Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athenee, Paris (***)

Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athenee is the main gastronomical restaurant of the homonym hotel, while also Ducasse's flagship in Paris. It currently holds 3 Michelin stars. 

Plaza Athenee the palatial hotel opened in 1913 in the Golden triangle,( the neighborhood inside the 3 top Parisian Avenue, The Champs Elysees, George V and Montaigne,  now being one of the best hotels in Paris. There are several restaurants and bars inside the hotel, all under Alain Ducasse's oversee. There is Le Relais Plaza, La Galerie, Le Cour Jardin, le bar du Plaza Athenee and La Terasse Montaigne. 

Until its closure for renovation the chef de cuisine was Christophe Saintagne now working at Le Meurice, the other Parisian Hotel under Ducasse. The restaurant reopened in September 2014 getting 2 Michelin stars immediately after and a third one in 2016. The head chef now is Romain Meder, with a new approach to fine dining, based in the trilogy of fish-cereal-vegetables. 

The dining room designed by Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku, a marriage between the classical and the ultra modern, is jaw dropping. 

The restaurant is open for lunch from Tuesday to Friday and dinner from Monday to Friday. Breakfast is served either in La Galerie or the main dining room of Plaza Athenee in weekdays and weekends and that's what we went for. 

For breakfast there are 3 set menus available and the a la carte option. The first, Le Continental, set menu includes , fresh fruit juice, hot drinks, bread, viennoiseries, honey, jams and praline with Bordier butter. L'Americain has also an eggs dish, yogurt and cereal or fruit salad with a supplement of 8 euros. Then there is Le Plaza menu with Champagne, smoked salmon and hamon iberico bellota.

Croissant, pain au chocolat, raspberry brioche, hazelnut chocolate brioche, Viennese bread, country bread, fruit bread, baguette and kouign amann. 

Fluffy croissant.  

Hot chocolate from la manufacture Alain Ducasse. A whole carafe of hot chocolate arrived at our table and an additional one with milk to add to our taste.   

Jams, marmalade, honey and chocolate praline spread from la manufacture Alain Ducasse. 

Eggs can be plain or garnished, scrabbled, sunny side up, omelette, soft boiled or poached. With an 8 euro supplement we went for Eggs Benedict. They were made with ham or smoked salmon and black truffle. 

After the hollandaise was added. 

Cereal, strawberry yogurt and M.Bordier butter.