L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon

Looking for a classy and indulgent meal without breaking the bank? Look no further. Joel Robuchon Restaurant and L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, in Resorts World Sentosa Singapore, are bringing back their weekend lunch with a brand new French haute menu with an extensive selection of dishes for you to choose and customize your experience from. Diners can select a 3 to 5 course menu priced at an amazing $ 48 onwards at the Atelier and $ 78 at JR.
We were in for an immersive dining experience, right from the comfort of our bar seats which gave us a bird’s eye view of every action that happened in the open kitchen. The Spanish tapas bar dining experience was certainly more relaxing and fun than its classy sister next door but the food served was nowhere sub-​par.
Our 4 course menu ($ 68) consisted of an amuse bouche, 2 appetizers, 1 main course, 1 dessert, and concludes with coffee and petit fours. A foie gras custard with port wine and cheese was served shortly after we were seated and it was a tangy rich start to our meal.
The breads are baked in house and i loved that salty and crusty baguette which i generously smeared with the excellent salted French butter.
From the cold appetizers, we had the LE FOIE GRAS, which consisted of buttery rolls of foie gras shavings that melted in our mouths, giving way to a tangy calamansi jelly and then balanced with the light daikon purée. Loved this one.
S had the LE SAUMON, a slightly smoked salmon, seasoned with a hint of mustard (or perhaps wasabi).
Next from the hot appetizers. S preferred my L’ASPERGE, a grilled white asparagus with light Parmesan butter sauce and Parma ham. I thought the asparagus was a little overcooked and could do with a bit more crunch.
My preference was for the L’EPINARD, a light spinach veloute, thickened by the soft poached egg and creamy «comte» cheese mousseline. This was a mix of umami in my opinion but i guess S is not a green food fan.
With 7 mains to choose from, one would be spoiled for choice. For something light, the Cod Confit in dashi broth comes recommended. I was also undecided on the Seafood spaghetti with basil and fresh tomatoes. But well, i’m a carnivore and hence…
The LE BOEOEUF (Suppl. $ 13), a glazed beef cheeks «Burgundy style» wrapped in cannelloni, and cumin carrots. I’m huge on savory notes in my dishes but even this i couldn’t take. I thought it was way salty for me in fact but that cannelloni was superb.
We loved the LE PORC (Suppl. $ 6) a grilled and then caramelised Iberique pork pluma. Tender meat flavored with herbs and citrus.
Worthy of a mention is the creamy and velvety pommes purée that came with our mains. We wiped the dish clean.
To end the meal, have some cheese (suppl. $ 11) and then go for the desserts. I highly recommend the Le Chocolat which was a crunchy mix of dulcey mousse, vanilla crumble and chocolate ice cream.
The LE PARFUM DES ILES is a signature (apparently) and would suffice if you prefer an icy refreshing end. This passionfruit and rum granita had all the citrusy pops and wasn’t too sweet.
We enjoyed our lunch at L’Atelier Joel Robuchon and would certainly be making a trip back. Their lunch deals are too good to be missed really.

Very good. Would I go again? Probably not, but not for the reasons expected.
I have tried L’Atelier before but in Vegas and it was a laughably bad experience. They gave a fellow diner/​BFF at the table, a super allergic (five minutes from death) tree nut person (after telling the server multiple times about said allergy) nuts, a nut encrusted entrée in fact. That night ended, thankfully, death-​free but ended any further talk of spending $ 250 per person at a Robuchon establishment.
However, I decided to give it a go in Singapore as the man himself, Joel Robuchon, was going to be in Singapore «in March» (so specific).
Anyway, we got ourselves a seat at one of bar seats. Mr. Robuchon was in attendance as were his staff flown in from Paris so we got served by the head of his worldwide restaurant empire. How’s that for service? Pretty damn good.
We got two tasting menus (SGD 68 and 98) so we got to try and lot of different plates. Our favourites were the white asparagus (delicious!) and the steak with the awesome Robuchon mashed potatoes that are all butter. We also had a special terrine which was probably terrific but I have not yet met a terrine that I have liked as I am not posh enough.
After the heads of Robuchon left, the cheese plate arrived. We had to ask three people what cheese was on the plate as our server did not know or the other server that he asked. That was pretty bad service to say the least as that question should be easily answered in a supposed ⁴⁄₅ star restaurant. That’s the reason that a four star experience went down to three.
Anyway, with the cost of the meal with wine ($ 400), I would probably not go back even though it was a nice meal overall.

