Guy Savoy, Paris (***)

This Guy Savoy's flagship Parisian restaurant dates back to 1980. Priorly being near the Arc de Triomph until 2015 when it moved to its current location in the Monnaie de Paris, the one of 2 locations in France where the national mint is located. The restaurant is quite vast with different connected rooms, 5 of them, all overlooking the river Seine from the left bank though high windows.

Guy Savoy gained two Michelin stars in 1985 and a third followed in 2002. There is a second flagship restaurant with his name in Las Vegas (2 Michelin stars) and 3 more in Paris, Le Chiberta, Les bouquinistes and Atelier maitre Albert. After completing his 3 years long apprenticeship in the Troisgros brothers he opened his own restaurant in New York before moving to Paris. Besides the most coveted accolade, the 3 Michelin stars, the restaurant has also been featured in the Top50 restaurants in the world, as also gained the 1st place in La Liste 2019. La liste takes into account and summarizes rankings and reviews from many guides, locals or not, or websites in one rank. For 2019, Guy Savoy and Le Bernardin took the first place followed by Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athenee.

photo from guy savoy.com

photo from guy savoy.com

The restaurant is located on the second floor with an entrance inside the Monnaie building. All 5 rooms have high ceiling with dark grey wooden walls, grey carpets and charcoal chairs with white fireplaces and perfectly ironed white tablecloths. Despite the dark colours all rooms have natural light from the huge windows. The characteristic Guy Savoy presentation dishes on the other hand are so colourful in contrary to the black and white interior. 

There is a huge wine list, presented in a giant black book with rare vintages of grand cru wines. There even a Chateau d Yquem from 1899. We opted for a glass of Crozes-Hermitage red wine from Domaine Des Hauts Chassis which was pretty good, at 15 euros per glass. 

We started with bread, only of one kind, which was rather dry and overcooked. No butter was offered alongside. Three amuse bouches followed, a foie gras sandwhich, potato scales tart with parsnip cream and last, mushroom, chestnut and milk veloute. All were pretty good. 

Artichoke soup with black truffle, layered mushroom brioche

This is the signature dish of Guy Savoy and one that our waiter recommended to try. The soup consists of artichokes, chicken stock to enhance the flavor, Parmesan cheese and black truffle shavings accompanied by a round layered mushroom brioche and truffle butter which had the texture of chantilly cream. A very good dish with earthy intense flavors and great quality black truffle. After we finished our brioche the waiter came up with a much appreciated additional one saying ''Why not?''. 

Red mullet 'swimming in the sea'.

Another classic dish of Guy Savoy. Two whole roasted big sized red mullets deboned, served with sauteed spinach, squid and mushrooms, the red mullet jus bound with its liver. The mullet was of great quality, skillfully prepared and cooked on time, retaining its texture. The rich liver sauce elevated the dish giving sharpness. 

Five week aged beef paleron and marbled 'basse cote' Wagyu chuck with a seasonal salad

Seared beef shoulder and Wagyu with confit vegetables and a seasonal salad with beef jus vinaigrette, fried spring onions and beef paleron carpaccio. The beef was perfectly cooked in both preparations, the salad was amazing with nice crunchy textures.

Quince and walnuts, maple jus and quince vinegar. walnuts base biscuit, quince in different preparations. Nicely combined, quite refreshing with earthy aromas and a high level of refinement. 

Granny Smith apple with sweet chestnut. Small diced apple with chestnut cream, slices of the fruit and apple shaped cream. 

After dessert we were offered a very interesting pear and pumpkin seeds cream with tea sorbet. There is also a mignardises trolley with riz au lait, macarons, small pastries and fruits. Before leaving while we were waiting for our coats, they offered us a round brioche-croissant with rhubarb jam to take away. A very nice gesture. 

As you might expect the service is flawless, professional, friendly and attentive with huge attention to detail. Monsieur Guy Savoy himself came in the salle to great us and every other guest. I would only suggest that you try to book well in advance. 

Astrance, Paris (***)

It's been many years I wanted to visit L' Astrance in Paris but I always hesitated. The booking process was one of the hardest in the city. You had to call in a specific two hours long period and find one of about 10 tables available for lunch or diner, at least 2 months in advance as there was a permanent waiting list. Luckily nowadays the french website has an email address to contact them. So one and a half months prior to my lunch I sent them an email which they answered promptly and confirmed me a table for 2 for early December. The restaurant was indeed full at the time. 

It all started in 2000 by the head chef Pascal Barbot and the maitre d' Christophe Rohat both working at L'Arpege before creating L'Astrance. They won their first star after only one year in the business, the second came in 2005 and the third in 2007 retained ever since. The restaurant located in a quite street near Trocadero in the 16th arrondissement has a two level salle with a few tables. The minimal modern decor has mainly dark colours with dark grey walls, yellow chairs and perfectly ironed white tablecloths. The cooking is modern french with Japanese influences.

The restaurant open from Tuesday to Friday for lunch and diner has no a la carte menu. You can only choose from 3 different carte blanche set menus. The lunch menu available only for lunch followed by the seasonal menu and the Menu Astance both available for lunch or diner. As it was the white truffle season you could supplement your menu with a little or a lot of white truffle at 80 or 150 euros extra respectively. We chose the lunch menu.

We started with country bread and salted butter. The bread only of one kind was amazing with yeast aromas, nice crust and moist interior with the necessary open crumbs. 

