Antsirabe Restaurants

1 more image

[Update May 2010: cannot guarantee the accuracy of my below comments anymore. Mangement has changed, strategy as well, seems things have worsened. Most important, Chef James has left the house. Fooding experience wouldn't be the same anymore. Have an idea: what about your recent Arotel experience to share with us ? Cheers!]

Antsirabe is a place for gourmets as it is provided with a wide range of fresh produce. It counts good chefs as well. Arotel's chief was from a cooking school in Lyon region. He seems to be very passionate about his job. You'll notice that when he happens to talk with people who enjoy food and who are keen to drive along the island to find the best ingredients. It was during one of those chats that I learnt that the chef used to meet up with his suppliers to talk shop, to get involved in the feeding himself (what to give to the poultry and what not, at which price, when is the best season to stock up the corn...). I even understood he could buy himself the crops for the ducks & let the breeder do the work. Then, he would pick the poultry products up when they are ready. He is unstoppable. Interesting talk ! You'd learn a lot with him :-). He is Chef James.

Businessmen and families are amongst clientèle. The whole setting is rather functional. The main room is the restaurant and next to it, a snack where they serve breakfast, sandwich... I love the tapestry in the main room.

Favorite Dish: French cuisine in general. I appreciated there freshness as well as the array of more sophisticated products, mostly European: foie gras, duck fillets and confits de canard as well as trouts.

The inventive chef loves research. March 2005, I tasted the smoked duck fillet. Man, that was something ! He was proud of it because the smoking process was a in-house one, something he elaborated with his team. With his staff, they made their own way in it... The result ? I had it as a starter: magret de canard fumé au melon (served with papaya slices). Similar combination as our usual smoked ham- melon summer dish.

Guess what I had for main course: magret de canard au poivre vert. Yep! I had my all-duck diner... :-)

I would love to try his soupe de mûres one day. When I was there, he was researching on it as well.

Taste there crayfish. I'm allergic to crayfish but sometimes, I manage to avoid the crisis. When I was kid, I ate Malagasy-style crayfish. Try this!

Off course, grilled zébu meat is OK. Green pepper steak as well...

Total bill for 3 persons: 39 700 ariary, worth 16 euros.

**Christmas supper: for Dec. 24 2005, buffet-style with duck products (I loved their foie gras with apricot slices - perfect combination of the soft texture and the sweet taste), lamb (gigot d'agneau), foie gras stuffed pigeon, Saint-Jacques... there were a wide range of dishes one could choose from. Sidedishes included vegetable gratin.
Dessert: Christmas-cake (both bûche & bûche glaçée), Ice-cream, soupe de pêche. I loved bûche glaçée but the peach soup was too sweet. However, I was greatly satisfied.
The Christmas buffet was slightly more expensive: 30 000 ariary/menu/person. Wine was not included, if my memory serves me well.**

This is an old Maroccan palace. Now it is a hotel with a great restaurant, swimmingpool and several tennis courts.

Favorite Dish: The duck, marget de canard, was excellent, so was the zebu steak with sauce poivre vert. About 13 000 ariary per person. The meny is in French- and the staff speaks only a little English.

Strolling in Ansirabe streets, I had a big surprise spotting this superb house. I loved its setting & well, the view from where I snapped it did, see for yourself, it justice.
Afterwards, I cold ask my aunt and my cousin who are Antsirabeans whom this house belonged to. How surprised I was hearing this was a restaurant. If my memory serves me well, it is Restaurant Havana.

This restaurant is said to serve Malagasy food. I've never tried it there, for I never neturing out for Malagasy food & I'm very happy with what I have home. Why don't you try it and tell us about your experience ?

**For more info, I will investigate about it & will revert to you**

[Update Apr. 28: found out that it is Ny Avo restaurant]

Favorite Dish: **I will investigate about it & will revert to you**

1 more image

On our way to Antsirabe, we stopped over Ambatolampy (about halfway between Tana & Antsirabe). We decided to have our lunch at Le relais du pêcheur. For Le relais being nearly the only decent place to eat in Ambatolampy, one could think the food would just be so-so. In fact, it is not bad at all.

Ambience... it is a restoroute. What can I say about a restoroute ? Nothing except that that day (Sat. before Easter), it was quite crowded. If my memory serves me well, it may have counted 20 tables. Only some tables were left empty.

It is easy to spot: at you right on your way to Antsirabe. It is an institution for having catered for the travellers to & from the Southern regions for so many decades. The owner, a Frenchman, even speaks Malagasy now.

What makes it special is however its menu system. It's a menu of either 3 (starter, main course, dessert) either 4 (starter, maincourse, roast, dessert). Just warning you that the 4-entry formula is quite heavy. The 3-course menu as OK: carrot salad & cold cut as starter. For the main course, I had to choose among several dishes: my lapin chasseur (rabbit) was just average. However, I loved my dessert: cornet à la crème. I think the rhum in their crème anglaise has to do with that.
You could choose à-la-carte as well.

Oh! in fact, I wanted to have froglegs but the waitress told that being short of froglegs, they could only cater for two persons per table (as far as froglegs were conserned). So, I had to choose sthg else: here came the rabbit. Maybe a warning that on busy days like Easter or Xmas, they mabe short on froglegs. ;-)

Favorite Dish: As I could pick some pieces from my parents dishes, I highly recommend their cuisses de nymphe à la provençale (tempura-style frolegs with parsley & lime) as well as their butter-garlic-parsley snails. Heaven!

I think the cooked garlic rendered parsley-garlic-butter taste on snails even more scrumptious.