Review by Dennis Broadfield - visited 20th of May 2008

The generosity of some of Totally Riviera’s clients can be quite astounding at times. A last minute invitation to the eponymous Joel Robuchon restaurant at the Hotel Metropole in Monaco was always going to be an adventure and a serious treat - and a very generous thank you from a client.

Joel Robuchon is a one-man industry in the French restaurant business where he built his name gathering Michelin stars like confetti at a wedding. He now owns restaurants in Paris, Monaco, London, Hong Kong, Las Vegas and Tokyo. Many of them have Michelin stars - in fact across his restaurant empire he has collected 17 stars, the most of any chef in the world.

The Monaco restaurant has great ambience - just entering the room is seductive and special and needless to say the service is extraordinary. It’s no wonder that this venue has quickly become a landmark for the international elite who stay or live in the Principality.

Our party of four skipped the usual aperitifs and went straight for the wine - a wonderful and affordable Saint Emilion Grand Cru 2000 Chateau Quinault. Like silken chocolate with a little acid bite at the end it turned out to be the perfect wine for the meal we where about to dispatch with unseemly haste and greediness. (we ended up finishing off four bottles)

The menu is a little confusing when you first cast your eyes over it. There is a tasting menu on a second card of about 9 courses but it doesn’t leave you any leeway to experiment or order something you really want.

The host of the evening was a seasoned veteran in this restaurant and suggested a number of the tasting entrees to start and then a tasting main course. This turned out to be an inspired way to eat.The tasting entrees were small but perfectly formed. I had a tiny bowl of chanterelle mushrooms that had been poached in a light vegetable broth and finished off with a dash of crème and about 6 al-dente pasta shells. A strong perfectly seasoned bowl of competing textures - gone in two mouthfuls but it hit every taste bud on the way down.

This was followed with part boned frogs legs, lighted dusted with breadcrumbs and deep-fried, served with a light garlic mayonnaise. Sadly at this stage I was not taking much notice of what my colleagues were devouring - but the delighted and very visceral grunts from the other side of the table spoke volumes.

For main course the four of us chose only two dishes - a special of the day called “a confit d’agneau” and myself and another of our party decided on the “veal chop”. Now this does sound underwhelming until you have a chop the Robuchon way.

Surprisingly for a restaurant at the high end of the food chain that feeds the skinny, gamine men and women of Monaco – this chop was huge. None of this ridiculous “bash it into a half a centimeter wafer and call it a delicacy” rubbish here. This was about 3 centimeters thick and the size of a Monaco resident’s bank account.

It was a superlative piece of meat cooked to perfection with a tiny strip of pinkness at the heart of this massive tranche. Served simply with a rich unctuous reduction of meat juices with mashed potato on the side – it was simply and perfect.

We hear it all the time now from wannabe chefs, “buy the best ingredients, respect the produce and treat it simply” Easier said than done - but here it was in front of me, a perfect and simple executed dish of great flavor - a chop, a little jus and that was it. God it was sublime.

On the other hand we come to the mashed potato, or puree as they call it here. This I’m reliably told is the Robuchon speciality that he serves in all his restaurants, but here he broke the golden rule of leaving well alone. It was so finely mashed, so finely blended, with cream and butter and under seasoned that when it was delivered to the plate it was like a perfectly smooth white slurry, and not surprisingly it had no flavour.

But this is a mere quibble.

I am an unapologetic carnivore and have tasted the best the beast can offer from all over the world - and I’ve got to say this meal, with the service and the ambience is in my top ten restaurant meals of all time.

As the host was paying I didn’t get to see the bill, but roughly I’m guessing it was around 1,200 euros for the four of us, most of that down to the wine. Not a place for everyday eating but a great treat once in a while.