There is no doubt
that
Auberge de L’Eridan (Marc Veyrat)
Boyer
(les Crayeres), Champagne
Le Cagnard, Hautes de Cagnes, Cagnes sur
Mer, near Nice (00 33 4 93 20 73 21)
Cotes St Jacques (Michel Lorain)
Michel
Guerard, Eugenie les Bains
Moulins de Mougins (Roger Verge), near
Nice
Louix XV (
For a real treat, try
Ducasse, now installed at Plaza Athenee.
Alain Ducasse also owns the magnificent Louis XV in
Le Taillevant 15 Rue Lamennais - 00 31 (0)1 44 95 15 01 –
is a doyen of 3 star Michelin food in
|
Restaurant |
L’Ambroisie
|
|
Food
rating |
10/10 |
|
Address |
9 Places des Vosges, Paris 4e |
|
Phone
Number |
00 33 1 42 78 51 45 |
|
Open |
Tuesday
– Saturday |
|
Price |
£160
a head with drinks |
Set in a
beautiful square which has cloisters, or at least something looking like
cloisters, the dining room is similarly elegant. There is a main room, and two smaller rooms,
all very pretty and peaceful. The restaurant
has perhaps only 36 covers. For amuse
guele we had a creamy gazpacho soup, at the bottom of which were finely chopped
vegetables with a blob of courgette cream as a garnish floating on top of the
soup, which had great depth of flavour (10/10). Bread was either white (9/10) or (even better)
country bread with excellent sourdough taste, a lovely texture and a fine crust
(10/10). For starter I had four
langoustines on a bed of spinach served in between sesame tuiles with a light
curry sauce (very light on the curry).
These were superb, strikingly fresh and perfectly cooked (10/10). Crayfish with char-grilled asparagus was
served on a bed of cream mousse with mixed green leaves, and a sauce that was
supposedly of walnut oil but tasted more like a meat reduction with olive
oil. All very good, though not to the
standard of the langoustines (8/10).
For main
course, Stella had ultra-fresh sea bass, very nicely timed, served with plain
asparagus, a tapenade of green and black olives and a cream sauce. Though the sea bass was perfect, Stella felt
the dish overall was a 9/10 as she was unconvinced about how the other elements
of the dish went together. I had (with
food expert Michael Jonsson) a stunning poulet bresse, a whole chicken cooked
and then carved at the table. Both lag
and breast of chicken had greta flavour, served with a remarkable gnocci
(10/10).
We skipped
cheese, as according to Michael, a regular here, Pacaud unaccountably uses a
mediocre cheese supplier. Pre-dessert
was a fine dish of poached cherries, cherry soup and cherry mousse, with a
pistachio and almond Florentine (10/10).
A very light and fluffy chocolate cake was interesting, yet did not have
great depth of flavour – presumably aiming for the originality of it being so
light (8/10); this was served with a fine vanilla ice cream. A dacquiose of praline was basically an
almond meringue served with wild strawberries (8/10). Coffee was excellent (9/10), served with a
nice tray of petit fours: a lovely tart of wild strawberries, an excellent
almond tuile, a choux bun with raspberry and vanilla cream, a sponge and
chocolate discs with roasted almonds (9/10).
Overall a
very fine meal, with some dishes that would be hard to improve upon. Last visited June 2004.
|
Restaurant |
Arpege
|
|
Food
rating |
10/10 |
|
Address |
84 rue Varenne, Paris 7e |
|
Phone
Number |
00 33 1 45 51 47 33 |
|
Open |
Weekdays |
|
Price |
£180
a head with drinks |
Chef Alain Passard made
headlines when he declared that he was not going to cook meat any more. If this was ever entirely true it is no
longer so, with a short mixed menu involving fish and meat, but there is a wide
selection of ten pure vegetarian starters in addition to the other choices, and
you can order a pure vegetarian meal.
The dining room is modern, fairly small with Lalique dancing figures as
insets to match the Lalique display plates.
