A beautiful and elegant setting starting with the friendly doorman who admits you to the building. The dining room is located on the second level which affords the diner a lovely view but some difficult sunlight for some diners. They offer 3 different tasting menus as well as a la carte ordering. There is quite a price differential to them.
Luckily the lunch menu is what appealed to us.
Everyone is first greeted with the champagne cart after being seated and the selection is large. Prices are not discussed cause if “you have to ask you can’t afford it” seems to be the policy. Also ladies’ menus do not include prices so I scandalously borrowed my husband’s to get pictures. Service is polished to a stiff shine.
Everyone starts with several amuse bouche and they were all pretty good. I particularly liked the chestnut marshmallow and the crunchy tube with smoked eel inside – both left you wanting more.
The scallops were sweet and cooked nicely. I liked that they included leaves in the spinach soup that added a nice textural component and the smokey cheese was a good touch like the bit of cracked pepper to give a slight kick.
The quail was cooked perfectly – still very moist – but it was one pretty small breast. The crust was delicious and the white wine sauce was rich and blended the dish in a very good way. I could have eaten several of these!
They pass the bread tray often and the breads are good with a choice of salted and unsalted butter.
The pre-dessert chocolate drink was not compelling but the pineapple was great and I like the crispy little chocolate gavottes.
The apple dessert was set on fire at the table and they managed to keep the apple filing cool while warming the outer meringue. It was fairly sweet but again very small but a good taste treat.
The tart was simply delicious with a perfectly buttery crust and creamy filling. It really left you wanting more!
The chocolates were quite smooth but just chocolate which seemed a tad dull after the tastes before.
Hi Helen. I am going to Paris soon and have reserved a table at the Alleno Paris, but I is difficult to find prices anywhere. I just came across this articleand also your comment on the champagne cart. I figured that that’s the general way in Paris. Do you remember how much a glass of champagne was? Great reading your reviews btw.
Hi Helen. I am going to Paris soon and have reserved a table at the Alleno Paris, but I is difficult to find prices anywhere. I just came across this articleand also your comment on the champagne cart. I figured that that’s the general way in Paris. Do you remember how much a glass of champagne was? Great reading your reviews btw.
Thanks for looking at my site! Looking at my receipt, we had 2 glasses of Moet et Chandon 1995 for 84.00 euros. Sometimes places will offer like a house sparkler but at the 3 star places they all will charge you a bunch as most are vintage champagnes. Prices are not readily available on food either and that’s why I photographed my husband’s menu. I’d be interested to know what you think of the place. I really liked it under the last chef (Le Squer) but then we ate with him at Le Cinq and it wasn’t as good. I left Alleno hungry but that made it a good lunch since we also had a dinner planned. Good eating!
Hey. Thanks for your quick reply. It’s really good to have some sort of idea of these prices as we might choose to skip champagne here and maybe drink some later in a bar; although I kindda feel like these gourmet meals require a glass of champagne. I’ll surely give you some comments here when we get back in about three weeks time. Thanks again for taking your time to reply.
Hope you have a great trip! Where else are you going to eat?
Thank you.Not sure yet. The whole thing was arranged pretty fast. Tried to get a table at Le Chateaubriand, but nope. We will try to find some cosy bistros like L’Écailler du Bistrot or L’Avant Comptoir. Was considering Saturne as well…
Hi Helen. I promised to get back to you once we got back. We had lunch at Alléno. We had the lunch menu which included the amuses (almost the same as yours), a starter (celeriac in thin slices with avocado and coconut), main course (chicken in milk with chard, egg plant and morels), a pre-dessert (preserved strawberry, sugar crust and honey) and the dessert (salted chocolate “mousse and “nutmilk ice-cream”). We also added coffee and mignardises. All in all, the food was perfect and the service was impeccable. However, I perhaps missed some creativity and innovation in the menu. It is difficult to explain… coming from Denmark, I see chefs here being very creative although food perhaps is less deep in flavour. Maybe you can relate…? We skipped champagne, but added an extra glass of tokaij for the chocolate dessert which I didn’t regret. All in all, I would say that it was a great experience, but main for the experience and not just for the food.
Furthermore, we dined at Les Fables de la Fontaine (one Michelin star) close to the Eiffel Tower. Focusing on fish, it was a very pleasant experience, and actually rather cheap! Low key of course, but here I actually got a bit more creativity in the food.
