Le Taillevent: My Favorite Restaurant

Taillevent is a restaurant in Paris, founded in 1946 by André Vrinat, and now owned by the Gardinier family.

I had my first meal at Taillevent in 1989 at the tender age of 30. Lunch was $235. It was the best meal I had ever had. I forgot what my wife and I started with but she ordered Coquille St. Jaques for the main course. It was game season and I had a quail, duck, and pheasant with fois gras in a pastry shell in a brown reduction sauce. Nice and Light. It was the best thing I had ever eaten.

Back then you could smoke in restaurants. I smoked Dunhills at the time and each pack of twenty was divided by two with a separate tin foil compartment for each. When one of the wait staff noticed I had finished my tenth cigarette, he took my pack, opened it, and removed the tin foil from the other ten cigarettes. Talk about service.

Then we switched plates. They would not let us. They whisked them away, freshly prepared them, and brought them to us under the same silver canopies which covered them when they were first brought out.

Then it came time for dessert. When we tried to order, they wouldn’t let us. They said we will order for you. And after I said; “Wait a minute…” they were off. They came back with a triple mousse for me and a pear tart al a mode for my wife. We could not have chosen better.

I have recommended this to friends, all of whom have similar stories.

I ate at Taillevent again in 2008 with my wife and two girls. It was not so memorable.

We went to Spain where we had the pleasure of eating at El Cellar De Can Roca in Girona, at that time rated the best restaurant in the world. It was, simply put, the most amazing meal I had ever had. You can see a video of it on my YouTube channel: Art and Travel by Dave. The prix-fix menu was 600 Euros.

In the fall of 2019, (remember when the world was normal?) I returned to Taillevent after eating at two, three star Micheline restaurants in Paris. It did not disappoint. You can see the film on my channel. A five course prefix menu was only 350 Euros. Supremely creative cuisine which charged the taste buds and service as it was meant to be. It was one of the greatest three meals of my life.

My friend, James, who accompanied me, first turned me on to Taillevent in The 1980’s. He is an accomplished chef and has had the same experience with this fine restaurant that I have.