Anyone visited either of these institutions recently?
If you are interested in the history of French cuisine then do not pass go and go to Paul Bocuse especially while he is still alive. You have the chance to experience dishes made famous by Bocuse and his predecessors like nowhere else. Just don’t expect it to be a modern experience or luxurious in the sense of a three star degustation. I don’t think recent experience really matters - this restaurant has been doing exactly the same thing for decades. I think that people who criticise Bocuse really miss the point, it does not try in anyway to meet modern expectations of food style. The first time that I went to Bocuse I did not appreciate the history of many of the dishes and simply compared it to other recent enjoyable restaurant experiences. On that basis I was not impressed. However, after reading a number of the books by Richard Olney I started to understand and appreciate what I did not understand previously. My subsequent visits have been vastly improved by that better understanding. I therefore commend this restaurant to the thoughtful.
Anthony, I ask for recent experience as I have read negative reports. I understand the history of both but I only have one lunch free and care about the absolute experience not just the history lesson.
I guess that people that have disliked it recently would have done so ten years ago. It has not changed. One negative is that the wine list at Paul Bocuse is not exciting.
It’s been about 2 years since I’ve been to both but Bocuse was a joke IMHO, far from 3*. Food was lackluster and service even worse. Wine list was okay but overpriced. An easy pass for me. I wanted to go because of the history and because I didn’t know how much longer Bocuse was going to be around. I’m happy that I went and got the experience but no need to return.
Georges Blanc was a different story. Classic 3*, lovely service (a bit relaxed), extremely well priced wine list, food was classic french and the sauces were downright great. Blanc basically runs/owns the whole town and it’s a beautiful setting. I’d easily return.
had a good time at Bocuse 2 years ago. Service and meal excellent, funny that it once was cutting edge. Bocuse believes that the modern era began w him. Once was enough for me.
Thanks all. We are going to give 1* Takao Takano a try I think.
We have dinner that evening and the night before at Troisgros so might be all 3*'d out.
I went about one year ago and I would disagree with the relaxed service and the wine list. It was not the first 3* we attended and personally, I think that the difference between 2* and 3* is mostly in the service and the setting, not really the food.
Anyway, I don’t mind waiters coming over to check if everything is ok, but when someone fills up your glass every two sips, and you end up interrupting your conversation and saying “merci” like 50 times during a meal, it gets boring quite fast. At one point I just told the sommelier I would do the remainder of the service myself.
The wine list was not that great imo. A lot of the grands vins whether Rhône, Bordeaux or Bourgogne are pretty young, I was surprised to be honest as I thought a maison like G. Blanc would have some kind of old cellar or something. Nope, very difficult to find GC or 1erCC at 10 years or above. Most are less than 5 years. I don’t remember the prices on those as they were outside my price range.
I do remember though that a bunch of 15-25€ wines (at wine shops) were 100+ € on the list, sometimes 140€ for a 25€ wine. That’s too much mark-up imo. I ordered a Chateau de Fonsalette 2001 which was around 100€, when nowadays you have difficulties finding some below 70€. That was one of the few (<5) sub-150€ wine that was priced good imo.
Also, the G. Blanc white by the glass (at around 13-15€!) is garbage, I’d be ashamed to serve that as the sommelier. Even if you just want a glass of white before a bottle of red, don’t go with this. There are 50-60€ bottles that offer much better value.
On a side note, we ordered the classic menu and had the best lobster, frogs and morels au vin jaune we ever had.
Alain