L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon – Dramatic Dining Experience

Restaurant: L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon

Location: 5 Rue Montalembert, 75007 Paris, France

Chef: Axel Manes

Rank: #31 – Top Restaurants in the World 2014

Stars: 2 Michelin Stars (2014)

Book a Table

LAtelier_de_Joel_Rubuchon_1002

This is my first Joel Rubuchon restaurant experience, so there was no expectation for the dinner. Initially, we were taken aback at the restaurants inability to accept early arrivals with a large group of diners left waiting outside for more than 30 minutes. Deep breath and putting that aside, we were welcomed into a slick, dark interior with a sushi-train style seating area. Delightfully different after a lot of table dining.

We were seated on the corner which was good as we could slightly face each other over dinner. The wait staff were behind the bench and served each dish over the servery. At first this was an interesting idea, but after several dishes, the height of the servery was impractical (call that industrial engineer/architect stat!).

Our degustation was a lovely combination of light and rich dishes with a gentle progression from vegetables and fruits, seafood and soups to dark meats and eventually insanely rich desserts including molten dark chocolate with gold dust.

Whilst we were enjoying the experience, the diners on either side of us were missing dishes, which was a little disturbing as they watch us be served and then complain they didn’t get their dishes! Now, I know mistakes can happen during service and I’ve seen wait staff handle issues beautifully, in this instance there was so much confusion that one of the diners left the restaurant in disgust (leaving his romantic intentions on the floor next to his date!).

The close-knit dining experience exacerbated this for us which was really unfortunate since we had quite a nice dinner.

This experience with Joel Rubuchon’s restaurant chain will not be my last, but hopefully it will be my worst experience.

LAtelier_de_Joel_Rubuchon_1009 LAtelier_de_Joel_Rubuchon_1010 LAtelier_de_Joel_Rubuchon_1005 LAtelier_de_Joel_Rubuchon_1011 LAtelier_de_Joel_Rubuchon_1016

Author's Profile

A passionately positive foodie who loves travelling the world and experiencing what the best chefs in the world have to offer. Based in Sydney, Australia, Mookie also loves to dine locally and uncover great restaurants, chefs and food combinations with her #foodiemookie crew.