An amuse bouche was the least interesting element of the meal, a poached
egg served in its shell with balsamic vinegar: nice but nothing
remarkable. There is just one kind of
bread, but it is superb: a country bread with great
crust, perfect seasoning and fine texture, using a sourdough (10/10). My starter was four langoustines cooked and
served in their shell, each split in half and coked to perfection, served with
a spicy sauce which had remarkably clean taste of ginger: the langoustines were
simple but stunning (10/10). Stella had
two kinds of smoked potatoes, utterly superb and served with a subtle
horseradish cream – I have never eaten potatoes that tasted like this
(10/10). Next was a rather superfluous
gelee of beetroot and tomato, and then the main course arrived. Passard like to cook things slowly (“artisan
style”) and my pheasant had been cooked for an hour and a half in a basket with
hay, covered with pastry so the flavour and aroma was entirely contained. The meat was superbly tender, having great
depth of flavour, served with a simple cooking jus flavoured with 25 year old
balsamic vinegar; this worked well but the star was the pheasant itself, which
tasted divine (10/10). Stella’s turbot
was also cooked very slowly for two hours, also tasting great, served with a
simple butter sauce (9/10). Cheese was
in very fine condition: here they go for a smaller board than many places, but
everything is perfect. The cheese is
sourced from
|
Restaurant |
Atelier
Robuchon
|
|
Food
rating |
8/10 |
|
Address |
Hôtel Pont Royal 7, rue |
|
Phone
Number |
+33 (0) 1 42 22
56 56 |
|
Open |
Weekdays |
|
Price |
£60
a head with drinks |
When Joel Robuchon ran
Jamin and later Robuchon, he was without doubt the best chef in the world, and
served the best food I have ever tasted.
He retired at age 50 and has not opened a place under his own name until
2003, with this simple “tapas” style place on the left bank. Here you sit at bar stools and order from an
appealing menu of “small dishes” (at around EUR 12) as well as starters and
main courses. Perhaps three or four
small dishes would be good for lunch.
Although he is not cooking here himself he shows the same gift for
training he had at his earlier restaurants, and the dishes that appear are very
fine indeed. A red mullet was stunning,
served with a little jus of saffron sauce, and would have been at home in a top
3 Michelin star restaurant (10/10). A
single scallop was perfectly cooked, though merely excellent compared to the
divine red mullet (7/10). Spaghetti with
black truffle was superb, the pasta firm and yet having creamy taste
(9/10). A poached egg on a bed of pureed
parsley, topped with girolles in a creamy sauce and finely chopped chives also
worked very well (8/10). For dessert the
star was six mini tarts all featuring dazzling pastry: chocolate, cinnamon,
pear, apple. There was a stunning passion fruit and raspberry clafoutis (10/10)
while a green apple sorbet was even better than a fine chocolate ice cream
(8/10). The great thing is that you sit
here eating food that would shame all but a tiny number of top restaurants, and
yet the prices are less than half that of one of the grand dining rooms of
On a second visit things
were also good. A single langoustine in
batter with a little pool of basil sauce was exceptionally tender (9/10). A pork chop was cooked simply but was enjoyably
moist (7/10). A
langoustine ravioli on a bed of cabbage with a shellfish sauce had
tender pasta (8/10). Egg cocotte with
baby morels with cream sauce was very pleasant (6/10) but better was a gazpacho
with croutons, a sprig of basil and balsamic vinegar (8/10). Best dish was a piece of perfectly tender
monkfish, with a julienne of courgette, tomatoes and peppers and a light,
creamy sauce. This was as good a piece
of monkfish as I have tasted (10/10). A
chocolate tarte with a pistachio and almond ice cream had excellent texture
(7/10). Coffee was very good.
