Parisian Beauty at Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen – Trying out the World’s 50 Best

Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen, the no. 13 on the World’s 50 Best List and with 3 Michelin stars to boot, is a fabulous new reincarnation of the traditional Ledoyen . I had been to Ledoyen last time about 8 years ago, and although a lovely meal, and the pavilion is always spectacular it was stuffy and a little too old school. Chef Alleno has clearly reinvigorated this classic space and left us with an absolutely fabulous meal. Classic Paris elegance and cool cooking all in one. The service is spectacular, they were on top of absolutely every detail. I particularly liked their Champagne cart, im always a fan.

What we ate: To start sea urchin with citric flavours – im not a huge urchin fan but this was light enough and super smooth.

There was a little surprise left at our table to be disclosed during dessert ….

The other amuse was a smoked eel with aromatic rice. Lovely start to the meal

The next dish is the way vegetables should taste: vegetables and cheese (And a whole host of things I cant remember) but the conclusion is that it tasted delicious and looked so pretty

As a starter, scallops with caviar. The broth was the best part!

for the main course you had options. either courses with Venison or Sole. In our table we did 2 venison and 1 Sole, I of course did venison. This protein was presented in Three ways. First was venison with beets and cabbage. I hate beets but this was tasty enough with me trying to scrape them off. And even the beet sauce was so well reduced and condimented that I didn’t hate it (not enough to love it though)

The main venison presentation had it sous vis and with its juices. This is not my favorite preparation of venison. It was very tasty and a lovely dish, but I like my venison rare on the inside but with a char or some heat on the outside. This was a little bit too same texture and flavor for it to have blown me away.

However it was served with the most delicious crispy rice which saved the dish. good rice is always a good idea.

and to finish off the venison trio, celeriac cooked in venison with truffles and venison sauce. So simple yet so delicious and beautiful. This was my favorite dish of the day.

The Cheese course was also dependant on your protein course. Mine got a bit complicated as it had barley and in the only faux pas of service of the night, I had to explain to the waitress that barley has gluten. Therefore they switched to the Sole cheese dish which was cheese infused with seaweed.

The Pre dessert was all chestnut based. The surprise left on our tables was actually chestnuts. on the table they \were lit on fire and smoked.

Inside, there was a chestnut mousse with whiskey whipped cream. It was served with some chestnut twills as well.

My dessert was a chickpea flour merengue with tropical fruits and gold leaf. not mind-blowing but somewhat ingenious and they tried to give me a gluten-free dessert that wasnt just fruit so I thank them for that.