Tuesday, August 4, 2009

L'Atelier de Suck!

The following restaurant takes place two hours after my last entry......

I guess I am extra critical on famous restaurants, especially critically acclaimed French restaurants that is featured in the Michelin Guide. With all the hype built up by food critics, you naturally would expect the food to feel like a divine intervention, as if the clouds in the sky will part and angels will descend from the heaven to spoon feed you. After all, these restaurants do cost a fortune to eat.

So it was time for me to try out L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, a Michelin two star international restaurant chain ran by celebrity chef Joël Robuchon himself. Ok I lied. I really didnt try L'Atelier, its just too damn expensive, not even Super Mom Saturdays could afford it. But what I COULD afford was its little brother, Le Salon de Joël Robuchon, its cafe branch located right below L'Atelier. Initially I was looking for a place for quick tea around Central, and was choosing between the wonderful looking Cafe Landmark, or the hidden Le Salon. Since the waiters seemed overly enthusiastic in sitting us, we chose Le Salon.

The seating in the place is a little awkward, each table is placed between each pillars on the 3rd floor of the mall. But the seating area is a little to small, so my seat pokes out into the mall corridor. It really lacks the comfortable seating like other cafes
We had to order the food at a separate counter across the mall, and the waiters will then kindly serve us the food.
Got a Chocolat noisette, a salted caramel tart, Freshly squeezed apple juice, and a Blue Mountain Coffee....The chocolat noisette was good, it had the perfect sweetness, like the Magnolia cupcakes in NYC. Nice and creamy. Funny how the sign says 'This is not edible'. The salted caramel tart was even better, very finely made and not overly sweet. The cakes and tarts in Le Salon were all made very well and bite size, not bad for $35HKD.
Here's when the rant starts........
For a $55HKD ($8CAD) coffee, you get a rather average sized cup,and it is disappointing that it is only half filled, as if the restaurant was having a shortage on coffee bean. What making it even moreee disappointing was that the coffee itself was sour, a sign that the coffee bean are kept in a moist area and had become moldy. It tasted like the sour coffee you get in Cha Chan Tengs, was pretty awful....and I felt robbed that I paid $55 for it....especially from a cafe like this.

The apple juice.....just tasted like normal apple juice.....but it cost $45.

And finally, the service! It was absolutely terrible!
1. First told us there were seats....then told us we had to wait because they were full
2. Finally got us seats....but only pointed at a general direction of where the table is in the mall....no escort service........we had to guess where our table was in Landmark...
3. Food took a long 20 minutes to serve, even though none of them required any additional heating or special preparation
4. The coffee came with no cream. what kind of cafe serves coffee without cream/milk?
5. Getting a glass of water and milk took the waiters another 15 minutes

Final Verdict: Cake set? Wonderful! Everything else? Yuck! Sorry, no angels here...no divine intervention or heavenly miracles. You better luck looking for them Cafe Landmark next door, you get better service....and better coffee.

At most....just get their tarts and cake sets takeout...and AVOID their beverages at all cost.
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=17506

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