Three amuse bouche followed. An earthy hot consomme, a small tartelette with Parmesan cream and cooked pear and a crispy white almond sandwich with lime cream filling. All were flavorful and skillfully made. 

The wine that the sommelier proposed was from Cotes du Rhone from the Domaine Gramenon. A Grenache full bodied wine  from 2012 with spicy aromas. Great overall, came from a magnum bottle and served by glass at 30 euros per glass. 

The first course was the signature dish of L' Astrance. Foie gras and mushroom tart served with concentrated hazelnut oil and lemon confit puree. Raw finely mandoline sliced button mushrooms alongside green apple slices were carefully placed on layers of foie gras on top of a crispy caramelized extremely thin pastry base. The earthy notes of the mushrooms complimented the fatty foie gras while the acidic lemon puree balanced the flavor. A well thought glorious dish that I will remember for many many years. 

Cod fillet with Japanese rice and beurre blanc with soya sauce was simply stunning. This was in fact one of the tastiest dishes I can recall in any Michelin starred restaurant. Perfect technique in every element and utterly delicious. The cod perfectly cooked with translucent interior, caramelized on top, the rice with lime as good as it can possibly be ( I really have no words to describe it). The purple cauliflower and the beetroot supplemented on the acidity while the soya sauce on the beurre blanc on the saltiness. 

Duck breast from Challans, sour cherry puree, sweet chili pepper and quince made the main dish, accompanied by a second small bowl of duck leg meat, vegetables and a thin toasted slice of bread with duck foie gras spread on top. A very rich dish with a perfectly cooked duck breast and an amazing sauce. 

A pre-dessert followed, described as a restaurant's classic. Sweet chili and lemongrass sorbet. I found this very interesting, as the heat from the chili was strong while the sorbet was inverting this feeling.

The main dessert was a thin caramel multi layer cylinder filled with pears, walnuts , chocolate, and lemon zest Chantilly cream on top. A piece of cognac soaked Perigord truffle was alongside on the dish and a quenelle of perfect coffee ice cream in the bowl. I didn't find the dessert to be in same league with the previous dishes as it was too sweet and quite on the heavy side. 

Fresh fruits, madeleines and jasmine eggnog followed after dessert. 

The service was abundant, attentive and professional working like a Swiss made watch. The value for money is very good, this is the cheapest of all the 3 Michelin starred restaurants in Paris and after visiting most of them I would also say one of the very best. 

Hotel Grande Bretagne, Winter Garden

I m not a brunch fan, in fact I never had brunch until this time. Maybe I am old fashioned, or I am not keen on following the trends but when I saw Hotel Grande Bretagne having brunch on Saturday and Sunday for a limited time, I thought, this is my chance to see what's what.

This emblematic hotel in the Constitution square dating from 1874, is one of my favorite places in Athens. There are 3 restaurants and 4 bars inside including one on the rooftop with Acropolis views. Near the lobby you can also find a pastry shop having pastries from Arnault Lahrer and Evgenios Vardakastanis alongside luxury goods from Brunello Cucinelli. 

We went on Saturday at around 1pm for brunch, or may I say lunch. The executive chef is Asterios Koustoudis and the talented pastry chef Evgenios Vardakastanis.  There is a set brunch menu priced at 42 euros per person, which may be the priciest in the city but also the best value for money. 

We started with a selection of mini breads and viennoiseries. Butter croissants were very good having intense butter flavor, hazelnut praline swirls were great (the best I have ever had) with homemade crunchy praline of the highest quality, that I will remember for years. Mastiha scented sweet bread or as we call it in Greece ''tsoureki'' was very good, the lemon cake was moist and flavorful while the benoitons with Corinthian raisins had nice yeast flavor. This level of quality in a bread basket is hard to find in Greece. There were accompanied by two homemade marmelades of seasonal fruits. We had chestnut and cassis marmalade which was stunning  and quince jam which was also top notch. Chestnut tree honey, fresh local butter and vanilla scented creme patisserie completed the first course. 

Alongside the first course we had coffee and fresh juice. I chose a freddo espresso and the so called ''Green'' juice having celery, spinach, cucumber, lemon and ginger. Intriguing combination but did not work well for me. 

A two course menu with luxury ingredients followed. My appetizer was king crab, avocado, emmer wheat and celery. Refreshing with nice flavors and generously portioned. 

My main dish was organic farm-fresh eggs Benedict with citrus flavored hollandaise sauce and lobster. The eggs cooked on time, the hollandaise sauce having amazing buttery flavor and the lobster a bit firm but succulent and flavorful. The other option was black truffle risotto or soft boiled organic farm-fresh eggs with balik salmon and caviar. 

With our appetizer and main course we had a complimentary glass of Champagne, Veuve Cliquot. 

To finish our brunch we had some excellent pastries and seasonal fruits. A tart with raspberries and amaretto flavoured cream was very good. Fruits (not seasonal as described on the menu) were of high quality, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, pineapple and blueberries. On the lower level, granola biscuits with Greek yogurt and mango-passion fruits jam, hazelnut chocolate cake and choux like in a paris-brest filled with pistachio cream and caramelized pistachios were all stunning. The pistachio choux was one of the finest desserts I had lately. 

 

The salle is stunning with natural light, well spaced tables, nice tablecloths, flowers, Versace china and Sambonet silverware. Service is as you might expect from Grande Bretagne, attentive and professional. Brunch or lunch, it surely is a meal not to be missed.