L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon Roppongi Hills Restaurant — Restaurant in Tokyo

Located in Roppongi Hills, L'atellier Joel Robbuchon is very up market. For this meal, everyone in the restaurant sat at the counter. The place is very elegant, but quite soulless as the room was quiet, as though everyone was afraid to have fun. Unlike most restaurants in Japan where the staff go out of their way to entertain and please guests, the staff here were perfunctory at best. Perhaps that's the way it is at fine dining establishments in Japan, but when trying to share how delightful the food was the staff just smiled and nodded, because the food was incredible. Especially the beef cheek. There are three lunch time offers of which we had C, one each from starter, main and dessert. The duck liver ravioli was an incredibly delicate work of art that was overpowered by too much parsley and insufficient duck liver. The broth was too salty for me. In a Japan first, this meal was unfinished. It wasn't good, simply not to my expectation. The beef check seemed to be going down the same road until adding a dollop of mash. Then it was heaven! On its own, the cheek is very succulent but the accompanying sauce is too acidic and salty. However, when combined with the mash, it balances out perfectly and takes on an entirely different personality. It is smooth, flavoursome and manages to accentuate the beef flavours while neutralizing the acidity. Pure bliss. The signature dessert of chocolate and chocolate ice cream was an artwork that didn't match the presentation. It looked beautiful, and tasted great but didn't excel the way it could have. There was nothing wrong with the dish at all, I simply hoped for a more intense chocolate flavor. Still good though. Afterwards, walking through Roppongi we agreed that it was a good meal but we've been more surprised eating at random, pokey restaurants staffed by one person (by our count there were 14 or 16 kitchen staff). We won't be going...

Happened here by accident after shopping. Just a bit peckish when I saw the door to the boulangerie. It was quite late so most of the shelves were almost bare and the cold sandwiches did not appeal. As I walked toward the exit, I saw something beyond a little to the left of the exit. Turns out it was the 1 Michelin ⭐️ casual dining restaurant of Joel Robuchon. Sunday night no reservation, sorry we’re full but if you don’t mind sitting at the bar and showing me the menu confirming I knew what price range to expect (😂😂very well done in a discreet manner), I got seated and given a voluminous napkin.

Service was excellent, English understood and orders taken with little fuss. They had set menus ranging from ¥10,000 for dinner up to 22,500. Lunch started at ¥6000. A bread basket with 2 hard rolls and 2 soft breads was immediately placed before me and while I normally preferred the hard baguette type breads, the soft breads were amazing. One was a brioche like texture shaped in a cone top with round base and the other a twist with black olives. They were generous with the breads and would offer refills. My napkin slipped and a new one discreetly given to me. Then the amazing food started arriving. The pictures attached will give you an idea and I has no issues with taste or texture. Suited perfectly.

This is not the stuffy French fine dining of starched table cloths but more of a brasserie or bistro with 5 star service. When I mentioned it was my birthday, something was scribbled in the sheet behind the bar and lo, when I asked for my check, please wait, we are preparing to sing for you😊And they did complete with a lighted candle and a dish of fruits.

There are now many Joel Robuchon restaurants in Asia and I’ve been to the fine dining ones in Hongkong and Taiwan. This one in Roppongi is the one I liked best. Will...

I come here every year and this is the worst experience I've ever had in the past 8 years. This place has gone from 1 star to (-1) star. The fish main course has a lot of bones, not just one or two, but a lot of bones. The Veal sauce is too salty. The bread butter they gave now is only a thin slice. They used to have good quality butter and presentation(full butter). The decoration flower on the table is dying. They do not serve the 2nd hot bread any more. (This is a disgrace for returning fans of the restaurant like me). They used to explain each course they serve, now they skip the entire presentation. They just leave the plate for us and leave. The dessert is also pathetic. They do not clean the table at all and leave dirty dishes on our table for a long time.

I wonder what's wrong with this place. Do not recommend this place anymore. I don’t know how this could happen to a Michelin 1 Star place, we had a long planned dinner here but is ruined by the level of quality in both food and service. We fly in to Tokyo and meet here for dinner from different part of the world. We are very disappointed. I am very sad to leave this review, since I loved this place so much. We have had a lot of memories here. We were going to leave a 1 star review for this, but the customer service was actually very very good. He recognize the issue in food and refunded part of the meal. The manger customer care deserve a 2 star. I’ll leave this review at 2 star. I just wish the food quality wasn’t so bad. It could easily have been a 1 star experience, if the manager wasn't there to save it.

The butter photo pretty much sums up my experience to this 1-star...