L'Atelier Maitre Albert

[rpdkpd]

Any experience with L'Atelier Maitre Albert in 5e? As I understand it, this has been redone by Guy Savoy. We leave for Paris in about two weeks, so I want to make a reservation if the reviews are good.

[Busboy]

I was practising my French by reading (poorly) Le Figaro and I came upon this review.

Although the restaurant had not yet officially opened, the reviewer gave it a big wet, French kiss, praising not only Savoy -- an alchemist, just like the origional Maître Albert -- but the bartender, sommelier, sous-chef and patissier, by name.

Evidently, the sleek, renovated interior will satisfy the "city rat" while the while the rich, simple food will please the "country rat."

"Chaleur [warmth], bonhomie, générosité : voilà les secrets de l'alchimiste de la rue Maître Albert."

Sounds like fun, to me.

L'Atelier Maître Albert, 1, rue Maître-Albert, 75005 Paris. Tél. : 01.56.81.30.01. Ouvert tous les soirs. Lundi, mardi, mercredi, de 18 h 30 à 23 h 30. Jeudi, vendredi, samedi, de 18 h 30 à 1 h. Fermé le dimanche. Privatisable à midi. Carte : 30-60 €. Voiturier.

Edited November 5, 2003 by Busboy (log)

[admajoremgloriam]

I have walked by the newly refurbished Atelier today and found it very sleek and very unimpressive. It looks like any other London café with more wines on the walls. A quick look on the menu was not too exciting either, same old same old, grapefruit terrine with tea-based sauce, how many time are we going to have to eat this dessert?

[Louisa Chu]

admajoremgloriam, did you see if they kept the swings at the bar?

[fabien]

Not bad. I live not so far, so I tried it last week. Although I found the menu not very original. Service is perfect (even a bit too "present"). Indeed, it is now Guy Savoy who bought it. And it is located 100 meters from LIBRAIRIE GOURMANDE, 4 rue Dante, the only bookstore I know specialising only in cookbooks...

[admajoremgloriam]

Could not notice the swings, sorry about that. The place got a pretty good review in Le Figaroscope last week (two hearts).

[Gary Marshall]

We left our hotel at 8pm for our 9.30 booking at Guy Savoy’s newest bistro Atelier Maitre Albert, we’d wandered past it on our way to mon vieil ami so saw it was a modern, very designed space.

Given good reviews by patricia wells and others we were expecting some soild rottisserie food with some nice touches such as a few starter dishes from his 3* that we had fond memories of a couple of years ago.

we had plenty of time so we returned to a bar for a swift err, bottle of aligote and wandered to the restaurant with a quick look at the menu at ‘le reminet’ it looked very enticing and the ‘maitress d’ came out to say hello, with hindsight we wished we’d taken the last minute plunge on le reminet!

we were on time for our booking and were met with a very busy, much more casual restaurant than the decor first suggested. the main dining room was not huge with an open fire at one end and the rottisseries at the other , but they were less of a feature than i expected.

we settled in with a couple of glasses of champagne after eventually catching the eye of the busy staff. The decor though and ambiance certainky rang a bell ( i suppose i’d better describe it since you may not have been!) Like mon ami and atelier black is very definitely back in paris. it looked very similar to mon veil ami actually with some original features mixed in with the ‘modern’ black. But that was not what rang a bell, the blackness and casuallness reminded me exactly of london pizza espresses of the early 90’s down to the ceiling spots highlighting the tables!

the menu was surprisingly short about 4 dishes each section with daily specials on each. It wasn’t a vastly excting selection and there was nothing that i could determine was of 3* provenance, certainly no oysters en gelee that wells had enjoyed! in the hope that like aux lyonnais it was a ‘sleeper’ menu playing down its charms i had potage parmentier with shellfish and sarah had a chicken liver salad. Unfortunately they were both very dull. The only 3* slant was the serving from larger bowls with the suggestion of extras. My soup was bland and seemingly unseasoned i thought the shellfish may have been incorporated into the soup, no, there were a few clams in the bottom with the boring soup ladled over the top. At 11e i was hardly ecstatic about this.

for mains the choice for us was between roast chicken or entrecote (even the special was rottisserie leg of lamb), seeing as it came with potato gratin and bearnaise, and i’d had roast chicken the day before, we both went for steak. We were asked how we wanted it cooked, which given i could see the full joints on the roitisserie i was a bit surprised as i thought they may well say they are all cooked saignant, which would have been fine, as it was we ordered one saignant one a point.

A waitress appeared with the steaks, and asked which was for whom, i got the rare one and gave it a cursory prod, as i tend to do, and thought it was a bit firm, the plates were also scorching hot too which didn’t bode well.

Another waiter appeared and said ‘here’s a little bearnaise for the steaks’ i thought, hang on, i don’t want a little sauce i want a lot! As you’d expect for two separate orders not a couple of teaspoons full between two.

