NL LIEW's FOOD PAGE: Gastronomique adventure at l'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

I only had more or less a day in Paris recently and as usual without a plan. So I went wandering around Champs Elysées without anything in particular and because of the cold wind, I got hungry fast. The usual hangout at Chez Clement had renovated their menu to a much more commercial and restricted one, not to my fancy...so I went further up the street and entered a luxury store called Drugstore Publicis (liked this store because it sells all kinds of gastronomique delices, including premiun caviar from Petrossian and macaron from Pierre Hermé) with intention to eat early lunch at a swanky bistro - luckless, the snorty receptionist asked me to wait for another 15 minutes eventhough its door menu said service begins at 11:30 (which was the time I asked for a table). I walked further into the shop and suddenly realised there was a restaurant at the bottom of the mirrored staircase called "L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon Etoile". I walked down the staircase and were well received and the rest was history...(too bad for the snorty bistro at the entrance (to be avoided as it costs even more than a 2 Michelin-starred restaurant just 10 steps away).

The decor is rather modern with a zen twist, playing on lights and shadows and a lot of red contrasted against black, giving it an almost Japanese lacquer feel...

Guests are allowed to compose their menu according to their hunger/eating capacity and I find this good as one won't have to end up stuffed at the end of the meal (and over paying for that!). I chose a 3 items menu for lunch at 43 euros (value for money): 1 entree (cold or hot), 1 main course and a dessert. I opted for the cesar salad (it was called something else, I forgot), pigeon (additional 12 euros) and crêpes suzettes. With drinks and apéritif, it came to a total of 73 euro and absolutely full stomach. Excellent.

The amuse-gueule: a shot of foie gras mousse with a drip of morel mushroom sauce and Parmesan foam. Flavourful.

Bread served on a metal holder (looks like Alesi to me...)

Deconstructed Cesar salad. While the styling is rigorous, I find it to be too "sauced". Could be lightened a bit and a tad more bacon chips will deffinitely make it tastier...

Star of the day: pigeon breast meat with seared foie gras wrapped in Savoy cabbage leaf and bacon. The pigeon melted in my mouth and paired extremely well with the foie gras. The whole was flavourful and rich. It could, however, be even better if the salad served were less "sauced" with the powerful and acidic dressing that tends to overwhelm. A light vinaigrette will definitely be better.