My wife and I had an amazing dinner at Le Cinq at the Georges V Hotel in Paris. Maybe four of the best dishes I’ve had were included in the tasting menu at 340 Euros - tomato tartare (made like beef tartare), langoustines with silky mayonnaise, gratineed onions (some sort of incredible molecular gastronomy), and black market beef. The room is beautiful, service was professional yet friendly and the head sommelier was lovely. My only knock was the winelist, which had some great wines, but at a little too high prices, especially when compared to our last dinner at the Bristol with 2009 Roulot Perrieres and 2009 Rousseau Clos St Jacques for reasonable prices.
+1–My wife and I had lunch there last month and it was outstanding.The food and service were excellent. The Ravenau Chablis were priced reasonably.The flowers in the lobby were amazing too. Highly recommended.
Glad you enjoyed Le Cinq. Food and service is always great. That said, not a restaurant I would enjoy going to more than every couple years and not just because of the tariff. I’ve called ahead and gotten clearance to bring a few bottles when I’ve gone. Corkage isn’t cheap, but still makes it a bargain compared to the vast majority of their wine prices.
That onion dish is awesome! The dining room beautiful, but a bit formal for my tastes. Pricing on the wine list has certain gone way up in the last few years. A year ago there was still some cheap overnoy though. Also value in the magnum section. Oddly one of the chave mags was less than the 750ml price.
Most recently, which was a few years ago, I’m going to say 95 Euros per bottle, but don’t quote me.
I’ve called ahead to a number of Michelin restaurants in France, requested if I can bring in XYZ, and almost always have received a positive response. However, there are times I’ve paid in excess of 200 Euros per, but still a bargain compared to some of the wine lists.
I should amend “I’ve called ahead” to “I’ve asked a friend from France to call ahead” or “I’ve asked the hotel concierge to call ahead” in most instances, especially when not in Champagne.
Jeremy, I have a couple times as well, but that was under the prior chef (Eric Briffard). The chef since 2014 is Christian Le Squer - I had lunch at Ledoyen when he was there. Amazing as well. Smoked eel macaroons that were from a parallel universe where everything tasted so much better.
What Ray said. I’ve brought bottles to several places (Michel even posted a pic of the young woman running Juveniles with my bottle of Bionic Frog) and it’s been fine. I’ve called ahead and asked, and always shared, and usually bought a second. Didn’t try at Guy Savoy, for sure. but most places have that same restaurant subculture that you see in CA.
- I see them.