| rev:text
| - Technically 4.5 stars, but only because of some of the slacker-ness of our waiter. The rest of the staff, however, and the food merits the full 5 stars.
Overall, the experience was wonderful. We had two seats on the side of the bar, which gave us a perfect view of the kitchen, including the Executive Chef, Steve Benjamin, banging on the bell when food is ready to be served, servers slicing beautiful pieces of Jamon Iberico from the stunning leg displayed on the side, and the different chefs preparing our food right before our eyes. What's great too, is you can see if any delays are due to the kitchen or our server. For us, it was our server Eric. At one point Executive Chef Benjamin came over to serve one of our dishes and the head sommelier came to pour our wine since our server was MIA. He was incredibly nice, but apparently a bit inept. There was also the incident when he dropped a glass and a shard of it came my way...but, then again, he neglected to charge me the $30 surcharge for caviar, so all is forgiven =)
Food and Drinks:
We ordered a bottle of Veuve Yellow Label to go with the early dishes of the Discovery Menu ($175) and a wonderful Saint-Emilion Bordeaux to match up with the later dishes.
-Amuse Bouche: Foie Gras Parfait with port wine and parmesan foam; Intense, amazing flavors. So rich and well-balanced. Perfect match with the champagne.
-Langoustine Carpaccio with toasted poppy seed dressing; the dressing was made of an exquisite olive oil, poppy seeds, a bit of pepper, and fleur de sel. This was one of the best dishes! And, it was served to us and explained to us by Executive Chef Benjamin.
-Poached Baby Kushi Oysters served with French Butter and the caviar supplement. The oysters were so rich and flavorful; i've never had cooked oysters before. The slight poaching brings out the oyster flavor, as did the osetra caviar. There was an oceanic explosion in my mouth as I sampled that with the champagne!
-Steamed Egg in a Macaroni Ring with Black Truffles; This was my least favorite dish, although the flavors were good. The egg yolk mixed nicely with the macaroni ring and the (very large!) black truffle shavings added nice depth.
-Teppanyaki Duck Foie Gras with quince confit and yuzu; so rich, so perfectly prepared! Again, a perfect match with the champagne. It was so excellent but so rich, that I couldn't finish it all.
-Dover Sole Filet prepared with Baby Leeks, crispy onions, and ginger. The name of this dish is misleading. I truly believe there were three full filets of Sole on the plate. This dish easily was NOT a tasting portion and, sadly, was not finished. It was very well prepared, with good structure and heartiness.
-Here the hubby and I each got a different dish so we could taste each one; Venison with sweet and sour cranberry and chestnuts; served with the house specialty truffle mashed potatoes. The Venison was divine. It was one of my favorite things all night; perfectly prepared at medium-rare. I would want a whole dish of this. And, we had the Foie Gras stuffed free-range quail, also with truffle mashed potatoes. The combination of the quail and foie gras was awesome. The crispy skin on the quail balanced out the richness of the foie gras. The nutty flavor of the truffles in the mashed potatoes was excellent.
**I will say that, although I love Foie Gras, I'm surprised Chef Robuchon went the route of obsessing over the dish.
Two desserts:
-Hazelnut and Gianduja Crunch/Tart with Chocolate Ice Cream. Heaven on a plate. Rich, crispy, smooth. Thank you sir, may I have another?
-Fresh Passion fruit in a coconut meringue; a nice palate cleanser; The combo of the crispy meringue with the passion fruit was nice. Compared to the previous dessert though, this paled in flavor and creativity.
OMG. Somehow we ate most of this stuff. Our palates were pleased, our bellies were full, our evening was lovely. If I ran this restaurant, I would seriously petition Michelin for a bump from one star to two. Perhaps it's the "casual" eating environment that stops them from granting L'Atelier two Michelin stars, but this place, to me, surpasses Picasso and is on equal footing with Alex as far as food goes. It's not cheap, so don't go there and be cheap. Order the good stuff, not the $39 menu, and you won't be disappointed.
I think next time we might visit Mr. Robuchon next door, although I will miss Executive Chef Benjamin banging away on the bell!!!
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