L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

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Item: L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon
Rating: 4
Author: lemoncurry

4.5

333 食評

味道

環境

服務

衛生

抵食

31993

中環

$801以上

法國菜 Fine Dining

260

lemoncurry

等級3

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon carries three of the prestigious Michelin stars and is therefore member of an exclusive group that consists of little more than 100 Restaurants globally. On this level you should expect absolute perfection and my review should be red under that perspective.

The restaurant is located on the 4th floor of the Landmark, we were sitting in the l'atelier area, i.e. on high chairs around the open kitchen. I like watching the chefs preparing the food, but being served over the counter is a bit unusual (however the staff was very attentive and friendly). The interior of the restaurant is using the same black and red design that you can find at Joel Robuchon’s salon de the.

The evening starts with an impressive bread basket, containing more than 10 different kinds of breads which is made in-house. While the taste is generally good while some of the textures are very chewy.

The menu is surprisingly long, containing three different set-menus as well as an extensive à la carte section. As this is our first visit we opt for the long, 8 course “menu decouverte” (2080 HDK per person plus 10%).

The wine list is thick as a phone book, mostly French and contains hardly any bottle below 1000 HKD. As a wasn't sure what to pick which an 8 course menu (and didn't want to go full pairing) the friendly sommelier recommended three wines by the glass (one champagne, one white, one red) to accompany two courses each which generally worked quite well (price per glass between 250 and 500 HKD).

First to arrive was an amuse-bouche of white asparagus mouse with tomato puree and a fried bread stick (or something like that). Asparagus mouse was very light andhad a nice flavor, the stick a nice crunch.

First dish was “surprise of imperial caviar with egg mimosa”. This is a cold, hard boiled chicken egg, yolk removed and replaced with caviar and topped with a mayonnaise-like sauce made from the yolk. First of all I have to say that I am not a big fan of cold, boiled eggs and this one even had a bit of the sulfuric smell that is that is making hard boiled eggs particularly unpleasant. Also the whole things was quite cold. Overall this dish seems quite old-fashioned and I didn’t find it very enjoyable.

Next up “white asparagus with miso emulsion, espelette pepper and sea urchin”. Long plate with a couple a pieces of asparagus, around 5 sea urchin pieces and drops of a brown miso emulsion. We were told to eat all ingredient together. The sea urchin tasted great, the asparagus was good, but has a very inconsistent texture – some pieces were overcooked while others were very firm, the miso emulsion was quite salty and I decided not to use it after two bites. Good ingredients, but execution a bit sloppy.
Next “girolles mushroom, and iberico ham raviolis with celeriac foam” (which is grammatically wrong the ravioli is already the plural of ravioli, but that's the way they put it on the menu). The ravioli(s) are fried on one side like Japanese gyoza, but the stuffing is very European – ham and mushrooms, always a winning combination and the Japanese inspired texture works well. In addition there are a couple of very small and very tasty girolles mushrooms and a quite unnecessary celery foam. Best dish so far.

After that “grilled main lobster” with green peas and baby bak choy”. A very classical French dish - grilled lobster of good quality, served with a “bisque” style sauce of strong saffron flavor. Perfect texture of the lobster (the claw not so much) and very enjoyable sauce. Green peas and baby bak choy didn't add much. Good dish, but lacking creativity.

Second seafood dish was “John dory fried with shiso tempura, cuttlefish ink risotto”. Good fish, but clearly fried for too long and therefore dry – I am sure every specialized tempura restaurant would make that better. Served on a little bit of black risotto, which was good, but didn't form a logical combination with the fish.

For the main dish I went for the “pan seared Japanese Wagyu”. Consists of three stripes of (very, very good) beef, a fried pepper and a bit of sauce. This is served with Joel Robuchon’s famous mashed potatoes (which contains insane amounts of butter). What should I say – it is a very simple dish, but beef and mashed potatoes are heavenly.
First desert is “pineapple compote with yoghurt ice and greed chartreuse jelly”, very fresh and light. Interestingly served with some herbs (tarragon?), more a palate cleanser, but nice.

Finally “mascarpone with fine chocolate tuile and coffee ice cream”. These a basically mascarpone squares covered with a very thin layer of some kind of biscuit, quite flavorless. Al least the coffee ice cream added a nice bold flavor.

Overall this left me a bit puzzled. L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon uses outstandingly good ingredients, the preparations are mostly very classic while I would expect a bit more creativity for three stars (and more than 2000 HKD for that matter), lots of the combinations seem a bit random (lobster with pees, tempura fish with black risotto) and there are a couple of technical errors (overcooked fish, sulfur smelling egg, overcooked asparagus) that should not happen at this level.

So overall I could see one star, the second one is already hard to argue (e.g. compared to Amber, which is in my view significantly better) and the third clearly underserved.