Le Relais Plaza is the famous brasserie at the elegant Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris, situated at 25, avenue Montaigne. Constant Lefranc was the architect and interior designer who created the Art Deco restaurant in 1936, when the hotel reopened after a two-year shut-down.
Since the year 2000, Philippe Marc has been in charge as executive chef. The casual, nevertheless elegant restaurant opened in 1936 and has always attracted artists and celebrities alike, including Christian Dior and Marlene Dietrich. It has kept its chic, featuring the original Art Deco lusters by Lalique as well as the original, large-scale Art Deco fresco behind the bar.
We started with a glass of champagne, a recommendable Duval-Leroy rosé and a less exciting Lallier Zero Dosage Grand Cru. At Le Relais Plaza, the objective of the brasserie’s team is to introduce all of France’s champagne houses to their guests, among whom one can find many regulars. Roughly every three weeks, new bottles are introduced. Therefore, over the course of one year, you can taste over 100 different champagnes in the restaurant.
As appetizers, the chef offered us mouthwatering crostini with avocado and shrimps. The first dish for Thomas was served cold: a marinated sea bass, ceviche-style, with red radish, palm hearts, avocado, fennel and other vegetables, which Alain Ducasse gets from the biological garden at the Palace of Versailles. A delight! The sea bass was accompanied by a glass of a nice, 2012 Pouilly-Fumé with fruity and mineral notes from the vineyard La Ladoucette.
The first vegetarian course for Louis consisted of autumn, vegetable cookpot. This warm dish offered figs, walnuts, ratte potatoes (an old French variety), squash and other vegetables from the biological garden in Versailles, served together with a chives cooking juice. The white wine served with it, a 2012 Meursault Le Limozin by Rémy Jobard, was light, pale and average.
The second course for Thomas consisted of a savory lamb saddle from Lozère, served with polenta as well as garlic and biological, parsley buttered vegetables. The accompanying sauce was on the heavy side, a touch too overpowering. The meat as such was of impeccable quality. Tomas paired the dish with a nice glass of Bordeaux, a Beau-Site Saint-Estèphe 2010.
Louis chose as second, vegetarian dish a risotto with black Périgord truffles. The risotto lacked a bit of a bite, the truffles tasted not very strong. The risotto was accompanied by a pleasant 2013 Chablis by Garnier & Fils.
We accompanied our desserts with a glass of a golden, sweet, apricot-scented, 2013 Muscat du Cape Corse by the Pieretti vineyard on the island of Corsica. Thomas opted for a pineapple sorbet with stripes of granny-smith, Meringue and whipped cream. Louis chose the caramelized mille-feuille with three types of vanilla cream from Tahiti, Madagascar and Mexico, a signature dish of dessert chef Christophe Michalak, who is responsible for all the delicious desserts at Hotel Plaza Athénée. They were up to his reputation: excellent!
In short, Le Relais Plaza is a recommendable, solid brasserie, with an impeccable service. We were not the only ones to have noticed. We dined on a Sunday, which is in most places a very quiet day. Not so at the Plaza Athénée: it was packed with people; old and young, French and foreign, couples and smalls groups, hotels guests and clients from outside.
Last, but not least, the best staff member, Jean-Louis Piarrette, the Maître d’hôtel, competent in French and English, offers you his 20 years of experience at Le Relais Plaza.
The brasserie director Werner Küchler has even been with the restaurant for 42 years, welcoming the likes of Yves-Saint Laurent, Herbert von Karajan and Bono. During my two nights at the restaurant, I spotted for instance the actress Carole Bouquet and the violinist Renaud Capuçon, who had inaugurated the new Philharmonie de Paris on January 14, 2015. Tout Paris still gathers at Le Relais Plaza.
Photograph of a Swingin’ Relais evening with Relais director Werner Küchler singing, Sergheï Trocin on the piano and three members of a swing band on the left. Photograph © Hôtel Plaza Athénée / Werner Küchler.
I enjoyed it so much that I went back there the following evening just to chat with Werner Küchler, tasting a light artichoke, truffles and lamb’s lettuce salad and listening to the pianist.
The last Wednesday of each month, the brasserie organizes Swingin’ Relais evenings. Relais director Werner Küchler sings jazz and swing favorites from Frank Sinatra to Dean Martin and Ray Charles, accompanied by the pianist Sergheï Trocin on the piano as well as a new swing band every month. On all the other evenings, a pianist entertains the public discretely.
Le Relais Plaza offers it all: food and drink, atmosphere, entertainment and fun!
The featured image on top shows a detail of the bar at Le Relais Plaza with the original 1936 Art Déco mural by Constant Lefranc, the architect and interior designer. Photograph © Hôtel Plaza Athénée / photographer: Bobby Odieux. Read the book Plaza Athénée by Marc Lambron (texts), Jean Imbert (introduction), Oliver Pilcher (photographs), Assouline, November 2023, 272 pages with over 300 illustrations, 33 x 24.7 x 3.7 cm, 2.9 kg. Order the English version of the book (accept all cookies to go directly to the appropriate Amazon page; we earn a commission): Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr.
Article about the brasserie Le Relais Plaza originally added on February 10, 2015 at 18:31 CET; updated on February 16, 2015; added to our new WordPress pages on January 15, 2024 at 10:58 Paris time.
