L'Atelier De Joel Robuchon

As I mentioned before, Lindsay and I went for dinner at L'Atelier De Joel Robuchon on October 15.
This was super exciting for me for a couple reasons:
1) The restaurant placed 14th in the world on the San Pelligrino list of the World's top 100 restaurants. Not too shabby! As well, Joel Robuchon has the most Michelin stars of any chef in the world~ 27!
2) I had the pleasure of dining at Restaurant Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas last September, and it blew my mind! Everything was spot on, from the seasoning, to the wine pairings, to the exceptional level of hospitality.

Anyhow, the restaurant has one seating each night at 6:30. A reservation is required, though walk-ins can sometimes sneak in later on in the evening since they are open until midnight. We arrived just a few minutes before 6:30 and we waited in line for a short time with other patrons. Once inside the front door, the staff whisked diners off to one side of the restaurant or the other~ apparently the right side is for locals/ French speakers, while the left side is for the tourists. The room in this place is incredible. Unlike a lot of other restaurants of this caliber, the dining room is relatively informal, mimicking a sushi bar. A U-shaped bar with posh red leather seats surrounds the kitchen for prime views of what's going on.

The dining room~ we sat on the left, seats 3 and 4.

View of the kitchen from our seats~ garde manger.

Once seated, we were greeted by the sommelier and given menus. Choices here were to dine a la carte, or to experience the "menu decouvert". We chose the later, which is a nine course tasting if you include the amuse bouche. We ordered some water to accompany some of our earlier courses~ it would have been nice to do pairings, but let's face it, after a few glasses of wine my palate kinda tends to disappear, and I'm sure my ability to navigate the metro and walk in heels wouldn't have been far behind it!

No sooner had our water appeared, we were given a basket of bread, both cut from baguette and torn from epi, which is a bread that is shaped like a stalk of wheat. Interesting to note here, there is also some sort of French law to provide bread and water free of charge to it's patrons. Like, we could have gone and only had bread and water... if we were assholes.

L'Amuse Bouche.

Anyhow, first to arrive, the amuse bouche. This was a tiny rabbit's leg, breaded and fried crispy like fried chicken, with a thin slice of pineapple, and pineapple gastrique. Amazing way to start off the meal~ I could have eaten them like chicken wings.

My first course: La Salade Quelconque.

Next, for the first course, we had different things because of my potato allergy. I had a composed salad of house-made bocconcini with grilled eggplant and zucchini, dried tomato, basil emulsion, balsamic, and fresh thyme and basil. It was very fresh and flavorful, though I'll be honest, compared to what Lindsay got to have, it was a bit of a let down. French lesson here: quelconque = nondescript.

Lindsay's first course: Le Caviar.

Lindsay's first course was very impressive. Hers was caviar (the real deal, none of this salmon roe), on a piece of confit potato, with a very lightly smoked veal sweetbread, and whipped horseradish cream... see, slightly better than grilled veggies and cheese, even if the cheese was made in house.

Our second course: La Chataigne.

The second course was a veloute of chestnuts (which had basically just come into season here). It had a nice crisp piece of bacon on it, as well as little lardons hidden down below, ensuring that smokey pork flavor permeated the whole soup.

Third course: Le Foie Gras. Mine didn't have the chip. Stupid allergies.

Okay, moving right along into our third course, le foie gras. One of my favorite stereotypically French things to eat (take that, California). Perfectly seared, perched atop rich braised white beans, with a few leaves of bitter arugula to cut the fat. This was super rich.

Fourth course, L'Oeuf.

But not as rich as our fourth course. This thing was pretty intense. Mushroom puree, topped with a very soft poached egg, topped with mushroom cream. Not too sure what sort of mushrooms were used, but there was definitely a little truffle in there. The layers were more interesting when mixed together than when eaten separately. Lindsay had a bit of trouble with the texture of the dish~ she made comparisons to a certain bodily fluid, ahem. I agree, I would have liked the egg white to be more cooked, as it was slightly too snotty (I've compared it to a different bodily fluid than her, hahaha).

Our fifth course: La Sole.

Our fifth course brought us back to the lighter side of things, and for me this dish was a highlight. It seemed almost an interpretation of a Puttanesca with perfectly cooked sole in place of the anchovies. The tomatoes on top were done agrodolce, sweet and sour. There were tons of capers which added that pop of saltiness, and fresh basil brought it all together. Tiny fried croutons on top gave a little crunch (not to mention they were extremely precise dice).

Lindsay's sixth course: La Joue Du Bouef.

For the sixth course in the menu decouvert, the diner has choices. You can choose between beef, lamb and quail. Lindsay chose the beef. It was a cheek done bourguignonne style, braised until babies could eat it, with tiny pearl onions, lardons, and Barbie-sized perfect little carrots and turnips. She also got a mountain of mashed potatoes in a bowl on the side. Mashed is probably the wrong term, as they're more of a puree. Potatoes is probably the wrong term, as his recipe is roughly one third butter. They're one of Mr. Robuchon's most famous recipes. Lindsay said they were incredible.

My sixth course: L'Agneau De Lait

I chose the milk-fed lamb for my sixth course. As I'm sure you've noticed, something is missing from the plate. Under that little bundle of herbs should have been a mound of the famous potatoes. Damn allergies!! The lamb was perfectly seasoned, cooked and rested. The sauce was reduced to just the right consistency. The bundle of herbs smelled nice and looked pretty, but was kinda stupid just sitting there in the middle of the plate. Seriously, they should have been able to come up with something to replace the potatoes with. They managed to do it just fine in Vegas. It's not like they didn't have advance warning of my allergy, I mean I made the reservation months in advance, and made sure to write a note about it on the reservation. The plate looks barren, and I'm sorry, cutlets from milk-fed lamb are tiny. Just saying.

Dessert number one, aka, our seventh course, aka, the eighth thing we ate.

The first dessert we had I'm sure was meant to be like a pre-dessert palate cleanser. It was another layered dish, with passionfruit curd on the bottom, a rum granita in the middle, and a coconut mousse on the top. Like the egg dish, the components of this one were more interesting when mixed together than when eaten apart, as on its own, the coconut was a little quelconque, and the rum was almost too strong. Together, however, it was incredible. I could have eaten this all day~ it reminded me of a pina colada.

Dessert number two, eighth course, ninth thing we ate.

Our second dessert was another chestnut dish, a take on a Mont Blanc, which is traditionally made with a puree of sweetened chestnuts topped with whipped cream. Ours had a base of chestnut cake, chestnut cream and tiny little meringues. It was nice because it wasn't too sweet. I was also really happy that it gave us the opportunity to try chestnuts in a sweet application to contrast with the savory veloute we had earlier in the meal.

Our servers~ Lindsay was pretty mesmerized by their teeth... so straight, so white...

Along with our desserts, our servers gave us each a complimentary taster of Mustcato D'Asti. Totally a nice gesture... but look at these guys, and tell me what you think they were tryin' to do... hahaha! Our meal ended with caramels de beurre sale, madeleines, and a big bill. Worth every centime?
To be continued...