[TAIWAN] L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon: No Surprises

For my first ever trip to Taiwan, I had my heart set on dropping by Robuchon’s newest baby – L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, Taipei. Strangely enough, I’ve heard and read very little about this new outlet. For a city not particularly known for it’s fine-dining scene, this dinner was bound to be interesting…

(Bad bread...)

Thursday of our reservation, we cabbed up to the stunning Bella Vita (officially my favorite structure in Taipei) and elevatored up to floor number five. The set-up is almost identical to the HK L’Atelier, albeit a tad smaller and a lot emptier.

After being greeted and seated, I eagerly awaited for the waitress to plop down the bread basket. Sad to say - the bread falls far short of Hong Kong’s (a little too “fluffy,” lacking that lovely bit of French rusticity) A shame since the breadbasket is one of my favorite things about Robuchon. Still hopeful, I decided to go with the Menu Club (NT$2680) – after a brief struggle, trying to make sense of the Chinese and French only menu, I made my four-course choices.

(Amuse bouche: citrusy...)

First up was the amuse bouche – a shot glass filled with a tart lemony custard of sorts. It was difficult catching the names and explanations of the dishes with our waitress’s jet-speed mandarin. Moments after downing the amuse bouche, first course arrived at the table in a giant glass bowl. It was a “salad” made with tomato mousse layered with celery jelly and topped off with chilled langoustine. The tart tomato worked beautifully with the grassiness of the celery, creating a Bloody Mary-esque sort of taste. Refreshing.

Salad was followed by La Saint-Jacques – a delicately flavored, creamy turnip velouté adorned with a giant succulent scallop. I was most impressed by the thin round of waxy potato floating on the velouté and the similar round of beetroot that was staining the ivory soup purple. So far so good but no real surprises yet.

("Salad" - Bloody Mary-esque)

(La Saint-Jacques)

The star of the meal revealed itself in the main course, L’Amadai. The fish was prepared à la japonaise, sprinkled with shiso flower buds and Japanese pepper leaves. It had the most amazing crisped skin and the milkiest smooth flesh. In other words – addictive. Of course, it also helped big time that the fish was accompanied by a huge vat of Robuchon’s famed potatoe puree. I am deeply in love with these potatoes and easily polished off every single last spoonful of that buttery, velvety, beautiful beautiful stuff.

Pretty satiated with the savory courses, I opted to go light with dessert. Les Fruits Frais was a summery sweet of grassy green basil sorbet dotted with seasonal fruits. Again – good but no surprises, which seemed to sum up the Taiwan Robuchon experience. It also seemed that the Taipei Robuchon sucked at everything its Hong Kong sister excelled at. Like the breadbasket, the petit four chocolate macarons were, in one word – disappointing. They were soggy and airy without the least bit of crispness and chew. Sad, compared to Nakamura-san’s near-perfect concoctions at Robuchon, HK. Ah well, at least I could satiate my macaron needs at the basement level’s Sadaharu Aoki.

(L'Amadai: Fish done Japanese)

(Potato puree: I LOVE YOU!)

(Les Fruit Frais: Summery)

(Coffee + Macaron = :( )

All in all though, I can’t blame this Taipei branch for the “meh” dining experience. After all, like I said, the city isn’t particularly well-versed in fine-dining and even with all its glitches and disappointments, you could tell they were trying. For one, our waitress forgot to explain the dishes upon arrival – by the time she remembered, we were already up to course number three. But nonetheless, she was friendly and helpful throughout (despite the jet-speed Mandarin). Serious props to sommelier Benoît, who recently joined their team after a brief stint in the U.S (he also happens to have been part of the opening team at Robuchon, HK). Hopefully, he’ll help sort out some of the problems… especially with the bread and macarons.

FOOD: 3.5/5
SERVICE: 3.5/5
ATMOSPHERE: 3.5/5

L’ATELIER DE JOËL ROBUCHON ($$$$$)
5/F, No. 28, Song Ren Road
Taipei City, Taiwan
(886) 2 8729-2628
www.joel-robuchon.net

Le Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon: Go-To-Feel-Good

Somewhere in the year or so that I’ve been back, Le Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon became my HK Island side go-to-feel-good place. The pastries, sandwiches, and the to-die-for coffee bring to mind all those happy times I’ve spent wide-eyed in front of Bouchon Bakery in New York. The fact that it’s housed in the same building as Harvey Nichols, and is right next to The Landmark MO is also automatic brownie points. But more importantly, it’s become my go-to spot because, well, I’m just a poor writer and can’t afford eating in the main Robuchon dining room on most days.

