L’Itinérance

Rating: 14
Author: Gault&Millau

80350 MERS-LES-BAINS

14/20
Chef's Restaurant

BOOK

2 PHOTOS

Chef: Victor Benoit
Cooking: French | Local | Modern
Services: Accomodation

Price Indicative price per person (excl. drinks)

59 € to 95 €

Gault&Millau's review 2026

In the charming resort of Mers-les-Bains, where tourists, like everywhere else, are primarily looking for a seafood platter or a pot of mussels to enjoy, if possible facing the sea, Jonathan Caron and his chef Manogeran "Jack" Shasitharan have awakened a beautiful sleeper, the Hotel Bellevue Beaurivage, renamed L'Itinérance, inaugurated during the summer of 2023. Having already made a name for himself at La Folie, in Chambéry, the Malaysian chef delivers a cuisine that is generous in the extreme (so many dishes and so many beautiful products at such a price, it's rare) and of great personality, obviously marked by the chef's origins but above all by his years spent with Marc Meneau and Jean-Michel Lorain, with whom he learned sobriety and elegance, avoiding any ostentatious artifice. The dishes followed one another, always straddling two continents, with some very fine moments: the magnificent lobster confit, shiso leaf, lobster sambal and red curry head jus, the kohlrabi like pastrami, with its fermented coconut cream and peanut apple condiment or with the pollack (like the sea bass we were served earlier) with raspberry condiment, belacan sorrel and yuzu kosho bone juice. The three toques weren't far off, and this is undoubtedly the goal the duo will be pursuing at the new Parisian address (Mantra, rue Rodier) they'll be opening in autumn 2025. In the meantime, Itinérance has found its rare pearl to replace Manogeran. Victor Benoit, who trained with the late Serge Vieira in Cantal, with Alexandre Couillon on the island of Noirmoutier and in Switzerland with Benoit Carcenat, will take over in October 2025. Like his predecessor, he intends to stamp his style on the local terroir by working with producers and fishermen. And there are many of them.