I’d been a follower of Joel Robuchon’s L’Ateliers since he opened the first one in Paris back in the late-90s. Been to the ones in London, New York, Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore since, and each & everyone of them had ensured the same level of cooking and service one expects from a L’Atelier.
The Bangkok one opened in December 2015 (if I remember correctly) but my interest in the L’Atelier chain had long since waned then. So, I’d never checked it out, eventhough I frequented Dean & Deluca on the 1st floor of the same building (L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon Bangkok is on the 5th floor).
Curiosity got the better of me two days ago, and I decided to check out this latest Bangkok outpost of a chain I once felt was a trailblazer in its time two decades ago - introducing the concept of French chefs serving their customers at sushi counter-like seating arrangements.
The bread basket - bread sizes seemed smaller, but is continually replenished. The choice of breads have been tweaked to suit local (Asian) palates I guess, so the rolls are predominantly the soft, sweetish, Japanese-like variety. No hard-crusted French rolls.
Overall, a good dinner - very Robuchon, no surprises. I guess that’s why people go to L’Atelier: you know what you’re going to get wherever you are in the world.
I believed that the first L’Atelier was born in 2003, there were a lot of noises, and the return of the “retired” Robuchon etc. I still remember the meal we had in 2006 in Paris 7eme, it was a meal that made me fell in love with sweetbread. I never had another sweetbread as good ever since. At that time, menu degustation was still relatively rare at a lower price tag. It is incredible that their decoration is nearly the same in all locations in the world.
Yeah, food was classical, but delicious. Sometimes I think the younger French chefs are too much into innovation and creativity forget that food needs to be delicious, or maybe I’m getting older and difficult to be pleased now .
By the way, the last Pain au chocolat I bought in Hong Kong Robuchon last year was way better than the ones I got in bakeries in Paris. (Well, true, it was twice as expansive than in a fancy place here. It would be a scandal trying to sell it at 2.50 euro in Paris).
Oh yes, you are right - Robuchon was still in Paris in the mid-90s before suddenly “retiring” . He spent an inordinate amount of time in Japan, and was very enamoured with Sukiyabashi Jiro - which was why he took a tape to measure Jiro’s sushi counter and used it to construct his first L’Atelier in Paris.
It was - I think he opened both Paris and Tokyo at about the same time in 2003.
I think that’s when I ate there as well. I used to live in an apartment around the corner and ate there a few times - we were familiar enough with the staff that they would pop down and put our name on the list and they would call our apartment when there was a space for us.
Like you it’s where I fell in love with sweetbreads.
Peter that’s comforting to know - I always enjoyed my meals there - not revolutionary but good and reliable.
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