L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon (NYC)

With a long Memorial weekend, we decided to take a drive to NYC for a short road trip. We booked a hotel in Jersey City for one night, and stayed in NYC for two days. On our first night, we went to L’Atelier for dinner. This is one of the famous restaurants by the famous chef Joel Robuchon. The place is pretty small with only a few tables and a u-shaped counter around an open kitchen. We got seated at the counter which has about 12 seats. We find this setting quite similar to a sushi bar because the waiter serves us from the other side of the counter.

L’Atelier is known for their small dishes. My husband and I both ordered three small dishes for dinner. Here is our selection:

1) Pressed Duck Foie Gras, Toasted Bread. My husband and I both love foie gras, so we ordered two foie gras appetizers. One is the foie gras pâté which is spread over toasted bread. The foie gras pâté is smooth and not too rich in taste.

2) Seared foie gras, Grapefruit Gratin. The seared foie gras is the much richer of the two. The foie gras is crispy on the outside and extremely soft on the inside. This cooking style really brings out the strong taste of foie gras.

3) White Asparagus and Crisp Poached Egg. The white asparagus is in season in the spring time. We prefer the white asparagus that we had in Germany which is softer. The sauce on the white asparagus is too strong which covered up the original sweet taste of the asparagus. The crisp poached egg is deep fried quickly and still running from the inside.

4) Lightly Seared Kampachi, Fine Aromatics, Crispy Onion Rings. The Kampachi is a kind of Japanese fish similar to Hamachi. It is very soft with a light taste. It is lightly seared and served with some soy sauce. This is quite an oriental dish.

5) Organic Loche Duarte Farm Salmon Tartar, Caviar. This is the highlight of the night. The salmon tartar is very fatty and soft. It is served with an extremely generous portion of caviar. The caviar is slightly salty. The way that the caviar pops, it reminds me of salmon roe. It is like a salty and condensed version of the salmon roe. What makes this dish spectacular is that it is served on dry ice. The dish comes out with lots of smoke from the dry ice which is pleasing to the eye.

6) Beef and Foie Gras Burgers, Caramelised Bell Peppers. This is one of the signature dishes of Joel Robuchon. The burgers are very tiny. Foie Gras matches very well with beef. However, the strong taste of foie gras overpowers the beef. This is served with a side dish of french fries. Our waiter also brought us some complimentary mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes were extremely rich, soft, and buttery.

The service is excellent, and our server gave us a complimentary dish of the Braised Veal Cheek with Thai Jus and Crunchy Vegetables. The Braised Veal Cheek was slowly cooked for 5 hours. It was so tender that you do not need a knife to eat it. This is another oriental style dish.

For dessert, we shared an order of the Le Souffle. This is Yuzu Soufflé served with Okinawa Sugar Ice Cream. This is one of the best soufflés that we have ever had! It is definitely one of the top two. The soufflé is risen perfectly, and baked to perfection. The taste of the yuzu is citrus but not sour. The soufflé is so incredibly soft that it is like eating foam. The sugar ice cream adds creaminess to the soufflé.

Overall, we were extremely satisfied with the meal. Both the food and the service were excellent. However, we can’t come here often because of the dent in our wallets.

HOKAT Rating:
96/100

Address:
57 East 57th Street, New York, NY
212-758-5700
http://www.fourseasons.com/newyorkfs/dining/l_atelier_de_joel_robuchon.html