(Macarons: hellooooo there)

After all, who am I to say no to Michelin star winning macarons that go for $8 a pop? Or perfect mousse-topped cakes or crumbly crusted tarts at $30-something? OK fine, their coffee is a bit steep at $40/small paper cup… but their coffee is also five times better than anyone else’s, so I guess it balances out.

It also helps that, aside from the stunning sweets, the Salon does a beautiful selection of eat-in dishes. Not too long ago, over a session of Saturday brunch girly gossip, I sold my soul to the salmon fillet marinated in sake and mirin with miso sauce ($190). The fish was so soft and buttery—a perfect canvas for the Japanese marinade. But what made me love more was the accompanying vat of Robuchon’s famed mashed potato purée. It was rich, velvety and oh-so-buttery. B-e-a-utiful.

(Sake-mirin salmon: sorry for the shaky hands)

(King crab jelly layered with tomato coulis and avocado cream: summer flavored!)

I’ve had a fair share of other stellar eats at the Salon. Another stand-out is the king crab jelly layered with tomato coulis and avocado cream ($90). The smooth, summer-flavored layered mixture paired so well with the tiny croutons floating atop the avocado cream. Cap any Le Salon meal off with a few macarons, a cup of black coffee and there you have ample reason to love the place too.

FOOD: 4.5/5
SERVICE: 4.5/5
ATMOSPHERE: 3.5/5

LE SALON DE THÉ DO JOËL ROBUCHON ($$)
Shop 315, 3/F
The Landmark
16 Des Voeux Road Central
Central
2166-9000
www.robuchon.hk

Union J: Seconds

What the schedule for a good day looks like:

Before 9:30am: Trot over to Salon de The de Joel Robuchon. Pick up big red box of tarts. Grab coffee to go. Head to office.
9:30 – 9:45: Morning chat with I.T.
9:45am-12:45pm: Work work work. Finish column.
1pm: Lunch with some looooovely person. Chat and eat good food.

Well, that was the schedule for last Tuesday at least. The “looooovely person” that day was no other than Tata and the “good food” was provided by the good folks at Union J. We had settled on that lunch spot since a) I hadn’t been in a pretty long time, and b) they had just added a few new things to the menu.

While I don’t remember being blown away last time I was at Union J for lunch, I did fall in love with the space. So open, so clean, sooooo “Noo Yawk.” It seems almost a waste that the restaurant isn’t on street level. I settled on my lunch course-choices over their A-M-AZING sourdough bread. Seriously, Union J bread is in my top 3 in the city (along with Fusion Gourmet and THE Robuchon, of course) so I happily lapped up every crumb of the crusty bread.

(Leafy sesame salad: eat your greens, yo!)

As for my actual lunch, wanting to pretend to be somewhat healthy, I opted to start with the leafy sesame salad. The serving was unexpected ginormous. I did feel very fortified while eating it. Loved the soy vinaigrette and the crunchy edge from the almonds. But was sadly disappointed by the avocados (tasteless, of course, as most avocados so happen to be in Hong Kong) and the oranges (tasteless, of course, as most oranges so happen to be in Hong Kong). They also had that sesame and fried wonton situation going on, which was just a little too “New York Chinatown take on Chinese food” for me.

For my second dish, I went for the crunchy crab cakes with creamy dill-cucumber salad. Oh, this was sooooo much better than the first dish. The crab meat was so delish, made into a soft patty which was then encased by a perfectly seamless, crunchy breadcrumb mixture. Mmmm… the textures… The heaviness of the crab cakes were well-balanced by the tangy dil-cucumber “salad.” It was so beautiful. Much more impressive than the salmon I had the last time I was here.

(Crab cakes: DILL-icious!!)

Near the end of our second dish, Tata introduced me to pastry chef, a.k.a. one of the “J’s”, Jason Casey. And I have to say, his desserts were, without a doubt, the highlight of the meal. The ABC Ice Cream was a happy combo of tangy raspberry and cream cheese sorbet, shortbread and strawberry meringue – the flavors of a strawberry shortbread fitted into a white Chinese takeaway box. Cute. The Cheese Cake with blueberry snow has such a unique and lovely crumbly texture. But the hands-down winner was the Soft Milk Chocolate – a hazelnut and coffee mousse-like cake with olive oil yogurt sorbet. Oh My Gawd… it was nothing short of “ooh”-worthy.

Now wouldn’t you say that that’s what the schedule for a good day looks like?

