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L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon – James Bond takes a seat at the bar: License to Thrill

L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Covent Garden

Trailing Michelin stars in his wake across the world, if the ‘Michelin Event’ had been a part of this year’s Olympic games in London, Joël Robuchon would have sprinted away from the pack like a culinary Mo Farah, breaking world records with ease. Awarded ‘Chef of the Century’ by the esteemed Gault Millau guide, and amassing twenty-five stars with his restaurants, he now has more of these gongs than any other chef in the world: he’s the daddy.

The brand is strong, and the jet-set travellers know they can swan in and out of cities and get some serious fine dining wherever they are. London, Monaco, Paris, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo: take your pick, book your flight, dine Michelin style.

So to London. Two star Robuchon. Walking into a striking black lacquered ground floor bar and open kitchen with seats to survey all the action, feels like walking onto a James Bond set. Where’s Odd Job? Is that Goldfinger lurking in the shadows behind the foliage? There’s a lady dining alone sipping Champagne: is that secret agent 008? It’s that kind of place. A sultry boudoir oozing decadence, a glint in its eye. Somehow all this is pulled off without seeming remotely ridiculous, it’s other-worldly in a kitsch, film-set kind of way that works. It’s a restaurant tailor-made for seduction, all black, crimson and shadowy with pools of light here and there. With re-assuring French chatter coming from the chefs in the kitchen (all sleek black again) we explore the lunch menu of three courses (£32 or £46 with matching wines).

 

 

La Dorade is a take on a classic sea bream carpaccio, cut super thinly and flavoured with lemon and Espelette chilli peppers. It looks stunning, an explosion of colour and texture, dotted with poppy seeds, basil leaves and the odd flourish of edible petal. The dish was talked up by the excellent and switched on sommelier, Manon, who poured me a Luxembourg white made with the Rivaner grape (yeah, wonderfully off-piste), from Domaine Mathis Bastian, a delicate little number, floral and beautifully balanced: good wine-matching action here, top marks.

 

 

If you’re indulging yourself with lunch or dinner here, luxurious ingredients and ‘pushing the boat out’ all seem to make more sense than in many other London restaurants, the setting compelling you to go the whole hog. Step forward the lobster dish. Maine lobster pan-fried with smoked bacon and served with Fregola, the dinky Sardinian pasta. Sweet chunks of lobster, a spicy and cheffy emulsion of Michelin-y ‘froth’, and nutty nuggets of pasta. The engaging Sommelier decided to bend my mind (a good thing) by serving this with a red wine, a Saint Laurent from Austrian winery Weingut Heinrich. While not the perfect match, this fairly light red being blown off course by some pretty bold lobster flavour, it was a talking point and showed a dash of ‘derring do’ from the staff. Good stuff. 

For dessert we’re taken upstairs to the charming roof terrace, a hidden little outside spot that you’d never guess was there, and with the sun shining, a fine place to decamp.

 

 

A coulis and mousse of mango is a lip-smacking refresher, La Religieuse is delicate choux pastry filled with a toffee cream, and Le Chocolat-Tendance is a wonderfully rich Manjari bitter chocolate sorbet with Oreo cookie crumb. Strong desserts. On a previous visit I remember being wowed by the spectacle of a chocolate globe having warm chocolate poured on top, melting away to reveal more within. A good dating dessert.

The ground floor bar is the ‘special move’ of L’Atelier and the most distinctive part of the restaurant and carries the Robuchon stamp, although the first floor houses a more ‘trad’ dining room experience, better for larger groups, also with its own open kitchen and wood-fired oven. I hear it’s popular with ‘baby shower’ parties. Wow. 

You’ll find seriously cheffy cooking going on here, thrilling presentation, with imaginative riffs on familiar ingredients. Fish burger with seaweed and mango salad? Confit lamb shoulder with oriental semolina? The à la carte menu is a deliciously dangerous place to hang out, which I’ve indulged myself with on previous visits; dangerous for a bill that could spiral out of control; delicious for the ingenuity going on in the kitchen. 

Oi, Odd Job. You may be about to fling me in the piranha pool, but pass me a glass of Louis Roederer Champagne first will you? Ask the Robuchon chefs to whip up a Michelin starred dish with those piranha too, there’s a good lad. We have just renewed your License to Thrill.

 

L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon

13-15 West Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9NE

Online booking available here

 

Current Deals:

Set Lunch Menu with Sommelier Pairing for each course: 2 courses £37, 3 courses £46, or 4 courses £58

Afternoon Retreat: 2 courses and afternoon tea £46

London Restaurant Festival 2012: 2 courses £30 per person

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