L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon
13-15 West Street
WC2H 9NE
Date of Last Visit: Thursday, April 9
The Victim: My dad
The Damage: £85 for two with a number of wines by the glass. We should have just gotten a bottle of wine.
The Background: The times, they must be tough in London. Because you know Joel Robuchon? He's offering two courses for £19 on TopTable.co.uk. £19! And they have a glass of Shiraz on the menu for £5 a glass! This is cheaper per person than a lot of my gastropub meals. Interesting.
The Entrance: Dad and I are bang on time. I am a little worried about taking my dad to JR. He's more of a fried clams kind of guy. (So I obviously must not get my delusions of grandeur from him.) But the restaurant's service from the beginning to end is really friendly, yet professional, and we're made to feel at home.
We're given two prime seats at the bar. We're not exactly directly in front of the open kitchen, but we're only a seat or two off of it and the view is mesmerizing. These guys are very precise.
The Starters: Pea soup for dad and the look on his face when they deliver the bowl with croutons aber sans soup is priceless. Our server is being funny and whips the soup out from behind his back. Crisis averted.
For me, it's a soft-boiled egg with some very finely sliced beetroot and a smear of this and that. It's gorgeously presented. But I can't help thinking…high margin.
Still, all in all, the presentation is really wonderful and the service is keen and engaged and fun to watch. The food is good.
The Mains: On the £19 menu, you only have two choices: so it's squid risotto for my dad and some sort of stuffed pig's trotter for me. I just like to say the word trotter.
The risotto is nice, if bland. And maybe just a little too crunchy for risotto. My pig's trotter turns out to be fried and while I'm initially a bit upset about it, I get over myself. Because it's delicious, even though it is stuffed with mushrooms, only one of my least favorite things. It's on a bed of honey-glazed carrots and they're very nice. For carrots. Really, had it been described as "something deep fried stuffed with mushrooms on a bed of carrots," you couldn't describe something I wouldn't want to eat more.
Sometimes, you know it's all in the delivery.
The Verdict: You know, I liked it here. Maybe it's because I'm a pretentious something-or-other with delusions of grandeur. But maybe it's just because the service was nice, watching the kitchen was awesome, and the food was pretty good. My dad gives it a good review too.
