Went to Joel Robuchon's L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon at Covent Gardens for lunch with Irene yesterday. Irene had long wanted to go to one of this phenomenal chef's restaurants and finally made a booking after seeing this restaurant take part in the London Restaurant Festival (similar thing to Sydney's Good Food Month).
As a bit of background, Robuchon was title Chef of the Century by the guide Gault Millau and has a total of 26 Michelin stars among his many restaurants (most of any chef in the world), two of which belongs to London's L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. So given his jaw dropping credentials, did our experience live up to our expectations?
Sadly, the experience was mixed (i.e., some elements of awesomeness and some elements of disappointment). Prior to the day, Irene had received a telephone confirmation followed by an email confirmation - we figured demand for the restaurant was high and they wanted to ensure all those who made bookings were in fact going to turn up - a promising sign of sorts.
The decor of the restaurant was nice, providing an element of classy French feeling that is fitting for a restaurant of this calibre. We were given both an a la carte menu and the set lunch menu and after going through the menus, we decided on the 3 course set menu, a bottle of still water and a glass of red wine. For the three courses, Irene ordered a pollock brandade, paella, and selection of traditional tarts, while I ordered an egg cocotte, confit of duck leg, and almond biscuit with lemon chiboust.
In terms of the food, everything was exceptional and certainly lived up to, if not exceeded, our expectations! However, that was probably where the positive review ends. In terms of service, much was left to be desired. Firstly, the waiter probably got Irene and my order mixed up and only noticed after the mains. Not only that, he also mistook Irene's pollock for a bean soup, which we only realised after we started eating. So in the end, for starters, Irene got my egg cocotte and I got Irene's order, which should have been a pollock but turned out to be a bean soup. Unfortunately, we only found out after we had started eating and given our respective dishes on the table tasted quite nice, we let them get off with it.
As mentioned, they only realised they got our orders around the wrong way after the mains so they gave Irene my duck leg and gave me Irene's paella but this time, the mix up was more obvious so we alerted the waiter before he set down the dishes, in time for him to correct his mistake. Then after the mix up with the menu, and towards the end of our meal, one of the waitress mistakenly poured the rest of our quarter of a bottle of still water for the table next to us, who were confused because they ordered sparkling water and not still. Knowing what had happened, we did not say anything and waited to see if the waitress would correct her mistake for us. Disappointingly, she made no effort to admit her mistake to us and was probably hoping to get away with not giving us the quarter of a bottle of still water that was ours. In the end, we had to ask for our remaining water and when we did, the waitress sheepishly admitted her mistake and brought our a new bottle of water for us.
On the whole, I'd say the food was exceptional but the service was a let down. But given we were there for Robuchon's food, the experience was still well worth it! I'd also mention that another classy element to the experience was that the staff there all spoke in French to each other, adding an element of authenticity to the French cuisine that they served!
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