Kong Hans Kaelder for Dinner

There are two parts to a fine dining experience.   Obviously the most important part is the food.  However equally important is the theatrics of the meal.  We have had fabulous food and we have had great theater but this place maxed out each category.  Several firsts occurred.  First time we were provided with a small table for the wine lists to rest upon.  First time the wine was presented in so formal a way.  Once we ordered our wine and champagne, a cart was rolled over.  Our glasses were placed on the cart, the wine was placed and then a small amount of the wine was poured into each glass.  That was swirled around the glass and then discarded.  It reminded me of the tea ceremony where the first pot of tea is discarded.  Then we were served the wine and champagne.   Leslie had a good pour but my glass had only a small amount in it.  I wondered a bit but I don't say anything.   I did a quick double check of the price because I had to decide if I was going to get another glass later.  After a while they came by and finished pouring the first glass.  Ahhh I did not just buy a half glass of wine.  Besides this process kept the beverages from straying too far from the optimal temperature in the warm resturant, a nice touch.  First time we were given a cool scented towel to start and two more scented warm towels before it was all done

We decided not to do these 5 course fixed price menu. The tomato base on the Lamb,  the polenta and a liquorice based dessert we're not to our liking. We ordered ala carte and had a fabulous dinner. As I said before they nailed the food part of it completely. So we were blown away by the flavors.  I had the crayfish starter and the Black Danish Lobster for an entree.  The crayfish was creamy, with herbs and tiny potatoes.  The lobster was served on three increments, first the tail.  Since it cooks first it is served first.  The whole lobster shows up and is placed on a cutting board which is brought along  tableside.  The tail is cracked first and then a large knife separates the tail from the body.  The tail is then split and trimmed.  The chord is removed and the meat covering the cord is set aside. The body, shell and cord meat bits are sent back to the kitchen.  I now get to eat the tail with a creamy mushroom sauce.  The next increment is a gazpacho with claw meat and the tiny tomatoes.   Lastly the body is split and a thermador style fills each half.  Yum yum yum.  Leslie's dover sole gets similar treatment.  It arrives as a tower,  souffle base, dover sole middle and sprigs of thyme on top.  This is all tied together with string and baked together.   The server then brings over the cutting board again and takes the tower out of the pan sets it on the cutting board slices the string with scissors and carefully removes the sole . She then trims the outermost greyish meats of the sole, discards this meat and slides the good stuff back on top of the souffle. Then she slices it in half serves have to Leslie almost serves half to me but then serves Leslie the other half. Chantry was some of the best stuff we've ever had, and when you add the succulent appetizers to the mix I say give these restauranturs another star!

Some places are just too fancy to take a lot of pictures period I just snapped a quick one to get a layout of the restaurant period it is built in the cellar of a 700 year old merchant house.  So these pictures come from the intraweb.

Constant Motion was the rule

Read so good I actually ate it

The wine ceremony

A Touch Of Spice for Leslie's on entree 

Prior to disassembly and serving

It has one Michelin star I could vouch for another 

Give them a ring and make a reservation