours!
Service was wonderful – friendly, professional and knowledgeable. Pretty much all you want from a good restaurant. It’s not as cosy as you might imagine a small French restaurant to be (Marais Soir in Westend’s much cosier), and the cuisine is typically French, so if you’re after innovation, you’re best off trying elsewhere, but it is a high-quality, friendly restaurant with superb French food. And for 90 € for five courses in a Michelin-starred restaurant, you can’t really go wrong.
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