Le Gabriel at La Réserve Paris Review: The City’s Most Palatial Three Star Lunch

I came with friends for lunch, the kind that steadies a day rather than interrupts it. The night before we had eaten at Pierre Gagnaire, a very different expression of Parisian haute cuisine that I described in a separate review. At noon, Le Gabriel offered focus. The four course Escale menu at 148 € felt like a precise lens on a three star kitchen.

Location & Atmosphere

The right entry is an aperitif in the library at La Réserve. The room hushes the city, all wood, books and soft light. From there the dining room opens like a small palace. High ceilings, polished surfaces, a carpet that swallows sound. We were seated at a center table in clean midday light. Service moved around us with discreet confidence, never hurried, never corrective. Formal in presentation, kind in gesture.

Culinary Style or Distinctive Character

Jérôme Banctel cooks with classical French discipline shaped by Brittany and honed in the great Parisian houses. His plates privilege balance, seasoning and texture over theatrics. The cooking thinks clearly. It aims for intensity without weight.

Menu / The Dishes

Amuse bouches set the tone. A frog leg, perfectly judged, delivered a crisp edge and a clean, pond-sweet depth that announced both precision and restraint.

Bread arrived with a generous curl of Normandy butter, a vivid yellow that comes from beta carotene in the pasture grasses eaten by the cows. Good cream, careful maturation and the season do the rest.

The first course, “sand carrot, fermented ginger,” showed how the kitchen extracts flavor through technique rather than adornment. The carrot was braised in limestone water, which tightens sweetness and keeps the fiber supple, then filled with a fine carrot farce. Fermented ginger added warmth without noise. A wonderful warm brioche accompanied the dish, soft and delicately aromatic, making the composition feel complete without adding weight.

Line caught wild sea bass followed, aged ten days. The aging concentrated aroma and gave the flesh a taut, almost silken resilience. The skin was glass crisp. Paimpol beans and a discreet note of sour seaweed kept the dish saline and lithe, like a clear line drawn across the palate.

Hen farm chicken arrived with a superb demi glace, dark, glossy, and held just shy of reduction’s heaviness. Hokkaido squash supplied gentle sweetness. Alba white truffle was shaved with restraint, fragrant rather than dominant.

Dessert kept the register high and fresh. Kiwi poached in limestone water with shiso and a green Chartreuse zabaglione tasted of herb and citrus, a cool finish that sent us back into daylight with clarity rather than sugar fatigue.

A server paused to explain the ten day maturation of the sea bass and the limestone technique used for the carrot and the kiwi. The voice was quiet, the explanation exact. In that moment the room’s confidence came into focus.

Petits fours closed the arc with the same precision as the whole menu.

Since we were dining at Plénitude in the evening, the small lunch menu here proved ideal: focused, precise, and light enough not to weigh on the night ahead.

Service

Service is exemplary. Professional, friendly and exact. Temperatures are correct, plates land and leave in sync, and nothing needs correction. It is as polished as the room suggests.

Verdict

For lunch in Paris, this feels like the benchmark. A palatial setting that breathes, service at the highest level, and cooking that is precise, French and complete. At 148 € for four courses, the value is almost implausible. It is the table I would choose to show a friend what Parisian three star lunch can be.

• Location: Paris, France
• Chef: Jérôme Banctel
• Michelin rating: ★★★
• Visited: November 2025

For an equally formal, yet considerably pricier lunch, see my review of L’Ambroisie and its classical precision.

For a complete overview of how all seven Paris three-star restaurants compare, see my detailed Paris three-star guide.