Joel Robuchon, Tokyo
Restaurant Joel Robuchon is located in the Loire-inspired Yebisu Garden Palace in Ebisu within a grand 4-story chateau renovated by a local Japanese designer with a lower-level patisserie where those croissants mentioned below are found, as well street-level La Table with ala carte and small-plate meals that was recently anointed with it’s own Michelin star.
Located on the second level like a prelude to the neighboring restaurant, Rouge Bar offers a stylish hangout for pre-and-post dining with cocktail scene of its own many nights. The Restaurant lives up to all visual expectations, the grandest room in the house cast in a color palette of champagne and gold with Baccarat chandeliers and crystals embedded in the walls of one of Japan’s most awarded dining room and perhaps one of the world’s best French food experiences.
Open for lunch and dinner, many neglect to remember that Lunch in Japan often costs a fraction of dinnertime prices. Four prix fixes menu options include a culinary bevy of Breton Lobster, caviar jelly with cauliflower cream and Japanese influenced dishes like crisp and tender chocolate on a bed of candied apricot marmalade with yuzu cream. Guests should prepare for 180-minute food affair that often linger well past the last seating of 9:30pm.
Some might call it blasphemy, but it’s not uncommon to hear even French visitor raving about the quality of French cuisine from croissants to full-on 3-star Michelin meals usurping those found even in Paris.
Elite.
