Cruising altitude

Jean Imbert au Hôtel Plaza Athénée (Paris)

GETAWAYS • Paris

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Globe-trotting chef Jean Imbert has finally hit his stride at the swanky Hôtel Plaza Athénée, where on Fridays and Saturdays, you can find his 190 € three-course lunch.

Imbert’s arrival three years ago signaled a major changing of the gastronomic guard in Paris — after all, he replaced Alain Ducasse. But it’s taken some time for him to settle in, especially because he has restaurants everywhere from Saint Barths to Dubai. Out of the gate, he did a brilliant job rebooting the Plaza Athénée’s rather elderly brasserie, Le Relais Plaza, with a menu of comfort food dishes like baked stuffed tomatoes.

It was slower going at Jean Imbert au Plaza Athenee, the hotel’s main gastronomic restaurant, with its opulent Vive le Roi! decor, best embodied by a mile-long red marble table dotted with crystal and gilt candelabras. If an initial meal here was excellent, the following one came off more like business-class catering.

Now, though, Imbert’s reached cruising altitude. It’s especially true of the lunch menu, which includes a first, main, and dessert (a miniature buffet of spectacularly beautiful and inventive French pastries). There’s also a complimentary suite of hors d’oeuvres, plus champagne, mineral water, and coffee. The menu evolves regularly, but a recent lunch of scallop mousse with sea urchin, followed by sea bass in a sauce of vin jaune with girolles mushrooms was technically flawless, beautifully plated, and deeply satisfying.

They also pour a seriously good list of wines by the glass, including a flinty Condrieu and a luscious Pommard. Under the direction of galant and hawk-eyed Denis Courtiade, probably the best maitre d’hotel in Paris, service is unfailingly warm and alert, all part and parcel of one of the best buys in town. –Alexander Lobrano

→ Jean Imbert au Hôtel Plaza Athénée (8th arr) • 25 Av Montaigne • Lunch Fri & Sat 12h30-14h15, dinner Tues-Sat 19h15–22h15 • Book.