As for the cooking, Sarah’s seemed rarer so we swapped, but both were medium plus a bit. That in itself not the end of the world but the meat was very chewy, i remember saying at the time church’s would have been able to make a decent pair of shoes out of both steaks. the gratin was a very shallow dish of decent pot but was hardly generous.

i of course secured some extra bearnaise but by this point was in quite a bad mood, i thought it was a perfect example of style over substance.

The couple next to us were obviously well connected with the restaurant as everyone from the chef to the waiters came out to speak with them, Sarah stopped me from collaring the chef to tell him what i thought, that and not being able to elucidate my thoughts in french other than ‘merde’ which was a tad harsh!

Although i can be a notoriously fussy diner i was surprised when sarah, who is much less picky said unprompted, ‘you’re not ordering anything else’ which was exactly my thoughts . as they cleared the plates they asked if we wanted deserts, ‘no, just the bill’. L’addition arrived and to add insult to injury they’d charged us for two billecart salmon blancs when i’d just asked for a glass of champagne and they did offer the ‘guy savoy nv’. To their credit they did reduce the bill uncomplainingly.

The dirty look that sarah gave the waiter was as close as we came to getting our thoughts across.

Drinks were a bottle of minervois which looked interesting but was 43e, with hindsight the simon bize savigny les beaune would have been a safer but perhaps more enjoyable choice

Bill was 137e, it was still early-ish so we headed back to st germain where a few beers in a local bar went someway to salvage the evening.

I think it was part high expectations not been met but certainly the food, to my mind was not worth the prices being charged, the steaks were 23e each and were certainly the least enjoyable i’ve had at any level in paris.

luckily we had an 11.30 booking at l’atelier joel robuchon to look forward to for the following morning........

[Scott]

I had a plate of scallop tartare here, which was awful.

a large pile of basically flavourless, cerviche of scallop. the roast chicken was good, and comforting.

not sure about it, though I don't know if they ever claimed any 3* provenance.

[Gary Marshall]

not sure about it, though I don't know if they ever claimed any 3* provenance.

wouldn't say MA claimed the 3* provenance but Well's IHT review specifically mentioned the oysters en gelee, and i'm sure other dishes. Other reports suggested a competent kitchen. With hindsight they may well have been pre-opening special nights.

from the reports i had assumed that's what i would get, the rottiserrie plus some decent starters, obviously i know menus change.

I wouldn't have been too bothered if the starter dishes were as simple as the rottisserie ones, had they at least been worth the money, which i didn't think they were.

gary

ps knew i should have ordered the chicken!

Edited April 16, 2004 by Gary Marshall (log)

[bleudauvergne]

I'm so sorry, Gary that your meal wasn't good. If they can't get a steak right, I wonder... I have noted your comments and thank you for giving us the heads up.

[Gavin Convery]

Gary,

Can I take this opportunity to thank you for all your reports from Paris...I know that sometimes we write reports without any response it can be a bit disheartening but be assured that I am reading them and appreciating your efforts.

rgds,

Gavin

[ann]

I want to second Gavin's thanks -- I've enjoyed your reports and found them very useful in helping to plan our week in Paris in May.

[Pizza Napoletana]

Paris, 05/06/2005

This was what we had to eat:

Little cheese bigne bites

Starters

Marinated Mackerel with mashed peas and crunchy carrots and peas

Crustaceous cream served with a salmon mousse spoon

Main course

Grilled Sea Bass fillet with aubergine compote and crustaceous cream.

Roosted Cod fillet with fried pine nuts in oil and Basmati rice and parmesan gratin.

Desserts

Pineapple carpaccio and Passion fruit sorbet served with a nuts crust

Chocolate fondant with chocolate ice cream and praline.

The place was modern and sleek, however the indigo walls made it to dark for my taste. The service was superb with very attentive staff that made us feel at home making every effort to overcome our lack of French. Most of the plates were served in a Stub Cast-iron pot to be plated by the customers. Nice idea or lack of presentation skills by the Kitchen???

The menu is small and clear, both in French and English. The food was overall good; however the Crustaceous cream was slightly over salted and the Sea bass slightly dry. An experience to be repeated.

Edited June 9, 2005 by Pizza Napoletana (log)

[Gary Marshall]

maybe they have improved, but my visit was probably the worst value, and indeed probably the worst, full stop dinner i've had in paris.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...l=maitre+albert

Edited June 9, 2005 by Gary Marshall (log)

[Pizza Napoletana]

I find your review very interesting. Me and my girlfriend, went for fish-base dishes as we had already had many meat base food in Paris over the previous two days. I am glad I did not go for the meat. The prices in my opinion were medium, and the dinner cost me much less then a similar quality one at Passione restaurant in London.

Did you also write a review on l’atelier joel robuchon ?

We have missed out on that...

maybe they have improved, but my visit was probably the worst value, and indeed probably the worst, full stop dinner i've had in paris.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...l=maitre+albert

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Edited June 11, 2005 by Pizza Napoletana (log)