Le Relais Plaza

Le Relais Plaza Restaurant Review:

LE RELAIS PLAZA HAS REOPENED. CHECK BACK TO READ OUR REVIEW OF ITS NEW INCARNATION. Nestled in one of the most beautiful city hotels, Le Relais Plaza is the more casual dining experience of the Hôtel Plaza Athénée. A Parisian institution since 1936, run for many years by always-smiling Werner Küchler, who knows who is who, and helped by maître d’ Pascal Sadier, who has also seen the parade of luminaries, this Art Deco restaurant is always busy serving a chic clientele. Celebrities are spotted daily. They enjoy --- as do we --- the sophisticated and intimate atmosphere created by authentic pictures of the 30s, the wall lights in brass and frosted glass, the red carpet, the curtains and blinds, and the pure lines of the chairs. Old-timers feel they are in a first-class dining room aboard a 30s-era ocean liner. This is a bastion of fine dining, which expresses itself in a beautifully served, lightly panned sole meunière and in a generous escalope viennoise with coquillette pasta and truffles or a perfect calf’s liver in an onion juice with mashed potatoes --- all standards prepared with great care by Philippe Marc. Chic bistro dishes are also presented, such as a tomato-mozzarella tart, a crab curry salad or tuna tartare for appetizers, followed by clam risotto, turbot on a bed of celery with truffles or a grilled rack of lamb. But this very classical menu has been discreetly rejuvenated with the recommendations of Alain Ducasse (whose even more chic gourmet restaurant is located on the other side of the hotel) and is matched with a beautiful wine list. Dessert-wise, the baba au rhum is a monument of Le Relais, but the novelty in the sweets shows in the artistically designed l’Oréade, a delicate combination of raspberries and chocolate, that won the pastry world cup. The good news is that you can enjoy the charm of Le Relais without breaking the bank, with a prix-fixe set at € 48.