The word buffet makes me shutter. Not because of the quality of the food, infact many buffets these days are stocked with delicious, fresh, healthy food, but because I find all of the choices overwhelming. I tend to short circuit and end up with a pile of things that don’t go together. We’ll, I had no such trouble when I visited Le Royal Monceau to sample their much celebrated breakfast.
The buffet laid out each morning beneath chandeliers in La Cuisine restaurant goes way beyond your typical continental breakfast and includes waffles, crêpes, pancakes, organic smoked salmon, artisanal yogurt, fresh squeezed juices, and pastries from Pierre Hermé. When a hotel’s pastry chef is a star Pâtissier you should probably indulge in a pastry or two so I made a beeline for the croissant ispahan, one of the city’s best croissant’s filled with rose almond paste, and raspberry and litchi compote.
To counteract the indulgence, I figured juice would be in order. Le Royal Monceau offers a detox program and the buffet includes an entire section devoted to freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices and supplements that you can mix together for your own nourishing concoction. Small bottles of sour and earthy green juice with kale, lemon, celery and apple had already been prepped so I grabbed one of those. Then I spied the egg bar where a chef was busy making eggs benedicts and egg white omelettes. I opted for scrambled eggs with a side of mushrooms and roasted tomatoes and was delighted when they came out perfectly cooked.
As I sat enjoying my selections, paired with a strong but smooth café allongé, I took note of the people around me who included businessmen and Parisians reading the paper. I was informed that very few of them were actually staying at the hotel. They were here to soak up the cozy not to chichi ambience and eat breakfast. In this food obsessed city, if that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is.
37 Ave. Hoche
01 42 99 88 00
All pictures courtesy Le Royal Monceau