Chef Gabriel Grapin is no stranger to haute cuisine, having worked for Alain Ducasse at Spoon, Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athénée and Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester in London. He’s been in charge of this new French Restaurant since the re-opening of Le Royal Monceau and is instrumental for the successful capturing of its first Michelin star.
La Cuisine is set in a beautiful theatrical atmosphere with the open kitchen directly facing the tables in the dining room.
There are some semi-private dining area for those dining with a small group.
The menu covers quite a wide selection of dishes but it was the "Summer Collection" that caught our attention. For €98, we got to choose 2 starters, 1 main course and 1 dessert. Looks like very good value for money to us.
Confit duck foie gras from Landes
But it got off to a rocky start for us. First up, a confit duck foie gras from the famous Landes region was served on a disk of lentils and charred bread jelly. The foie gras which had next to no flavors did not have a strong enough connection with the lentils and bread jelly.
Pan-seared foie gras, fresh raspberries and sherry vinegar
The other foie gras, which was pan-seared, turned out to be slightly better. It was perhaps the best dish on this dismal night for us.
I know it's a light lobster bisque but I didn't know it's supposed to be watery like this. There's a lot of flavors going on there, with white asparagus, sea urchin and yuzu but none of them seemed to have any type of success working with the bisque.
What was advertised as two large slices of prawns in the menu was actually two halved slices of prawns tossed in a tomato sauce. Enough said.
Confit Duck breast with braised fennel
Confit duck breast was another decent dish coming out of the kitchen.
Rack of veal from Lozére
I had the rack of veal with asparagus and morel mushrooms as my main course and it was grossly overcooked. And on top of that super dry texture, the meat was totally bland.
Even the "Picasso of pastry" couldn't save the day for us. From the special dessert menu designed by Pierre Hermé, we first had the Montebello which was a combination of pistachio dacquoise biscuit, pistachio mousse cream and fresh strawberries.
Slightly better was the cheesecake Mosaic, a layered cake with pate sablee, pistachio cheese, morello cherries and morello compote with cream cheese base.
One last look at the Arc de Triomphe before we leave for Auxerre the next morning.
There were way too many glaring mistakes made by the team here, all of which should never occur in a 1-star Michelin restaurant.
- Our server probably didn't jot down who was having which dish. Throughout the night, the servers kept asking, "so who's having the <dish name>?"
- There was no explanation on each of these dishes. Most servers simply dropped the plates and ran (I am not joking)!
- Service was very slow especially with the pacing. We waited a whopping 40 minutes for our main courses.
Food Rating: 4/10
Price: €€€
Address: Royal Monceau Hotel G/F, 37 avenue Hoche, Paris, France
Closest Metro Station: Etoile
Tel: +33 1 4299-8816
Website: www.leroyalmonceau.com/restaurants-bar/
View Larger Map
Post a Comment
Please tell us what you think