Miel Brasserie Provencale - A Little Bit About a Lot of Things A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

February 6, 2014 Miel Brasserie Provencale

After our food demo at Petit Robert, we head over to the InterContinental for lunch. With the weather getting worse, we figured that we would rather be at our next destination instead of risking lunch at Petit Robert and missing our spa appointments.

It’s well past lunch time, so we have the restaurant almost to ourselves. As far as hotel restaurants, I find Miel charming. I love the charm (minus the vinyl seat cushions) of this place, and each table comes with a spring of lavender that you can sprinkle on any of your dishes.

Miel is French for honey, and it is the city’s first Provence-themed brasserie.

They have an amazing olive oil room where you can host dinner parties or they will even host an olive oil tasting for you and (up to 14 of) your guests at it’s chef’s table made from a 1,000 year old olive tree. You can’t quite tell in this picture, but the chandelier in the photo is made up of little bottles of olive oil.

We start with the naan bread ($3) that comes in a cast iron skillet. It is drizzled with honey from the hotel’s own hives and sprinkled with rosemary. The hotel has 2 hives, and chef Cyrille Couet is also the beekeeper. In the fall (last year’s dinner was at the end of September), Miel hosts a honey harvest dinner featuring dishes and drinks that showcase their honey (and you get to take a vial home!) See last year’s menu here.

The Rockland Peekytoe Crab Salad – Honey Crisp Apples, Kikko Corn, Fresh Corn, Avocado, Pecans ($19)

At first glance I thought that the salad had Parmesan cheese on it, upon closer inspection, it was really shredded crab. While the dish was nothing as I imagined, and while the individual ingredients were tasty, as a whole, this salad was confusing to me. I loved the sweetness from the apples and the crunch of the pecans. To be honest, the kikko corn was a little odd for me in this salad and I ate around them.

Our waiter suggested we also get a side of fries, so we order the Thyme Truffle Pomme Frites $7, which are delicious – light, salty, crisp and well seasoned.