Moliere @ Miyagaoka, Sapporo

A first attempting French in Japan. Infact, I used to ask why not when a number of their star studded restaurants throughout Japan are French. I successfully made a reservation with a waiter who spoke as limited English as I did with Japanese. Happiness is getting the dedicated waiter to serve us for the meal – such is thoughtfulness!



The restaurant is quaint and cosy and definitely a walk from the station – imagine my joy when we finally found it.



Small and packed.



Signs of christmas!



Love the splash of colours.



Only set menus available.



If only.



Distracted by napkin rings.



Logo-ed butter.

Bread basket was just freshly baked baguette with French butter. The cracking of bread crust is noisy – so noisy, I could not care less about creating a scene just eating bread. Possibly the best baguette served up as part of a set meal, threes and I was not quite done had it not been for the tummy retaliating. Refills were done so voluntarily, they actually bother to save us the shame of being such greedy bread chugging machines.

Amuse bouche of Hokkaido oysters. Fresh and easy to slurp, this could be my favourite seafood next to lobsters.

The appetizers did not stop there – squid ink fish balls with squid ink bread. I reckon there is an oversupply of squid in Hokkaido that nearly everything has a squid ink equivalent.



Loved the delicate creation of fish ball, delicious! The bread had an interesting texture – made to look like charcoal shards, it was actually crispy bread.

Mushroom soup, hardly like cappuccino despite the foam. This is a light broth that still managed to capture the earthy flavours well. Loved it!

Salad

Pretty is easily an understatement, infact it is expected. A joyful dish to look at and definitely to eat.



Cod

Bacon was a translucent sliver that was amazing. Just amazing...with the grilled cod, every bite was bouncy with a tinge of savouriness. The brussel sprout leaves were plain delicate and precious to eat.



Lychee Sorbet to cleanse the palette, loved the refreshing taste!

Beef

No fan of braised but they did a pretty decent job of refraining from presenting an oriental dish. The meat was still firm despite being fall of the bone tender. Love it or hate it, I found myself leaning towards dislike.



Potato gratin was served thereafter, creamy, milky and simply decadent.

Dessert was torched pineapple with icecream and crumble. There is always room for dessert and I found this delightfully sweet.

Petit Fours of sugared kiwi and pear. Like fruit pastilles, these were too soft though.



Thoughtful covers.



Camomile tea.



Hibiscus tea. 



Espresso.



Desserts do not end there - yet another surprise! Homemade marshmellows.



Melt in my mouth kind of wonderful.

Satisfying meal with a high level of culinary skill displayed. French in Japan – done!



The walk at Maruyama Park thereafter was therapeutic though!

JPY 3600

Moliere
1st floor of Lafayette Miyagaoka 1-1 Miyagaoka 2chome Chuou-ku