I’m not sure if my expectations were too high but this somehow did not meet it. I compare it with restaurants of the same reputation: French Laundry, Per Se, Daniel, Le Bec Fin, etc.
The dishes themselves were not in a mind-​blowing level as compared to the other restaurants. I thought it lacked creativity — I read reviews and folks raved the appetizer with eggs and it just turned out to be deviled eggs.
The service staff need some more training as well — I ordered the beef tongue and she asked me how I wanted it done — hmmm — you don’t do beef tongue as medium or well done. Anyway, I’m not sure I will come back to this restaurant…

I’m admittedly a little surprised to discover that L’Atelier hasn’t been reviewed, but I’m always happy to rack up a ‘First to Review’ achievement!
I went on a Friday evening, and the restaurant (meaning here, not the place across the hall that’s named Joël Robuchon Restaurant) was pretty packed. I’d never have expected it to matter, but it definitely did because the wait times for food weren’t quite up to standard. We were generally well attended to, wait staff were on hand if you needed assistance, but this is the more ‘casual’ dining outlet, and it showed. I had to pick up a dropped napkin myself (bit of a pain when perched on bar seats), but nothing else of note.
It took… at least fifteen or twenty minutes before our amuse-​bouche were served. It might have been longer or slightly less, I admittedly wasn’t keeping track. The fact that we all stopped at one moment and commented that food was taking a while though was significant. There was also a noticeable gap between the amuse-​bouche and the first course, though the pacing got better once we began eating the courses proper. We were given an excellent bread basket while waiting, but we were conscious not to over indulge.
The amuse-​bouche was excellent. Fois gras custard with red Porto wine and parmesan foam, this was rich, creamy, sweet, savoury, light, all at the same time. The flavours from the three different components came together beautifully, and for me, this was actually the best thing I ate all evening. The second course of Light carrot mousse topped with sea urchin and jellied consommé was also delicious (and the second best thing I had). The urchin was (as expected) very fresh, and though I found the croutons in the mousse a little overpowering in terms of flavour, it was definitely an enjoyable dish.
Things generally went downhill from there. Not downhill «bad», but definitely not amazing, memorable, or eye-​opening. Which one would hope for, dining at a restaurant that bears the name of the chef with the most Michelin stars in the world.
Next were «Scallops cooked on the plancha with green apple and Jerusalem artichoke». This is a slightly misleading name, because it’s one scallop (and personally I was always taught to say Scallop if you’re just going to say one when writing a menu). It was cooked well enough, but the I’ve had better scallop dishes. Indeed, that was the unfortunate recurrent theme through the evening. «Good, but I’ve had better.»
I’ll run through the dishes just to be thorough. After Le Saint Jacques, we had the Steamed Lobster ragout, mushrooms, and snow peas server in bisque. The bisque was… good, but (again) I’ve had better. The snow peas were an absolute revelation though! Crunchy, sweet, and juicy, they were bursts of bright flavour in the robust bisque.
My companion loved Le Foie Gras which was served next. I found the concept of the dish a bit… lacking. Seared duck foie gras with quince apples, it’s served as a tranche of foie gras, a cooked quince apple wedge, and a little apple purée. Not much in way of saucing, which I suppose is a fair decision, though I would have preferred some way of binding the plate’s different elements together.
This was followed by the Dover sole cooked on the bone, pistachio oil. I know it says ‘cooked on the bone’, but neither I nor my dining companions were actually prepared for the amount of bones we had to pick through. It was tasty… but forgettable.
For my main I chose the Quail caramelised with foie gras and truffled mashed potatoes. Truffled mash potatoes? Joël Robuchon mashed potatoes specifically? AMAZING. They also served a side of the signature mashed potatoes (technically more a potato purée) as a side. I finished it ALL, in addition to the thigh of the guinea fowl one of my companions couldn’t finish. The quail was delicately cooked and well marinated, the foie gras stuffed into the breast was a nice touch that prevented the meat from even flirting with the word ‘dry’.
Dessert was first a French take on our local favourie, the Red Rubies dessert, replete with water chestnut pearls, and elevated with a coconut granite (overall: interesting but unspectacular), and followed by a Creamy araguani chocolate with cacao sorbet and oreo cookie. This was delicious. The cacao sherbet was a perfect balance to everything else. Bitter and chocolatey more than sweet, this wasn’t in the slightest way cloying. I actually ate another companion’s share because he was too full to proceed.
After the meal, what impressed me the most was that I wasn’t overly full. Everything had been perfectly portioned so that after finishing the menu I wasn’t uncomfortably bloated or painfully full. I was full, and sated. I wasn’t ‘disappointed’ with the standard either. Food was generally of a high standard, and fairly reasonably priced. 9 courses (not including the amuse bouche of course, but counting both desserts) was a fair $ 260. Pricey, but good value I feel.