Au Jardin, Penang - MarkLeo.Net

I had the pleasure of enjoying an anniversary meal at Au Jardin in Penang last year during my 13th year wedding anniversary. Au Jardin was awarded a 1-star Michelin and is one of the few restaurants in Malaysia that has the acclaimed Michelin star. Dubbed as a fine dining French restaurant located in Penang, the restaurant is neatly located within an area called Hin’s Bus Depot, a creative community hub located right in George Town.

I managed to get us seating facing the chefs as they prepare the food and it was an absolute treat seeing chefs create these amazing dishes. It gave us a glimpse of the restaurant, Au Jardin. This was in theme with our other visit to Bottega where we chose to sit in front of the chefs to enjoy the view.

We had the degustation menu which I was told changes on a monthly basis. The one that we chose was specifically for the month of November. They served us with a wonderful starter (outside of the menu) and their amazing bread with something which looked like a pumpkin butter but it was specifically naan bread with a spread of herb that reminisces of tandoori.

The bread was warm and excellent. I could eat the entire thing for the whole night and be absolutely contented. It was so good that we requested for another serving of bread and the wonderful spread which was shaped like a pumpkin!

I was surprised that there were oysters farmed around Penang. The one served was nice and plumped and is dressed with cucumber emulsion and also garnished with the oyster farm seaweed.

This dish was really interesting as it was a combination of cabbages all around including a red cabbage sorbet on the right. It is a combination of cabbage royale, cabbage crostini and faux crab. An amazing combination of both savoury warmth and cold sorbet.

Warm mushroom parfait which included locally grown mushroom, mushroom corals, sherry vinegar gel, mushroom espuma, snow fungus and thyme. It felt like a great mushroom delight with multiple textures all around.

This entire dish had an impressive display, accompanied together with crab broth, the whole item could be eaten except for the decoration and also the horseshoe crab shell.

What came next was a box which displayed how they would smoke the cognac hay duck. Initially I thought that they would feed me the entire duck but thankfully, it was only the duck breast that was made into the meal.

The Cognac and hay aged duck was just sublime. There was a lovely crust on the skin and the dressing of lapsang souchong and passionfruit just goes so well with the duck. A fantastic duck dish, my favourite of the night indeed.

As we wanted to maximise the amount of dishes we could try, we also took a dish called ‘Local Seafood’. This is a combination of prawns, fig in fat, local grouper and all of this in a prawn head beurre blanc. An excellent dish, perfectly balanced for those who love seafood.

Since it was our anniversary, we wanted to spoil ourselves silly and ordered the Cured Foie Gras de Canard as an additional dish. This came together with pickled Fong Lai rice, rice crisps and of course, freshly shaven autumn truffles. This was just perfect, the umami of the foie gras together with the rice just brought tears to my eyes.

Last but not least, the dessert was a local vanilla gelee, local melon, fromage blanc sorbet and sour Jasmine tea gel. A great way to end the dishes and an incredible dinner. It was a meal to be remembered and one that will bring me back to Au Jardin again.

Conclusion

Having dined at various Michelin starred restaurants in different parts of the world, this place definitely deserve their star as the food was not only amazing but to the words of the movie ‘Burnt’, the food was like orgasms in our mouths. Would we return? Yes, 100% yes. How much was the food? Don’t expect it to be cheap is all I can say but I would also add that it was 100% well worth it.