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Restaurants in the Vendee
MY Phuong by Tate
43 Rue du Port / 8 Rue Kleber, Fontenay le Comte.
Tel. 02 51 00 49 18
43 Rue du Port / 8 Rue Kleber, Fontenay le Comte.
Tel. 02 51 00 49 18
My Phoung - Chinese Restaurant Fontenay Le Comte
Before I launch into reviewing this restaurant I must first let you into a little secret. In England I have a Chinese Take-Away at the end of my drive, and the former owner Tak Yan Tse and I became good friends. Tak Yan (AKA Gordon) is a brilliant cook, in fact he’s the best Chinese cook for my taste that I’ve ever encountered. His food is full of strong flavours and he is not afraid to turn up the heat. He also doesn’t cook the sweet, bland, Chinese food that is the norm in so many Chinese restaurants designed to cater for the tastes of the English masses. He in fact taught me to cook Chinese food, and to this day other than Gordon, I have not found a restaurant whose food I enjoy as much as the food that I cook for myself. I have eaten with Gordon at the restaurant of his wife’s family in Plymouth on Chinese New Year and I must confess that the authentic Chinese food that they ate was also not entirely to my palate either, I wasn’t keen on jellied fish balls and chickens feet etc. which they adore, and I love fried rice which they rarely eat. So having qualified my position on Chinese food here is my review for what it may be worth.
Before I launch into reviewing this restaurant I must first let you into a little secret. In England I have a Chinese Take-Away at the end of my drive, and the former owner Tak Yan Tse and I became good friends. Tak Yan (AKA Gordon) is a brilliant cook, in fact he’s the best Chinese cook for my taste that I’ve ever encountered. His food is full of strong flavours and he is not afraid to turn up the heat. He also doesn’t cook the sweet, bland, Chinese food that is the norm in so many Chinese restaurants designed to cater for the tastes of the English masses. He in fact taught me to cook Chinese food, and to this day other than Gordon, I have not found a restaurant whose food I enjoy as much as the food that I cook for myself. I have eaten with Gordon at the restaurant of his wife’s family in Plymouth on Chinese New Year and I must confess that the authentic Chinese food that they ate was also not entirely to my palate either, I wasn’t keen on jellied fish balls and chickens feet etc. which they adore, and I love fried rice which they rarely eat. So having qualified my position on Chinese food here is my review for what it may be worth.
We arrived well before the sun went down and decided to sit
outside, the waiter a very pleasant and well spoken young man suggested that as
this was our first time at the restaurant we should try the buffet. Clearly the
buffet was the best value for money, but I hate them as I have to rely on other
people to choose and to fetch and carry for me. Nonetheless in the spirit of
seeking out value for money and in the interests of our patrons, we decided
buffet it was. We had a bottle of Cote de Rhone, I knew I wouldn’t drink it all
and said as much to the waiter, who said he would leave the cork and that I
could take what remained home. The wine was reasonable, I like Cote de Rhone and
at 12 euros it was not too expensive for a restaurant. Trevor tried at first to
photograph the available food, but the dark interior coupled with the display on
the digital camera, made it impossible to discern what I was looking at, so I
had to trust him to choose. Good old boy that he is, Trevor started the fetching
and carrying, starting with prawns in batter, spring rolls, a mussel and
various other things. The batter was surprisingly crispy and the taste, if not
exceptional was good, good enough that I sent Trevor back for another prawn and
another spring roll. There was a young grill chef outside and the buffet
included any meat that you liked grilled by him, Trevor and I both had beef,
which I thought lacked a bit in taste.
Next we had some main courses. First Trevor brought chicken in a
nondescript sauce with frogs’ legs in batter and noodles. He then got Beef in
another nondescript sauce with egg and pea fried rice. In all honesty I thought
that the noodles were a bit rubbery and I don’t mean the Chinese rubbery as in
rubbery felali (lovely Ferrari), the frogs’ legs, chicken and beef were all
cooked alright but lacked any great taste, and the sauces were bland, though in
their favour not glutinous. The rice had a good enough taste for rice but was if
anything a bit starchy for me, I like my rice with the grains separate. With
each visit inside came new plates and the used plates piled up on the side of
the table, some people might think that the growing stack was like a tribute, a
testament to one’s ability to eat more copiously than the next table, whereas
others might see the plates as a serious reminder of the level of gluttony that
one has attained, I personally preferred not to look at them. We finished with
lychee and chocolate ice cream, this was an error of choice, the chocolate ice
cream and the lychee syrup were not a good mix, as one seemed to dilute the
other, I’m sure that had we eaten them separately we would have enjoyed them
much more.
We drank our coffee and when Trevor went in to pay he met his
friend and fixer Christophe, he came out with his brother in law to say hello to
me followed by his sister and niece. They were eating inside the restaurant and
were just going to start their sweet and wanted us to join them for coffee. They
seemed to have been enjoying something a little stronger than the soft drinks
machine and we knew that coffee would probably only have been a precursor to
something else, so we politely declined and made our merry way
home.
In conclusion I must say that I think that this is a great place
to go for something completely different and does represent fantastic value for
money, the bill for the two of us came to 42 euros, the wine cost 12 euros of
that and we had coffee which wasn’t included, so although we never saw the price
it had to be less than 15 euros per head. There was a soft drinks machine inside
from which one could help oneself at no extra cost, one could eat as much as one
liked, and the choice was without doubt profuse. The staff were attentive but of
course they didn’t have too much to do as they were only taking the orders,
serving wine and clearing the tables when the diners had finished. Not having
seen the inside of the restaurant I can’t comment upon it, we ate outside on the
pavement which I loved, but then that’s not everyone’s cup of lap sang su
shong.
Tate - 2009
Tate - 2009
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Fontenay-le-Comte