FOOD: 4/5
SERVICE: 4/5
ATMOSPHERE: 4/5

UNION J ($$$/$$$$)
1/F, California Tower
30-32 D’Aguilar Street
Central
2537-2368

Bitte Bitte: The Virtue of Trying

I had heard the hype about Bitte Bitte before. But, not being a particularly big fan of hotdogs (thanks to too many tasteless, boiled frozen sausages, served dry in a Garden brand hotdog bun during my childhood days), I didn’t think it was something worth noting. That is, until we were told straight up to give this place a try. I figured, as long as I didn’t have to queue up for an hour for a hotdog (à la that RIDICULOUS episode at Pink’s Hotdog, Los Angeles), I’d give Bitte Bitte a shot.

(Alligator MESS!)

We trekked out way behind the Causeway Bay Sogo and found the open-air, shoppe. After perusing the many… and I mean MANY, topping-sausage combinations (six different types of sausages and a myriad of different Japanese-inspired toppings), we settled on the Alligator Bites Dog ($27) with avocado, tomato salsa and mayo.

The dog was actually pretty good. The bun was toasted and was fluffy on the inside. The sausage had a nice taut, pop to it on the first bite, which yielded to a well-seasoned, meaty center. The flavors of the toppings worked well too. Our only complaint though would be that the sausage was pretty much sitting on TOP of the bun, instead of being sandwiched IN it, making the whole thing unbelievably impossible to eat without appearing like the district’s clumsiest and unmannered brute. We had mayo smeared across our faces, bits of avocado dropping all over the table, and a sausage constantly in danger of slipping out of its bun.

(Fries: YUMMMMM)

But to end this on a positive note, the fries are abso-effin’ stellar. So beautifully golden and crisp on the outside, flecked with just the right amount of salt. A bite revealed the fluffiness of the potato.We were so enamored, we asked the staff who their fries suppliers were. They didn’t reveal, of course, answering merely “local suppliers” with an awkward smile. Ah well, at least we tried. And sometimes, trying is the most important part.

FOOD: 4/5
SERVICE: 3.75/5
ATMOSPHERE: 2/5

BITTE BITTE ($)
Shop B&C Hoi Tao Court
15 Cannon Street
Causeway Bay
2777-7220

Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon: Still Like Old Times

When we were young, we used to all sit at Connaught Garden and stay and gossip about all sorts of random stuff over cups of hot coffee and a spread of food. Then the Star Ferry moved somewhere else, the coffee shop people we used to say “Hi” to all left. And we all grew up and moved away.

Back to present day.

Earlier this week, I decided to take full advantage of the beautiful pre-freezing cold weather by deciding to make it “picnic lunch day.” And wanting to relive the lovely days I spent in Central Park with Bouchon Bakery’s delicious goodies in hand, I hopped on a cab to The Landmark (by the way, loving the Christmas décor!) and escalatored up to Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon for my picnic provisions.

(Flakey Almond Croissant)

After perusing the offerings at the salon, I settled for two cups of hot coffee ($40 each), a salmon and dill quiche ($32) and chicken mushroom quiche ($32), an earl grey tea cake ($40), on the friendly server’s recommendation, and a small almond croissant ($17). All to go. They wrapped everything neatly into a beautiful red paper bag and off I was, toting Robuchon goods in one hand, a hot coffee in the other and tottering my way to meet the Nelson at the old spot.

And things haven’t changed. Well, save the time constraint, Kenj being still in Australia, and that Robuchon coffee is about twice as expensive as Starbucks (which is already twice as expensive as any other place). We still mindlessly gossiped about unimportant things which were important to us though, and we still had a good time. As for the food – the quiches had a nice crumbly crust but alas, should have asked them to reheat it (duh, me). But the sweets were so delish. The earl gray cake made us fall in love with it a little, with its delicate sweetness and subtle layering of textures. And my almond croissant? Very flakey on the outside and nutty sweet on the inside. Still can’t compare to that Godsend of a croissant from Bouchon Bakery, NYC though but that REALLY set the bar and this is a close enough second for me. I was happy.

(Earl grey tea cake: our new love)

Too bad they didn’t have too much of a selection left by the time I got there. I was actually aching to try the crabmeat with avocado and tomato confit. And maybe I’ll try the sandwiches next time… or better yet, make a meal out of their pastries and desserts :) Ah well, to be honest though, it’s all about the feeling. It’s about sitting there, being happy, and feeling young again.

(An impromptu picnic)

FOOD: 3.5/5
SERVICE: 4/5
ATMOSPHERE: 4/5

Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon ($$)
Shop 315, 3/F
The Landmark
16 Des Voeux Road Central
Central
2166-9000
www.robuchon.hk