Please note that, contrary
to popular belief, they do take reservations here, but only for the first
sitting at lunch (
|
Restaurant |
Cinq
|
|
Food
rating |
10/10 |
|
Address |
George
V Hotel, 31 Avenue George V, Paris 75008 |
|
Phone
Number |
00
33 1 49 52 73 54 |
|
Open |
all
week except Sunday |
|
Price |
£175
a head with drinks |
A magnificent, opulent
dining room in the recently refurbished George V hotel, all marble pillars and
spectacular flower displays. An amuse
guele of diced tomatoes in olive oil was most impressive, the fine taste
belying its simplicity, while the selection of breads were each superb e.g. a
crusty baguette, a light, airy olive bread or a tangy sourdough roll. I started with langoustine and peas served
with truffled vinaigrette, which featured the most perfect langoustines I have
ever tasted. A savoury tart of
artichokes and Perigord truffle has meltingly delicate pastry and artichokes of
great flavour, perfectly enhanced by the black truffle (10/10). Lobster smoked in its shell and then roasted
was extremely tender, served with superb creamy morel mushrooms in a buttery
yet light sauce. Turbot with baby
vegetables was also very fine. Cheese was in superb condition, a wide selection
that went beyond the classics into interesting (though of course only French)
regional territory. A pre-dessert of
sugar tart had delicate pastry, while dessert of chocolate fondant featured a
perfect liquid centre and rich coating.
Coffee is excellent, accompanied by a chariot bearing various
chocolates, nougat and other offerings.
Service was faultless. The
artichoke tart and the langoustine dishes were two of the finest things I have
eaten for years. I would unhesitatingly
recommend this.
On my last visit: I had
another fine meal. Breads were
baguette, excellent crusty country bread, and superb slices of bacon
bread. An amuse bouche was remarkable:
parfait of artichokes with aged Comte, served with a few salad leaves; this
sounds bizarre yet was silky smooth with a fascinating blend of tastes
(10/10). Starter of fricassee of
langoustines featured perfect langousines in a shellfish broth and surrounding
a little puree of root vegetable (10/10).
Venison was extremely tender, served with superb
Last
visited March 2006.
|
Restaurant |
Plaza Athenee (Alain
Ducasse)
|
|
Food
rating |
10/10 |
|
Address |
|
|
Phone
Number |
00 33 1 53 67 65 00 |
|
Open |
Weekdays
|
|
Price |
£250
a head with drinks |
The Plaza
Athenee was featured in the concluding episode of Sex and the City, and it is
interesting to know how even a successful artist could afford a suite
here. To give you a sense of scale, a
beer is EUR 12, a glass of champagne EUR 18, and to add insult to injury it is
not even a proper sized glass.
The dining
room has a high ceiling and had tall windows looking out onto the hotel
terrace. Bizarrely, the lovely
chandeliers are obscured by hideous grey plastic cylinders, so that they are
only partly visible. One might hope that
this was some sort of building work going on, but sadly I think that is the
effect they intend. We began with a
delicate spinach puff (8/10) an a partly cooked
langoustine with caviar and lemon sauce, served cold (7/10). Raw and cooked asparagus, morels and an
asparagus mousse all featured fine ingredients (8/10). We actually went for a menu involving the
spring ingredients of morels and asparagus.
Next up was lobster cooked with asparagus and morels (8/10), served with
a cup of utterly wonderful morel juice with a little cream on top (10/10).
The next
dish for Stella was sole on a bed of perfect spinach, with three baby leaves, a
tiny crayfish and more morels. My main
course was breast of poulet Bresse, absolutely superb, cooked with morels,
crayfish and a light chicken jus (10/10).
Cheese was generally superb, with fine St maure,
Brie, aged Comte, Camembert,
For
dessert there was a chocolate crisp with chocolate ice cream, peanuts and lemon
cream, together with a bowl of chocolate ice cream; this dish could have done
with a contrast (9/10). I had a perfect
rum baba, the sponge even better than the fine version served at Louis XV in
Last visited June 2004.
|
Restaurant |
Grand
Vefour
|
|
Food
rating |
7/10 |
|
Address |
17
Rue de Beaujolais |
|
Phone
Number |
00
33 1 01 42 96 56 27 |
|
Open |
Weekdays
|
|
Price |
£190
a head with drinks |
Grand Vefour is an
institution as much as a restaurant, on this site since the 18th
Century in one form or another. The
dining room is snug, as in airline economy class snug: the tables are crammed
in and you will soon have an opportunity to share in the conversations of your
neighbouring diners. There is red
banquette seating and pretty tiling on the walls and ceiling – it looks more
like an old bistro than a grand dining room.
