L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon Taipei, 2 *, Meh experience

As I stated in the title, the whole evening, in terms of both foods and service, could be summarized in one word. Meh. It was not the worst experience of my life for sure, but in no way it could be comparable to the best ones either. To be fair, I do not think they were in their ‘full condition’. I visited the place during the Lunar new year holiday week. Lots of places actually tend to cease their operations during the whole week. I tried booking other places which none of them open up for the period and this was my fifth-ish choice. And for the same reason, they were not serving the signature course that includes the classic ‘Le Caviar’. So, I ended up having their Lunar new year special courses which got concluded being not so great, but not so bad either. I find myself lacking the vocabulary to describe the feeling other than, well, ‘Meh’. So so, maybe?

But I must say, the whole experience left me wanting to criticize one aspect of their operation. Their sommelier. I get that his department is within the wine category, but I have never met the somm actually saying things ‘Nah, I only talk about wines.’ and trying to disappear. That happened to not only me, but 2 other tables asking for the recommendation from the non-alcoholics list around me during the service. It felt so out of touch compared to the place like Jungsik or Luthun where A. they actually design nonalcoholic pairings and offer them and B. sommeliers are just oozing the professionalism, knowledge and passion even for the nonalcoholic items.

Yet again, I get that it would be not so fair for them to judge their performance with only the experience I had. But, that does not mean I should give them another chance. The thing is, they did not seem to want me to, either.

Without further ado, the actual course contents and the comments were following:

1. Amuse Bouche, chestnut soup, nothing special.

2. Skip jack tartare, dressed with yogurt and guacamole in the bottom. Very typical appetizer with focusing on the sour side of the spectrum.

3. Poached egg, Mont d’Or cheese on the bottom with black truffle infused sauce, lightly fried to have some crispy texture. The yolk gets mixed with the cheese and the black truffle sauce when you cut it and they all paired up quite nicely. Mont d’Or could be overpowering, but pressing it down with the yolk and giving a kick with the truffle sauce -and the actually shaved pieces- were a nice touch. The crispy outside was a great choice too, but to feel it you gotta put the whole thing in one bite, which deprive the time to enjoy the good things.

4. Grilled Spanish mackerel, served with tarragon tomato and the sauce made out of it and several pieces of cockle. No comment on that. It is what is. Grilled fish, that’s it. No problem on the execution part, just lacking some creativity.

   1. Beef onglet, served with asparagus, morel mushrooms and mashed potatoes. The hanger steak tasted wonderful. Rich flavor of the beef was walking dangerously between the line of being gamey and not but grilled just enough to not actually crossing it. But the star of the course was, surprisingly, their mashed potatoes. It did not taste differently, but made quite lot of differences simply because it has been done extremely properly. But again, you do not want mashed potatoes to be the most memorable item among the courses when you have a french course meal.

6.Dessert, crepe suzzette and vanilla ice cream. The whole thing was centered around the citrus and I did not find any flaws on the dish. Yet again, well done, but I have seen it so many times, so, not memorable.

7.Tea and mignardises, which I did not take a picture of.