Couleurs Saveurs - Bricqueville-sur-Mer

Why they don't have Michelin stars is a mister. most ingredients are local, organic etc. the service is abhorrent and yet super. every cure is a celebration of taste and aesthetic. selection of regularly renewed dishes after seasons. great for business and...intimately in the evening.

This charming restaurant is located 6 km from granville on a national road and does not look from the outside. inside it is bright and cheerful with white and pastel. the staff of servers and hostess are friendly, efficient and professional. we had the two...course menu with a first and main course. I had a plucked macrel plate and my wife had fishy pal with sauce. we had both a poulet with a crème sauce and small sides for the main course. Started with appetizers, salmon maus and after the main meal café with small cookies on the house. we were never put under pressure and had really a delicious meal that did not leave us hungry for the whole day. we're going back.

I really can't make mistakes couleurs saveurs: the look of the restaurant was bright, airy and contemporary; eating was interesting, beautifully presented and confident; and the service was extremely competent, knowledgeful and well coordinated. at 37 euro for a 4 cursor meal it was also...extremely good value for money. this is a popular restaurant that fills quickly on a Saturday night, but never once we saw the service suffer!

There was a time on the Cotentin peninsula when salt marshes were the foundation of the economy, and Bricqueville-sur-Mer was no exception. In the 17th century they gradually disappeared, to make way for the farming of oysters and mussels. These days the salt marshes also...produce the so-called “pré-salé” (pre-salted) lamb. This area is separated from the sea by a spit of land some 800 metres wide, linked to the rest of the commune by a road which is frequently submerged. It becomes a major spectacle during particularly high tides. The tide, however, will not prevent you from visiting the nearby Restaurant Couleurs, Saveurs. Located on a crossroads, close to Bricqueville-sur-Mer and a few kilometres north of Bréhal, is a restaurant named “Couleurs, Saveurs”, a clean, smartly appointed building which instantly sets the impression of being worth a closer look. Reading the menu by the door, the decision is simple: you just have to enter. Opened in June 2009 by young chef Benoît Delbasserue and his wife Géraldine, the restaurant is gaining a reputation for fine cuisine, served in charming surroundings. As you enter you are warmly welcomed into a cosy, well appointed lounge from which you can pass to the dining room itself. This is decorated with great taste in muted colours and selectively placed pictures on the walls. The tables are simply set but it is clear from the outset that much attention is paid to detail here, and that comes out particularly in the food presented. There are two set menus: “Couleurs locales” at € 26 and “Haut en saveurs” at €39. We were informed later that the menu changes every five weeks or so, which is wise as the number of choices is limited. That said, there were more than sufficient alternatives and choosing was difficult. I opted for the more expensive menu and Cherry the other. The wine list is well presented, fairly limited but offering a perfectly good selection at prices to suit all pockets. With our aperitifs we were served delicate tomato straws and a soft green olive tapenade which augured extremely well for what was to come. And what came fully justified the restaurant’s name. After delightful amuses bouches, Cherry started with “raviolis de Saint-Jacques et crevettes rose, condiment mostrado citron”. For the ravioli, delicately sliced scallops replaced the usual pasta and the dish as a whole was a riot of colour, applied apparently at random but clearly with great precision. As for me, I had two starters, firstly “foie gras en jeu de texture, ananas et poivre long”, with a block, a pan-fried escalope and a mousse of the main feature, in a picture painted with a palette of many hues. After that came an astonishing “oursin en coque, toast à l’ail et tartare d’algues”, with the shell of the sea urchin accommodating a velouté of its previous contents and the delicate strips of toast carrying a cornucopia of colourful items including more sea urchin still. The chef has managed to make this most humble of ingredients into a veritable star in a firmament of other star productions. Our main courses were a gallery of delights. The fillets of “mackereau laqué minute, pressé de chou vert et cassis” was perfectly cooked and served on a copious selection of vegetables including the pressed cabbage and blackcurrant, a triumph of design and taste. Here there were influences of the chef’s history, and there has rarely been such a mix of accompaniments. My “ris de veau doré au beurre, velouté de châtaignes, noisettes torrifiées” was nothing less than miraculous. The calf’s sweetbreads were the best I have eaten, even in Luxembourg, lightly breaded, fried until golden brown and, most importantly, completely and correctly de-veined. As for the rest of the picturesque plate, it was an absolute joy, the roasted hazelnuts simultaneously contrasting and complementing the delicate chestnut sauce. Desserts were “gâteau moelleux mangue et ananas, ganache chocolat ivoire, passion”, colourful even on the written page, and my “à la pomme et caramel au beurre salé”, a strong contender for our “dessert of the year” award at the end of 2012 in its elegant simplicity and well-considered presentation. In his short career, Benoît has studied, and learned, in a number of prestigious Paris establishments and has become an accomplished exponent of his art. And art is the right word. He lists his three principle goals as lightness, taste and innovation … he scores on all three. His restaurant is called “Couleurs, Saveurs”, and never was a truer title ever bestowed on any eating house. So much so that I feel inspired to break a rule and provide some pictures of this colourful dining experience. The score here is a well-earned 18/20.

Go at lunchtime for the 13 euro set lunch with a lovely set of appetisers,a main course and then a set of choccy delights at the end. Other more serious diners were taking the 39 euros set banquet which was too much for active souls...like us en route the cote de nacre. Good service and nice surroundings