La Maison Champs Elysées is a 5-star hotel in the Golden Triangle of Paris, a short walk from the Champs Elysées. The hotel is superb, a designer venue that could only be Parisian.
The restaurant, La Table du 8, echoes this class with a high quality dining room that is as much glass as wall and offers a lovely view of a courtyard garden. The roof is part glass too, allowing a very high quality of light into the room.
The décor reflects the rest of the hotel. It is stark white, with white linen, white covered chairs. The menu is modern French and fine dining. The dishes are exactly what you would expect, pieces of art on a plate. It was almost a shame to eat them, but not quite.
“La Table du 8 is modern French and fine dining.”
To start, we had marinated eggplant with buffalo mozzarella and ham. The marinade was a herb concoction that added a rounded flavour to the eggplant that was complemented perfectly by the rich, creamy mozzarella and the rich pink ham.
Main course consisted of roasted cod fillet and black Angus steak. The cod fillet was served with crispy polenta and was perfectly cooked. The fish was fresh, lightly seasoned and ate very well indeed.
The black Angus rib eye steak was served with new potatoes and chanterelle mushrooms. The steak was perfectly cooked, seared on the outside, pink in the middle and deliciously juicy. The new potatoes and mushrooms complemented the meat brilliantly, offering a little earthiness to the decadent meat. A good main course.
Dessert was a lemon sorbet and chocolate cake. The sorbet was served with fresh strawberries and garnished with some fresh mint. The sorbet was delicious, a tart, light end to the meal that was well matched with the strawberries and mint.
The chocolate cake was a deliciously rich affair served with vanilla ice cream. The sight made us want more, but the richness of the cake itself satisfied us completely. A high note to end the meal.
The food at La Table du 8 was superb. What let the experience down was the slow service. Even though the dining room was less than half full, we were left waiting for a long time to get drinks, a menu and between courses. Other than that, the experience was wholly pleasant.
The Bill: £55 per head
