An American diner in Paris

Nearly a century and a half ago, Walter Scott, a hawker in Providence, Rhode Island, converted a horse-drawn freight wagon into a self-contained mobile restaurant, which served pies, sandwiches and hot coffee. This inauspicious event was the birth of the diner, which by the turn of the century had become elaborate wagons in fixed locations throughout North Eastern USA. They were the first fast food places until they were eclipsed in the 1950s by burger joints.

There has been a revival in retro chrome plated Deco diners. For the first time a Michelin-starred chef has created a haute cuisine diner in the middle of Paris – Pavyllon – the Gastronomic Counter. Yannick Alléno, the only chef with two three-star Michelin restaurants in France, has converted a section of the ground floor of Ledoyen, his grand Parisian restaurant, into a 50-seat diner, complete with semi-rectangular bar in front of the exposed kitchen. There are a handful of small tables along the wall, but the real action is at the counter. The elegant spare design seems more Japanese than the juke box look of the classical diner, but the homage is definitely there. When it comes to the food though, the similarities fall away – this is inspired three-star cooking in a fast food setting. Other chefs, such as Joel Robuchon, created counter dining with his L’Atelier de Robuchon concept, but these are smaller and more inspired by the pintxos bars of Spain.

Alléno has long been one of the most innovative of the great French chefs, starting with his campaign promoting Parisian terroir. Next was his revival of sauces as a key component of contemporary cuisine and more recently, a budget offering called Allénothèque, with an equally generously priced wine list. Ledoyen is a French institution, starting just before the French Revolution and relocating to its current garden location off the Champs-Élysées in the 1840s. The top floor of the classical mansion is devoted to the three-star restaurant while downstairs there is also a sushi bar with a Michelin star. Pavyllon takes up one side of the building with a spectacular view of the Grand Palais.

Once you are seated at the long counter, a trio of different sushi arrives along with the sommelier to discuss what wines you would prefer for the upcoming pairing. We agree on a Vougeraie Corton-Charlemagne 17, with its flinty characteristics within a honeylike interior making me almost wish to simply drink the entire bottle. Now the culinary fun begins with what is deceptively described as an artichoke salad with black truffle. In fact, it is a small fortress with truffle walls and an exquisite salad poking out of the top like a perfectly tended garden. Then, a plate of lightly smoked mackerel swimming in sour milk, flowers and yuzu – this looked like a perfectly preserved mosaic from Pompeii and had an enticing blend of sharpness and intense flashes of smoked mackerel.

By now we had moved onto a 12-year-old white Hermitage from Chapoutier accompanying a scallop cooked with bone marrow and caviar and smoked pike eggs with gnocchi and toasted walnuts – perfectly memorable but dwarfed by what followed.

It was a light slightly wobbly Comté souffle adorned with cubes of foie gras and camouflaged by leaves of black truffle – this combination was the ideal warming dish. I didn’t realise at the time but this was merely a preamble for my ultimate Winter experience so far – a half sphere of sea urchin filled with hare agnolotti – this oozed of umami flavours and gutsiness with the alkaline intensity of the sea urchins’ gonads in the base.

I almost skipped over the next dish of sole completely covered in black truffle like some fighting daemon from His Dark Materials because of the novelty of the next dish – two tiny milk-fed lamb chops with curry and coconut stew lemon grass. It is not something that sounds nearly as palatable as it was but the Morey St Denis 15 from Feuillet probably played its part. What should also be mentioned is that small selections of tempura appeared during some of these dishes, which acted as a palate cleanser and vegetable substitute. Again, there was a danger that the wine outshone the puddings but what do you expect when it was Yquem 15? This is the first time I have tasted Yquem so young but the experience was certainly not unpleasant, with its underlying power encompassed in hints of crème brulee.

It was a completely satisfying experience with all of the culinary fireworks that Alléno can muster at half the price of a meal upstairs. It would be difficult to tell the difference in the clientele too – the usual collection of power brokers and a fashionable crowd of mainly Parisians, though the occasional Japanese diner was there too. Vir Sanghvi, a greedy friend of mine from Delhi, thought it was already one-star Michelin quality nudging two stars. My opinion is that it is more like two with the third one briefly sighted in some of the dishes. If L’Atelier de Robuchon in Hong Kong can be awarded three stars, it seems churlish not to at least speculate about such things here, though it would never happen because of where it is located.

The whole concept is a clever idea, given that Ledoyen is now closed for lunch in the early part of the week, so this offers a glimpse of the same quality in more casual surroundings. It is not just me that approves of it – it is the first time I have ever seen a restaurant entry in TripAdvisor where every single entry gives it top marks. I doubt if Walter Scott would recognise this reincarnation of his concept, but he would certainly appreciate the way the Old World had reinvented his creation to provide such pleasure and value, even though there wasn’t a pie in sight.

https://www.yannick-alleno.com/en/restaurants-reservation/pavyllon.html