Enough Fine Dining – L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon

Here in Paris the good eating continues.

Monday night we went to dinner at the original Joel Robuchon restaurant in the 7th arrondissement, literally across from where we rented an apartment on the rue du Bac in April 2005.

We went with visiting friend Ed Roberto and Parisian Marc Goldberg from Bryan Garnier.

We've been there at least once before in some year with some friends, but all these amazing restaurants are starting to blur a bit in my memory, perhaps because my brain is packed in butter after all of these July meals.

Joanne Wilson blogged here about their recent visit.

These photos are courtesy of Brad Feld and his magically working iPhone:

The open kitchen:

Our very friendly waiters displaying the wine, a Côte-Rôtie chosen by Marc:

Close up of the front of the wine bottle:

Close up of the back of the wine bottle (in case you couldn't guess):

My beautiful tomato appetizer – I love tomatoes, and the little violet flowers are such a nice contrasting color:

Brad's seafood appetizer:

Ed's appetizer of lobster ravioli with black truffles and green cabbage:

Brad's second appetizer of lobster ravioli with black truffles and green cabbage:

My second appetizer of an egg cooked slowly in a light morel mushroom sauce with a sprinkle of cumin on top:

And a series of terrifying photos, beginning with sweetbread appetizer for Marc:

Appetizer portion of Iberian ham for Ed:

Main course of an entire fish for Brad – look at those fishy eyes. Bleah:

And after eating all the good parts, look at the fishy eyes. Bleah:

A bunch of beef, with and without knife piercing:

And then a porringer of ambrosia – also known as mashed potatoes, but truly a butter transport mechanism. Yum!

The cheese course – the chevre on the left was melting and just perfect, and the Reblochon on the right was just right:

The cheese was served with toasted bread that contained hazelnuts and raisins, which was a wonderful complement:

Baba au rhum for Ed and Marc:

An outstanding coffee sabayon custard dessert for me, with a surprising layer of Greek yogurt with lemon zest, which made a crisp contrast to the richness of the coffee. Extra yum.

A truly beautiful chocolate dessert for Brad – named Le Chocolat Tendance and described on the menu as "onctueuse," which is translated as smooth, unctuous, suave, oily; which makes me laugh, since unctuous actually means excessively smooth in English – which isn't possible for chocolate. It also has Oreo crumbs on top and cocoa ice cream. And photographs beautifully: