La Tour d'Argent — Restaurant in Paris

Second time to visit this "institution" in Paris.

For sure, I cannot deny that the view over Paris is fantastic. The place is impressive, and they did amazing with the renovation works. It looks nice inside, rather warm, and more modern. The whole service is well organized and professional, this looks like a perfectly streamlined and automated industrial organization. However, people are cold, don't show much sympathy or any smile.

The lunch menu now goes for 360€, which is very high and makes it poor value for money. Food is tasty and classic but for this price, one can expect more elaborate, complex and refined dishes.

The wine experience has shifted from terrible (last time) to...terrible this time. Of course, the impressive bible is full of promises. It takes solid hands and arms to go through only 10% of it, and it represents every wine lover's dream. Fantastic cellar, virtually speaking. The reality is very different. Prices have simply skyrocketted, everything is now more or less out of reach and this is an absolute pity. Very easy to finance the room revamping: put it all on the wines and food without changing anything.

The bottle of white we took was the same as the previous two when we visited in 2019: oxidized. I suspect this cellar to have a sincere problem. Poor storage conditions? Hard to know. The bottle came with the cork showing a bump under the cap, which is a very negative signal, but the sommelier went ahead and quickly opened it even without asking. Heat shock is usually the reason for this. Indeed, after removing the cap, the cork was out of the bottle neck by a few millimeters. The sommelier performed a perfect massacre with the cork and laughed about being called "Miss broken cork". How can we even get that in this kind of restaurants? The wine was dull and without life. I have had this exact wine twice recently and this was by far the worst bottle. Could not say a word before the sommelier disappeared when I confirmed it was not corked. Not a word after this, just came for refueling and vasnished immediately after. Totally crazy to sell faulty bottles for 850€, when this cost probably 30€ in the past.

The restaurant is cleverly rejecting its fault with the beautiful first page that I have attached to this review, following many, many problems with the wines. Several of my friends in the wine scene shared similar experiences. I cannot understand this. It takes to be well aware of the issue to print such declaration. I can tell this isn't a problem of personal taste, but something wrong with probably many bottles from this cellar.

Half of the room was tourists from Asia. People just don't know and are not educated to face this. I am still surprised by the recent good comments. I like simple things without complications, not pretending to be anyone or asking for the impossible. Based on this statement, the experience was honestly poor and made me very upset, I haven't been in such a bad mood for many years after visiting a restaurant. This is an honest review and I do not have anything personal against someone.

This is still not worth a 1 out of 5, for the good cuisine execution and beautiful place. But seriously, for this price, I can only think of better everywhere in Paris.

Twice, but never...

I don't like to leave negative reviews, but this place was quite disappointing for what it's supposed to be. The service especially was a let down. We came in for lunch (took way too long, nearly 3 hours) mid-week and it was pretty quiet with about 6 or 7 tables occupied by a combination of groups who appeared to be both local and tourists. This is a Michelin star restaurant, and it was by far the weakest of the ones we visited in Paris, and one of the weakest I have been to.

Positives... Yes, the place is famous. Yes, on a clear day the views are awesome. It has an open kitchen, which is cool to look at if you sit in a good spot. But that is sort of where it ends.

Negatives.. There was a bone in my fish. Yes it was small, no it didn't disrupt my meal too much, but I can't remember having a bone in a fish in any fine dining restaurant. Otherwise the food was good, but nothing extraordinary or exceptional that I would expect from a restaurant of this caliber. There is definitely a certain structure to their service, and this is where most of my critiques come from. There appeared to be two captains and a number of support servers. One of the support servers was very friendly and she talked to us a few times explaining the restaurant's approach and individual dishes. The sommelier was friendly enough, but came by the table a few times even after we said we were not drinking, which was annoying. The overall service was very formal and stiff, which some might appreciate, but on the whole not good, a few notes about this next: Let's start with the water. It is served in metal cups that you can't see if they are full or not, and the pitcher is placed at the edge of the table where only the server can get it. On a couple of occasions I ran out of water and had to get the waiter to refill. On our table and at least one other, despite the formalities and pretense, they put the wrong plates in front of people. We had to shuffle our duck plates as did the table next to use, because they had the wrong doneness levels. At the start of the meal they said they would check to see if we wanted a cheese course or their famous crepe. When we got to that part of the meal, the waiter just wheeled the cheese cart and assumed we were getting cheese, which we didn't want, but never asked if we wanted the crepe. The service was also overlong. This was lunch, and the service took longer than any dinner we had in Paris. We saw some people leaving from other tables before their meals were done.

Some of this may be nitpicking, but taken together this was disappointing, especially in a city with so many better options. Overall it feels more like a tourist attraction than a high...

We went on a Tuesday night to try their famous canard a la presse which has been eponymously named after the original owner Frederic Delair. The original billing of the dish has the waiter expertly skin then slice the breast meat after removing the legs and thighs. This they did with deft expertise. However that is where the spectacle ends. Originally the duck press (an impressive silver instrument made specifically for crushing out the blood from the carcass from which to make the blood sauce) all now happens in the kitchen instead of table side. The blood is then mixed with stock, madeira and cognac to make a frankly under seasoned gamey sauce, again formerly done table side using the blood's proteins to create the thick and luxurious sauce. Instead you now realise that you are on a conveyor belt. The industrialisation of the process making it more efficient but less impressive. What we now have is a duckling finely roasted and shown to the guests. It is then skinned and sliced in the air (découper en l'air). This is where it ends. The carcass legs and thin slices of breast meat are then whisked away and returned from the kitchen prepared in two courses. First the sliced breast meat and the thick blood sauce followed by the roast thigh and legs, deboned and reformed into little rectangles on the plate. It's not the same bird. Don't get me wrong the breast meat most likely is but the roasted thighs are not. Which makes the handing out of little cards indicating it is the 1 millionth and something duck since 1870, a bit of a joke. It's all fine food but to deny the guests the splendor of what once was and then have the audacity to name it after the original owner who I am sure would be spinning in his grave at how mechanised the process has become, feels a tad richer than their sauce. The entire restaurant is trying to be fancier than it needs to be in order to justify their costs. There is a beauty and tradition to what they could do but choose not to. It has history, magnificent views, and dedicated personnel and would be worth it just for that. But I can't help but feel that sometime in the 1980s perhaps someone decided that the modern scene needed a modern twist. Alas that is where they seem to have stopped and that is the overwhelming feeling of the entire experience, which has become rather dated. Caught in the worst indulgences of a 1980s cheap trick. I really do want them to do better and to be better by embracing their past. Show us the full fantastic invention of how to take an undercooked bird and turn it into a magnificent dining experience. Stop the mechanisation and show us what your personal can really do to honour such a...