Eating

Experts' ChoiceEpicure at Le Bristol, Paris, France

 

Credit: The Oetker Collection - Le Bristol Paris

Eric Frechon, one of Paris’ premier chefs, heads up our favorite hotel restaurant, Epicure, at Le Bristol, a charming 18th-century hotel on Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris’ arts and fashion district. The restaurant’s airy, elegant dining room opens onto the hotel gardens. It’s a serene space—and one that’s ideal for experiencing Frechon’s three-Michelin-starred cuisine, which features such globally inspired dishes as breadcrumb-and-almond-crusted mackerel with piquillo peppers, tender, spinach-like tetragon greens, and curry oil; and poularde cooked inside of a pig’s bladder and served in two courses—the breasts in a sauce of vin jaune and pan drippings, crayfish, girolles, and “bonbons” made from the gizzards, and then the legs and thighs with a delicate and refreshing herb salad. Culinary Travel Award panelist and longtime Paris resident Alexander Lobrano says of Frechon: “I admire his ability to be creative and a little elegant while never losing track of the earthiness that is his brilliant signature. Feet on the ground, deeply accomplished, and inquiring, he’s a real cook’s cook.”
See related SAVEUR stories on Paris »

Readers' ChoiceLe Louis XV-Alain Ducasse at Hôtel de Paris, Monte Carlo, Monaco

 

Credit: B. Touillon

Dinner at Le Louis XV is the meal of a lifetime

Monte Carlo is a fairy-tale locale with its grand hotels, exquisite coastlines, and royal sightings; the tiny principality is defined by the word “lavish,” making our readers’ favorite hotel restaurant, the dreamy Le Louis XV at Hôtel de Paris, a natural choice. Alain Ducasse’s three-star monument to haute cuisine is a study in taste and culinary excellence, exuding elegance and opulence. The dining room is bathed in the golden glow of gilded walls, marble, and crystal—a prelude to a meal that is equally ornate. The menu offers outstanding seasonal Mediterranean food that Ducasse calls “essential,” with such house specialties as rockfish gelée, sole with celeriac and lemon confit, and breast of squab from the Alpes de Haute-Provence region, all paired with wines from the 400,000-bottle cellar. Dessert might be gilding the lily, but our readers can’t resist a taste from the spectacular cheese board or even something sweeter, like the chocolate pot with frosted cocoa beans or fresh wild strawberries with mascarpone sorbet. For our readers, dinner at Le Louis XV is the meal of a lifetime—and we would have to agree.