A starter of four scallops had excellent scallops cooked well, though
the mustard sauce with them was a rather sad brown sludge with only a faint
hint of mustard (8/10 for the scallops).
Lobster from
|
Restaurant |
Guy
Savoy
|
|
Food
rating |
9/10 |
|
Address |
8 rue Troyon, |
|
Phone
Number |
+33 (0) 1 43 80 40 61 |
|
Open |
Weekdays |
|
Price |
£180
a head with drinks |
The dining room is
modern, split into several smaller areas each with a handful of tables. Service is faultless, and we even had a waiter,
Gregory, who we used to know from Chez Nico in
This two Michelin star establishment in a mock Corinthian building in
leafy surroundings is blessed with a very pretty terrace where the tables are
placed in clement weather. It is a large
place, seating around 100 people, and the service on the lovely summer’s night
we dined there was a little stretched.
We began with an excellent caramelised onion tart, and then I had
langoustines that were cooked in a light batter and served very simply, just
with a few drops of basil sauce (6/10).
Stella’s summer salad was pleasant but really had nothing to lift it
above the ordinary (5/10 at best). For
main course I had very good Bresse chicken, for once available for one person
rather than having to be shared, served with a simple reduced stock of the
cooking juices and a rather disconcerting herb salad that was overwhelmed by
mint (7/10). Stella’s John Dory was
pleasantly cooked, with an orange sauce with a hint of ginger (5/10). The cheeses were in good condition (7/10), a
wide selection of the classics of
|
Restaurant |
Ledoyen
|
|
Food
rating |
8/10 |
|
Address |
Carre Champs Elysee (1st
floor) |
|
Phone
Number |
00 33 1 55 05 10 01 |
|
Open |
Weekdays
|
|
Price |
£175
a head with drinks |
An airy
upstairs room overlooking a green area with trees, though there was also some traffic
and building work when we visited. It
has apparently been open since 1792.
There is an elegant ornate ceiling.
Service, as so often at the top French places, was faultless, with not a
slip in sight and effortless topping up of water, wine and bread. Amuse guele was a sliver of foie gras pate in
a couple of sesame tuiles (7/10). A
vegetarian spring roll was stunning – the lightest pastry and the vegetables
cooked beautifully (9/10). There was
also a cube of beetroot (6/10) and a deep-fried piece of goat’s cheese with
sesame seed (7/10). Later there was a
second stage of nibble, a tomato gazpacho with mustard ice cream, which may
sound odd but it added just a little spice to the intense tomato taste and worked
very well (10/10). Bread was a choice of
either cereal, which was almost croissant-like (9/10),
crusty bacon (6/10), shrimp in rye (a weird idea that did not work) and some
mediocre white bread (3/10).
I started
with langoustines, served partly in their shells, partly wrapped in angel-hair
pasta. These were very fresh and cooked
to perfection, served with a citrus sauce that gave a suitable edge to the dish
(10/10). Stella has lobster with
asparagus and girolles with a cheese sauce, surrounded by a pool of light meat
jus and garnished with a nice savoury crisp (7/10).
For main
course I had four slices of beef that were disappointingly chewy – they tasted
as if the beef was of good quality, but it was hard work cutting and chewing
the slices. This was served with a
truffle sauce and a creamy mash that was far too creamy – it was almost cream
with a little potato dropped in (3/10).
Much better was Stella’s turbot, lightly cooked and sprinkled with black
truffles, on a bed of crushed potato with truffles (7/10).
Cheese was
in excellent condition, with Tonne de Savoie, Brie, Camembert, Epoisses,
Beaufort and Comte all in fine fettle (9/10). This was served with walnut bread
made from dark rye. A pre-dessert was an hibiscus jelly with raspberries, topped with a “milky
mess” and pistachio (7/10).
