Just recently, we heard that – after more than a decade of offering wonderful French cuisine – our favorite restaurant in our neighborhood will now be closed. Why is it killing us? Almost 6 years back, N. and I had our first date there, we definitely started off right :) In the past years we celebrated our anniversaries at Rue des Halles (Munich, Haidhausen, Steinstr.18), which never let us down or disappointed us in the slightest. On the contrary, it kept coming up with surprises, such as the perfectly timed and planned delightful seven course dinner on New Years Eve.

Service? Absolutely. A lot of great [French] people work there, in particular Jocelyne. Been there from (our) beginning, charming and witty, she was key to great food and wine experiences. One of the audible highlights were her translations of the menu – with the cutest French/German accent one can imagine.

The interior is held in an unostentatious yet sophisticated (hope I am making sense here?) design, warm lighting and chalk written menu boards add to a welcoming and comfortable ambiance. Some might say it resembles a typical Parisian Bistro in its original sense. Despite the probably highest French restaurant ratio, which Haidhausen is known for, Rue des Halles has always remained our favorite one – and we tried almost all of them.

So we decided to have a “last supper” with friends, among friends. It turned out to be a great night with delicious food and wine, despite the sword of damocles being omnipresent. We had jarret d’agneau au romarin (leg of lamb with rosemary) with haricot verts, ratatouille, purée de carotte and pommes á la dauphinoise (sp?). Speaking of the lamb: The term the meat falls of the bone needs to be redefined…one word: fantastic. N. insisted, it was her best, most tender lamb ever! For dessert we had mi-cuit au chocolat -the most incredible semi hot chocolate cake on this planet- with vanilla sauce and les pommes “Normande” (caramelized calvados apples with vanilla ice-cream).

The current owner and most of the staff is moving back to France. It will turn into a French Brasserie, fair enough. We’ll for sure give it a try, but the old Rue des Halles certainly set the bar high. Real high.

Shed a tear. O.