Michael's review of L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

Not sure about this place. Its good French food meets retro 70's disco.

If at the end of my meal we are asked if we would like to take coffee in the bar I would invariably say yes. I know that from their perspective its an early opportunity to get the table back into play but its not a problem. This particular punter though is a chubby 65 and looks it! They would have known when making the suggestion that the lift to the said fourth floor bar was out of order.

So when I got there and recovered sufficiently to check the place out I saw that I was sitting almost in the corridor down which I had just puffed my way, the bar being full. We had some how become disconnected from our coffee and I briefly though of making a run for it – I couldn't decide whether it was height above sea level or the noise of the pop music that was making my ears bleed. The occasional waitress emerged from the blackness and seemed to sense that we were not rich pickings and dissolved back into the gloom. The coffee arrived, we drank, paid the £270 bill for the four of us on the pre theatre menu, (OK two bottles of wine) and made our way out into the night.

Going back – probably not.