Chez L´Ami Martin (Av. General San Martin 1227, Leblon ; tel. 2512-8623;(www.chezlamimartin.com.br) is one of our favorite restaurants in Rio. We like its elegant, modern, atmosphere created by architect Angela Leite Barbosa with sand-blasted motifs in its glass panels, as well as Chef Pascal Jolly´s menu consisting of well-made and nicely presented French bistrô fare. A few specials written with chalk on a board always give something new for those who are frequent customers.To get ourselves in the mood, we accepted the couvert, consisting of bread from the Boulangerie Guérin, a French-run bakery in Rio, butter with salt flakes, small black olives from Portugal, roasted almonds, and a large martini glass filled with chef Pascal Jolly´s special fries accompanied with aïoli sauce. We thought that we could munch on those treats while studying the menu and sipping a caipirinha, the well-known Brazilian cocktail made with cachaça, lemon and sugar. Well, that is exactly what we did.
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| Caipirinha |
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| Couvert |
Chantal started with a “French ceviche”, one thick slice of fresh salmon, grilled in one side, seasoned with a vinaigrette of raw tomatoes, green apples, fresh herbs, ginger and lemon confit. She said that the idea was interesting, but the original Peruvian ceviche was definitely the real thing. In particular, she felt that it needed some salt and lemon juice to make the dish work a little better. François ordered a salad of warm figues, arugula, balsamic vinegar and Grana Padano strips that Chantal had tried on a previous visit and found a bit too sweet. François had no complaints.
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| French ceviche |
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| Figues and arugula salad |
For main dish, Chantal hesitated between the coeur de filet au poivre with mashed potatoes and the steak de chorizo Café de Paris with sarladaise potatoes, which was part of the daily specials. In this case, chorizo is an Argentinian cut of beef, not a type of sausage. In the end, she opted for the coeur de fillet, but since she had shown interest in the sarladaise potatoes, the waiter brought both, the mashed potatoes and the sarladaise potatoes. She was happy with her choice. |
| Daily specials |
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| Coeur de filet | |
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| Salardaise potatoes |
The sarladaise potatoes were shared by the couple and were excellent. Traditionally they are cooked on goose fat, with garlic, salt and pepper. Sometimes, mushrooms are added. Pascal Jolly´s version had mushrooms, but also bits of bacon added and was delicious. The French sometimes call this version with mushrooms and bacon potatoes “forestières”.
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| Interior |
François chose Les Raviolis de Madame Lana, raviolis made fresh in house, filled with mozzarella,Grana Padano and basil, and accompanied by two sauces, one of fresh tomatoes andanother of porcinimushrooms with a touch of trufle oil. Both sauces were delicious, and François could not decide which one was the best. He remains ignorant, however, of who Madame Lana was since he forgot to ask the waiter. He promises to check this out next time he visits Chez L´Ami Martin.
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| Raviolis de Madame Lana |
Having spent much of the previous day tasting a variety of Argentinian Malbec wines, François couldn´t resist trying a French Malbec (Cahors), which at R$80 a bottle, was one of the least expensive wines in the very interesting wine list of Chez L´Ami Martin. Its name was Villa La Réserve 2009 from Lionel Osmin and Cie. When the waiter brought the bottle and he saw its screw cap, he was taken aback, but with some suspicion decided to try it. The Duviviers are glad to report that it is a very respectable wine that could hold its own against some higher priced Argentinian counterparts. It had the dark purple color of the Cahors wines, but it did not show the high tanins characteristic of young Cahors. It was ready to drink and we wouldn´t mind having a few bottles at home for daily consumption, particularly after we found out that we could buy a case of six for R$26 a bottle at www.novafazendinha.com.br. Its alcool content is 13%.  |
| Villa La Réserve 2009 |
For dessert, we shared chef Jolly´s modern version of the traditional Paris-Brest, a dessert made of choux pastry and a praline flavoured cream reportedly created in 1891 to commemorate the Paris-Brest cycling race. In this case, the dessert came accompanied by a vanilla ice-cream in a caramel basket.  |
| Pascal Jolly´s Paris-Brest |
The coffee was excellent—we might even say, perfect! It came accompanied by a tasty little chocolate bar from Les Amants du Chocolat (www.lesamants.com.br), a creation of brothers Christian and Maria Celeste.Chez L´Ami Martin is part of the Pax Group of restaurants and has a branch in the Fashion Mall Shopping Center, which for some reason that we still have to figure out, we don´t like half as much as the original restaurant. That said, the menu is the same, except for the specials.
We recommend making reservations, particularly on Fridays and weekends. The total cost of our lunch was R$430 (US$215), including 12% optional gratuity. We compared this cost with that of another lunch we had exactly two years ago that cost us R$344 (US$215). Therefore, for tourists, the prices have remained amazingly constant. For locals, however… For an account (in Portuguese) of our 2011 visit to Chez L´Ami Martin, please see our twin blog Memoires Gourmandes (http://memoiresgourmandes.blogspot.com.br/search/label/Chez%20L%C2%B4Ami%20Martin).
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