When I think of Joel Robuchon, I think of fine French dining, and more recently, the juggernaut of a culinary legacy he left behind - spanning multiple continents and brands under the Joel Robuchon name. His flagship restaurants, L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, have 12 locations worldwide, holding a collective 15 Michelin stars. Chef Robuchon’s career spanned nearly 60 years, during which he opened over 20 restaurants across three continents and amassed a record 31 Michelin stars at his peak, making him the most decorated chef in Michelin history.
Chef Robuchon entered the restaurant industry at age 15 as an apprentice pastry chef at the Relais de Poitiers hotel. Progressing through the traditional French chef brigade system, by age 29, he had risen to head chef at the Concorde Lafayette hotel in Paris, where he managed a team of 90 cooks and oversaw thousands of meals daily. At the height of his success in 1995, Robuchon retired to focus on mentoring the next generation of chefs, but returned in 2003 with the innovative L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon concept, opening locations in Paris and Tokyo. Inspired by Japanese sushi counters and Spanish tapas bars, these restaurants featured open kitchens, counter seating and black-jacketed chefs for a theatrical vibe.
Robuchon was renowned for signature dishes that elevated simple ingredients, such as his legendary pommes purée (mashed potatoes with a 2:1 potato-to-butter ratio, tested across 22 varieties for perfection), caviar with cauliflower cream, lobster jelly and crème brûlée. He rebelled against traditional heavy French cooking, focusing on natural flavors and never combining more than three in a dish, believing “the simpler the food, the more exceptional it can be.”
Chef Robuchon passed away in 2018 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. His legacy lies in revolutionizing modern French gastronomy by blending precision, simplicity, and innovation, influencing global fine dining through his emphasis on high-quality ingredients, humility, and rigor. He mentored countless chefs, including stars like Eric Ripert and Gordon Ramsay, who credit him with instilling dedication, timing, finesse, and a pursuit of perfection.
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon first opened in Hong Kong in 2006, three years after the inaugural locations in Paris and Tokyo. It quickly became a landmark, earning three Michelin stars by 2009. The restaurant upheld Robuchon’s legacy of simplicity, excellence, and consistency after his death in 2018, drawing on his philosophy of elevating everyday ingredients through flawless technique.
It temporarily closed in late 2024 for relocation to a larger space and reopened in 2025 retaining the iconic red-and-black decor, open kitchen, and focus on seasonal, high-quality ingredients while honoring Robuchon’s core values. The reopening emphasized timeless French elegance with updated dishes, maintaining its three-star status.
The current executive chef is Chef Julien Tongourian, who oversees operations and menu development. He previously held executive roles at other Robuchon venues, including the three-starred Robuchon au Dôme in Macau, and brings a global perspective influenced by Robuchon’s mentorship, focusing on precision and innovation within classic French frameworks.
The new, refreshed space really took things to an industrial scale. Entering the dining hall past rows and rows of fine wine and plenty of private dining rooms around the edges of the restaurant. The main dining area had 31 counter seats surrounding a massive open show kitchen. As it turned out, we arrived only two weeks after the reopen, and the staff was still getting used to the space.
Of course, if we were going to a Joel Robuchon restaurant, we wanted the greatest hits, so we went with the tasting menu. Surprisingly there was a very extensive a la carte menu available as well.
Our reservation was pretty late at night and we were already pretty hungry. Luckily, a bread basket came almost immediately after we ordered. A variety of breads, all freshly baked in house.
The bacon bread is Robuchon classic and was particularly memorable - sweet, salty, scored and folded in an intricate design.
The Amuse bouche featured uni on top of a coffee flavoured parmesan biscuit, a translucent lard jelly adding to the richness, and topped with a bit of gold flake. Served in a vessel of dry ice with water poured on it, creating a misty cloud for presentation points.
The tasting menu take on the famous caviar and lobster jelly and cauliflower cream dish, intricately dotted with spinach jelly. Concentrated lobster flavour, with hits of brininess from the caviar and rich nutty earthiness from the cauliflower.
The next course was a single overstuffed scampi ravioli with black truffle coated in a rich foie gras sauce on a bed of shredded green cabbage.
A neat dish I haven’t seen before - a rice cake, browned on both sides, with a pan fried egg topped with chanterelle mushrooms and iberico ham. I’m always a fan of chanterelles when they appear, and the rich yolk soaking into the crispy rice cake was a great accompaniment.
Moving along in the seafood courses, a pan seared Hokkaido scallop with green curry and coriander sauce alongside a coconut foam.
Finishing off the seafood dishes, a blue lobster tail, with green peas, in spicy bisque sauce style “boullabaisse” and fennel foam, topped with a squid ink chip. Perfectly cooked, explosion of flavour. Really big hit.
Getting to the main, another iconic Robuchon dish, the wagyu beef “rossini”, a perfectly medium-rare beef tenderloin pressed with a generous slice of foie gras in a 2/3, 1/3 ratio, drizzled with a sweet port wine reduction.
On the side, a well-seasoned side salad, acid cutting into the richness of the beef and foie gras, and Joel Robuchon’s legendary mashed potatoes - maintaining that 1/3, 2/3 ratio, it’s two parts potato, one part butter, and 100% artery clogging goodness.
A cup of ginseng-infused beef consommé to compliment the main course.
Given the choice between two 1994 ports - a Fonseca and a Taylor, I decided to go with what I knew, and went with the Taylor. A bright ruby red, compared to the tawnies than I usually prefer, but great nonetheless.
The pre-dessert came with a raspberry mousse with rosella ice cream, with an Armanac jelly.
The dessert was a coffee sponge cake, dusted with coffee grain with baileys, a coffee ice cream on chocolate sable crumble served on a disc of espresso jelly.
Finally, an assortment of colourful petit four - pistachio macaroons, passionfruit jellies, and classic French financiers.
Overall, the feeling I get from each L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon is “same same”. They play it safe with the classics - there isn’t much innovation or experimentation going on here, just cranking out the tried and true classics on an industrial scale. You’re not going to get interesting new flavour combinations or experiential dining here - same iconic dishes, tiny variations on the same dishes. It’s not to say the food it bad - everything they do is generally well-executed, it’s just very blah. Once you’ve hit one, you’ve pretty much hit them all. It almost feels like the McDonald’s of fine dining - whichever L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon you visit around the world, you’ll have a pretty similar bland experience.
Total damage 7700 HKD/2 people
100% agree.
Went to the miami location recently which is 2 stars but very similar.
There were some great flavors and excellently prepared seafood specially.
But the plates totally blurred into each other.
And they felt like more refined versions of staples I've already had or can expect to have from fine dining.
Despite the great food objectively, felt disappointed.
And one of our two desserts was even not good in an expected way for fine dining: deconstructed, and every flavor on earth except sweet lol. (In miami dining desserts have to be either centuries classics or salty/bitter/acidic and no sugar)
The potatoes did absolutely kill me.
Now that I'm back in mexico, even a $10 family shop absolutely explodes my conception flavor. Going to MX right after L'atelier really highlighted my empty feeling above.