Yesterday an all-day visit to the Science Museum and cocktails in LAB throughout the evening led to an impromptu visit by NickXX and I to L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon near Charing Cross Road. This would be my second visit to L'Atelier and Nick's first. L'Atelier has two Michelin stars.
I called at 8 PM and managed to get a reservation for 11 PM. We suspected that if we arrived around 10 PM we could go to the table, and after the brief walk from Old Compton Street we were proven right, and immediately taken to our table in La Cuisine, the first floor 'table concept' area. Both Nick and I were being reasonably cost-concious, so we opted to dine a'la carte rather than the menu decouverte. We chose:
Me
La Caille
Free range quail stuffed with foie gras and truffled mashed potatoes
Le Pied De Cochon
Pig trotter served on parmesan toast
La Saint Jacques
Pan fried scallops with ricotta cheese, roman lettuce and basil
La Boule Surprise
Pistachio cream, caramelised spiced pear and vanilla ice cream from Tahiti
Nick
La Caille
(see above for description)
Le Tourteau
Crab meat waffles with herbs
La Saint Jacques
(see above for description)
In addition, to start there's a complimentary course of foie gras, port reduction and parmesan foam, and between mains and desert there's a blood orange sorbet coated in white chocolate.
The food was really quite fantastic. Amongst the best I've tasted and as good as I remember it. Each dish is exciting, very rich and very tasteful. The service was virtually perfect, apart from a slight slip-up where the waiter forgot we had ordered the wine, a bottle of red from Cahors, but he quickly realised his mistake and brought it to us.
I almost don't know what else to say except "go there". It's a memorable dining experience of the highest quality. The total cost, including service, was £227.25, which for this tier of culinary creation is very good value indeed. A wholehearted recommendation from me!
(Photos are what I found on the Internet)
I called at 8 PM and managed to get a reservation for 11 PM. We suspected that if we arrived around 10 PM we could go to the table, and after the brief walk from Old Compton Street we were proven right, and immediately taken to our table in La Cuisine, the first floor 'table concept' area. Both Nick and I were being reasonably cost-concious, so we opted to dine a'la carte rather than the menu decouverte. We chose:
Me
La Caille
Free range quail stuffed with foie gras and truffled mashed potatoes
Le Pied De Cochon
Pig trotter served on parmesan toast
La Saint Jacques
Pan fried scallops with ricotta cheese, roman lettuce and basil
La Boule Surprise
Pistachio cream, caramelised spiced pear and vanilla ice cream from Tahiti
Nick
La Caille
(see above for description)
Le Tourteau
Crab meat waffles with herbs
La Saint Jacques
(see above for description)
In addition, to start there's a complimentary course of foie gras, port reduction and parmesan foam, and between mains and desert there's a blood orange sorbet coated in white chocolate.
The food was really quite fantastic. Amongst the best I've tasted and as good as I remember it. Each dish is exciting, very rich and very tasteful. The service was virtually perfect, apart from a slight slip-up where the waiter forgot we had ordered the wine, a bottle of red from Cahors, but he quickly realised his mistake and brought it to us.
I almost don't know what else to say except "go there". It's a memorable dining experience of the highest quality. The total cost, including service, was £227.25, which for this tier of culinary creation is very good value indeed. A wholehearted recommendation from me!
(Photos are what I found on the Internet)