We also ate at L’Avant Comptoir which was a fun experience with the French tapas style, and we also had dinner one evening at a wine bar (Redd) to add a more rustic experience as well. Good wine and great charchuterie.
Oh, and thank you for taking your time to write me regarding the champagne. It really helped me prioritise between the different places.
Thanks for getting back! I agree completely with your assessment of French vs Nordic cuisine. The Scandinavian countries are really bringing out some creative ideas but I’m a flavor nut and often our meals there are not as intense as French or Italian, but I sure like trying something I’d never thought of eating. I’m excited that we’ve got reservations at Fäviken – I think it might be an exception. Glad you had a good experience at Alléno. It is such a beautiful place, so elegant, but it is definitely very traditional. I haven’t been to Les Fables de la Fontaine – maybe our next Paris trip, but there are just so many places to chose from there. I love L’Avant Comptoir. Great snacks and nice choice of wine along with a very friendly crowd. We often stay at their hotel around the corner, Relais St. Germain and then you can get a reservation at their sit-down restaurant. All good and reasonably priced. Hope you continue to have good travels and eating experiences. I’ll contact you for ideas if we ever get back to Denmark!
Helen
Thank you. And do feel free to write if/when you are visiting Denmark. I’ll be happy to provide some tips.
/Troels
Hey there. Thank you so much for your review. I am going to dine at Ledoyen next month, and I’d like to see if all the things you’ve put in your post were all complimentary as the lunch menu only should’ve had four dishes. I asked because in this other reviewer’s post (https://cumbriafoodie.com/2016/05/06/ledoyen-paris-choose-very-wisely/), she seemed to not have received the same amount of food you have (or maybe she didn’t think the amuse bouches were good to include). Will you please let me know? Thank you so much! 🙂
On an related note, have you dined at Pierre Gagnaire before? If so, did you try their 6 Balzac menu? I’d love to hear your thoughts or obtain the review post on that meal.
Patrick
Thanks for reading diningwithfrankie.com! Yes, we had the lunch menu and all the extras were complimentary, but you’ll still leave hungry. I looked briefly at the other review you saw and it did have many of the same amuse bouche. There are also some extra sweets at the end, which is usual for a three star. All the alcohol is charged separately and runs high so be careful there. Sometimes if there is a choice in a set menu my husband and I get different options and I will picture both which can look like we got more.
We were at Gagnaire in 2014 and you’ll find those pictures in the Paris section of my site. It’s not all listed in date order cause as I set up the site I included a few past places we’d been while still working on current ones. That was our second visit and a let down after our first meal there (not on my site) when chef was in the house and I thought it was the best place ever. It is totally pricey. If you want a great Michelin style meal deal I’d recommend Arpege ‘feed me’ at lunch. The kitchen will choose for you but it is quite tasty.
Thanks again for looking in and let me know if you have other questions. Great dining to you and yours!
Ah, you’re right. I think I’ll go with their chosen for you menu as the wagyu sounds super awesome! And you’re right. Upon looking at the other website again, I do see they have the amuse bouches and petits fours. I actually just put in a reservation request for l’arpege yesterday! Haha. Hopefully they have a table (they haven’t replied back to met yet). Do you remember if Ledoyen offered the usual wine pairing offer with their menus? Thank you, Helen!
Best,
Patrick
Sorry, but don’t remember if they offered wine pairings, but I’d imagine the pours would be small if they did. Good luck with L’Arpege and all future dining! Some new Paris listings will be posted in a couple weeks – stay tuned.
Helen
Thank you, Helen! *hug*
You’re more than welcome! Questions and comments always welcome. Hugs back!
Helen –
I think it would be cool if you could give scores to restaurants at the top. I resort to Andy Hayler’s website alone to see his ratings, and I don’t think I’d agree with him regarding his assessments of Michelin *, **, and ***s. Thus, it would be helpful to have someone who dines frequently at top restaurants to also give reviews.
Also, I’m SO JEALOUS that you got a table at Osteria Francescana! Does it deserve to be number 1? How does it compare to Ledoyen, Eleven Madison Park, Le Cinq, and Jean Georges?
Thank you, Helen.
Best,
Patrick