L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon – Étoile: the kitchen as the show

In the basement of the Publicis Drugstore, a few steps from the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées, L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon - Étoile keeps alive the counter-dining idea that made its creator the most decorated chef in the history of the MICHELIN Guide. It holds one MICHELIN Star. Publicis and Joël Robuchon announced their partnership in June 2010, and the restaurant opened inside the same building by the end of that year, becoming the chef's second Atelier in the French capital after the format he had unveiled on the Left Bank in 2003. Since Robuchon's death in 2018, chef Éric Bouchenoire — his closest collaborator in the kitchen since 1985 — has run the stoves, cooking from a carte of more than sixty dishes that is renewed through the seasons and the daily market. Guests choose between stools at the long counter or a table in the adjoining room, and can order in small or full portions as they like.

01The room and the setting

This second Atelier was built larger than the original Left Bank address, with an actual dining room added alongside the trademark counter seating. Around thirty-six stools wrap the open kitchen, and a separate room seats roughly sixteen more, useful for groups wanting to privatise the space. The decor, intimate and in Robuchon's signature red and black, with the cooking line in full view, was designed by architect Pierre-Yves Rochon, the same designer behind the Ateliers the chef opened around the world.

Valet parking is available a short walk away on rue Vernet, a detail that tells you something about the clientele this room was built for — one that arrives by Champs-Élysées traffic rather than on foot, even if the entrance itself sits discreetly below street level inside a shopping and media complex.

02The chef

Joël Robuchon was named Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 1976, Chef of the Year in 1987 and Chef of the Century in 1990, titles that made him, by his own restaurant's count, the chef with the most MICHELIN stars in the world. He died of pancreatic cancer on 6 August 2018 in Geneva, at the age of 73, having accumulated a total of 32 stars across his restaurants worldwide.

Insider tip

Open daily for lunch and dinner; counter seating around the open kitchen, with a smaller adjoining dining room.

Running the kitchen today is Éric Bouchenoire, elected Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 2000, who joined Robuchon's brigade in 1985 and became his closest collaborator. He now carries on the chef's culinary legacy and takes an active role in passing on that knowledge to kitchens around the world. He is supported by Moreno Rizzo as his second in the kitchen and pastry chef Renaud Baconnais, who worked alongside Robuchon for seventeen years.

03The cooking

The idea behind L'Atelier was to make high gastronomy visible and approachable — what the house calls cuisine accessible to the eye — built around Robuchon's own 'Signature Dishes', the plates the house considers essential tasting for any gastronome. The carte runs to more than sixty references, renewed and varied with an emphasis on the seasons and on daily market produce, and dishes can be ordered in small or generous portions depending on appetite.

A seven-course signature tasting menu built around two of the house's oldest set pieces — a caviar jelly over cauliflower cream finished with a lobster gelée, and langoustine ravioli steamed with green cabbage — sits alongside lunch menus and a dedicated vegetarian carte, a format Robuchon pioneered well before it became standard in fine dining.

04What to order

At lunch, three menus (€52, €72 and €92 in October 2026) run from amuse-bouche through starter, main and cheese or dessert, with choices such as sea bream carpaccio with lemon and Batz grand cru salt, or a slow-cooked pork cheek with Paimpol coco beans and Iberian flavours.

On the à la carte menu, highlights include a soft-boiled 'bio' egg with Sologne caviar and smoked salmon, lobster spaghetti in a spicy coral emulsion, a whole roasted turbot for two with pistachio oil, caramelised quail stuffed with duck foie gras and chanterelles, and Challans duck in strips with verjuiced grapes. For dessert, the house's own favourite remains Le Dessert Préféré de Joël Robuchon — the Mango-Mango, a light mango creation set on an exotic jelly.

05The neighbourhood

The Étoile district, anchored by the Arc de Triomphe, blends grand Haussmannian avenues with a dynamic mix of history and modern commerce, and the Champs-Élysées above the restaurant is lined with designer flagships and smaller boutiques alike. The nearest station is Charles de Gaulle–Étoile, served by metro lines 1, 2 and 6 and the RER A, putting the restaurant within a short walk of the avenue's cinemas, car showrooms and the Place de l'Étoile itself.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.