Plenitude(*) – Paris – April ‘25

Was just at Plenitude during our honeymoon trip. We reserved 8 months in advance via email. They told us weekends were mostly booked already at that point but we were able to get a weekday table fairly easily.

Had very high expectations and it exceeded all of it. Best meal of our life so far. For context, other 3* and some of the better 2* meals I’ve had include The French Laundry, Alinea, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Saison, Jont, Patrick Guilbaud, Narisawa. Our experience at Plenitude was a cut above. It was definitely the most consistent across every course, every dish was impressive with no misses. Most of the other 3/2 meals would have a couple stand out dishes and usually a few courses that were a bit of a miss or kind of unmemorable. Plenitude was nearly perfect. We had the symphony tasting menu and near the end my wife and I both agreed it was the best meal we’ve ever had and next time we revisit Paris we should come back and order the a la carte menu and pick all the dishes we didn’t get.

Service was also amazing. We came in slightly worried it would be a bit too stuffy, but the staff was quite friendly and approachable right away. Every person we interacted with was very pleasant and jovial. During one of our courses we were taken to the kitchen and got to watch the back of house. The chefs and servers walking past would always smile and acknowledge us.

I’m not great at describing dishes so I’ll just highlight a few aspects. Overall every thing was executed and cooked perfectly.

The sauces were all amazing and quite balanced. Except maybe the Jus with the rabbit course is a bit too salty to drink on its own, perfect with the rest of the dish though. The sauce with the langoustine they literally pour into a little glass for you to sip.

The bread is great, and they offer several additional types of bread to choose from. The one with anchovy was really really good and our favorite. Great for soaking up the extra sauces.

The surprise pilaf dish with the rabbit course was so delicious. The rice was so perfectly crispy and flavorful. It felt like a nice comfort food to finish the savory courses.

Cheese closet was fun and all the cheeses we tried were interesting and yummy. We didn’t ask for anything too funky though and requested some of the milder choices amongst each type.

Overall desserts were all great. Nothing too sweet or rich. Well balanced. Very fun presentation with the pop up card.

At the end they gifted us some bread and a small bottle of the vinaigrette that was the dressing for the salad during the cheese course.

It’ll be difficult to top this meal for sure.

Bonus reviews for other fine dining we did in France so far:

Le Jules Verne (**) – Each individual dishes were executed well but several were too similar to each other and too rich (circular shaped with a foam/sauce). So the overall meal felt not too balanced. The lamb course was great. I reserved online as soon as our date opened up and followed up with an email requesting a window seat. So the view was absolutely amazing.

Le Grand Control at Chateau de Versailles by Alain Ducasse (*) – We stayed at the Airelles hotel at Versailles and booked the royal feast here for dinner. Pretty much everyone at the meal were hotel guests. Fun bit of theater at the beginning. My expectation wasn’t super high, thinking it might be more of a gimmick given the setting and location. It ended up being quite a lovely meal. We actually liked the food here better than Le Jules Verne. The asparagus and kidney vol-au-vent was the stand out dish with perfect pastry and such packed flavors inside.