Stella had
cherries steeped in amaretto on a bed of cherry jelly that was less spnngy that
one might expect. This was topped with a
yoghurt sorbet, cherry mousse, amaretto biscuit and a garnish of fresh cherries
(8/10). Even better was a millefeuille
of grapefruit, two layers of perfect grapefruit segments sandwiching a fine
grapefruit sorbet, the layers separated by fine tuiles, and the whole thing
resting on a layer of orange jelly. This
had wonderful freshness and was also rather original (10/10).
Coffee was
superb, a decent amount served in a cup adequate for a double espresso (10/10)
served with a little slice of soft chocolate cake. Petit fours were an overcooked sponge,
marshmallow topped with apricot, a fruit and mint tart where the mint
overwhelmed everything else, a plate of nougat and a green apple toffee apple
(perhaps 5/10 for the petit fours).
Overall this was a very pleasant experience, with touches of class but
also worrying errors in the cooking. Last visited June 2004.
|
Restaurant |
Les Ambassadeurs
|
|
Food
rating |
10/10 |
|
Address |
Crillon Hotel, 10 Place de la Concorde |
|
Phone
Number |
00
33 1 44 71 16 16 |
|
Open |
All
week |
|
Price |
£140
a head with drinks |
The dining room is as imposing as any you will see- thirty foot
ceilings, marble walls and floor, fine decorations. The waiters wear tail coats and the wine list
comes in a huge ledger. Breads, just
white and brown rolls, are excellent. We
started with a very delicate amuse guele of yellow pepper soup containing a
single quail’s egg (9/10). We both began
with roasted langoustines served on a bed of diced tomatoes, garnished with a
deep fried basil leaf. The langoustines
were stunningly tender, the tomato very fresh and having deep flavour, hard to
improve upon (10/10). My main course was
an excellent slab of John Dory, resting on a bed of couscous and served with an
intense shellfish sauce; on the side were baby carrots, turnips, tiny turned
potatoes and a few morels, the vegetables all very fresh and delicately cooked
(8/10). Stella’s main course was even
better – perfect sea bass topped with a delicious bread crust, served with a
thick chicken stock, capers and a clever touch: a little finely sliced grapefruit
to give balancing acidity to the stock (10/10).
The cheese board was superb, with the usual classics: Brie, Camembert,
Reblochon, St Nectaire, Comte, Faurme d’Ambert and several goats
cheeses, all in excellent condition (9/10).
For dessert a delicate almond brioche was served with seasonal fruits
(raspberries and greengages) and fresh almonds.
I had two thin pieces of rich chocolate tart with superb texture, served
with as good a chocolate ice cream as I have ever eaten (10/10). We washed down the desserts with some
stunning Kracher Trockenbeerenauslese.
Excellent coffee was accompanied by almond tuiles, a raspberry
Madeleine, a mini apple tart, a choux bun with sugar and chopped almond crust
and a chocolate cream on a biscuit base (9/10 for the petit fours). Service was impeccable throughout, and it is
hard to understand why this got just two Michelin stars in 2000 – I have had
worse meals at several three star places.
. Note that another Michelin star
was lost in 2003 but there is a new chef, Piege, who started in 2004 and was
previously head chef at Alain Ducasse in
Under the new chef the food is magnificent. An amuse bouche of salt cod nrandade was the
best I have had, a little soup of crayfish having great intensity, while a roll
of foie gras was delicate. My starter of
hot and cole crayfish was technically excellent and inventive, the hot crayfish
being served with little slivers of grapefruit, the cold crayfish wrapped in
Granny Smith apple slices. This sounds
odd, but the acidity of the fruit worked well with the subtle richness of the
crayfish. My main course of fillet of
venison was magnificent, served with rot vegetables and a dark sauce
diable. Cheese is from Bernard Antony
and in perfect condition, while my dessert was a layer of perfect pastry on top
of which was delicate apple compote and topped with little scoops of green
apple sorbet. Even the coffee was
perfect. Last visited November 2005
|
Restaurant |
Lucas
Carton
|
|
Food
rating |
8/10 |
|
Address |
9 Rue de la Madeleine, 1st
Arrondisement |
|
Phone
Number |
00
33 1 42 65 22 90 |
|
Open |