Back to Paris and L’Atelier de Joel Rubuchon

I am back in Paris this week working on a project and always enjoying the city.  We went back to Joel Rubuchon the first night for several reasons.  The food is generally good.  You can get a reservation at 630 and the place is packed which means you are sleeping early the first night and that helps get you on Paris time.l

The food and servicee were utterly disappointing this time.  Makes me wonder if it is time to retire this as part of our repertoire.  Some of the food was really good and other things were just ok.  The worst part was the service.  Badly timed dishes out of the kitchen so that people were not eating at the same time.  A wait person who suggested it would be great to order more in a larger form when it made much more sense as a small plate.  Wines that were paired and really over priced that should have been noted when we ordered them.  All of just not ok.  Going there is about the experience and I felt like I left being ripped off.   It is always hard to actually get someones attention to wait on you there but this pushed me off the edge.  Tsk, tsk.

Here is what we had.  I started with the sea bream carpaccio which was the special of the day.  Really good.

Their imperial crab is a signature dish and always a winner.  Again, she brought the bigger one not the smaller one and charged us for that one.  Not ok.

The asparagus special which was explained as something we could all split was right.  They brought two instead and I said that is not what we ordered, we ordered one for sharing.  They apologized but I am sure more than most people would say nothing and just take it.  Tsk tsk.

The eggplant with house made mozzarella is not as good as I remember….at all.

The next course was a tuna which we should not have ordered.  It was also sub-par at best.  We thought we would taste and share.  No explanation, no nothing.

This was supposed to come out at the same time as the gyoza that the third person was having but it did not.  I asked about it but she pooh-poohed me.  Finally our last courses came out.  The egg parfait with mushrooms

The red snapper

And the lamb chops.

The gyoza came out last and it was a solo dish so we had to wait for our guest to finish.  It should have not come out that way.  It should have come out with the tuna.  Total screw up on their end.  We also had wine pairings at every course and the wines were ridiculously expensive.  I honestly felt like I was completely ripped off from the entire experience.  The staff was not focused either, very frenetic.

Alas, it is time to say good by to Joel.  I will not be returning.