Lunch at L’Ambroisie, Paris: Classical Haute Cuisine Under Shintaro Awa

In Paris to meet friends for a string of three-star dinners, I used my early arrival to slip into L’Ambroisie for lunch. On Place des Vosges, it remains among the most classical and traditional expressions of French haute cuisine, and one of the very few three-star houses to serve only à la carte.

Location & Atmosphere

The townhouse dining room holds its light close. Thick carpet, polished wood, a hush that encourages attention. A corner table offered a discreet vantage point on a service that is exacting and notably stiff, more ceremony than chat.

Culinary Style or Distinctive Character

The kitchen is now led by Shintaro Awa, a Japanese chef whose precision feels wholly in character for this address. The transition has been managed to preserve the house style, with continuity rather than reinvention: clearly drawn flavours, poised sauces, no ornament.

Menu / The Dishes

Amuse-bouches arrived with excellent bread and a dish of deep yellow Normandy butter, lactic and faintly hazelnut, the sort that perfumes the table before it softens. A small frog’s leg and a warm oyster set the register: classical, precise, unshowy. The gesture echoed a similar opening bite I noted at my Le Gabriel review.

Feuillantine de langoustines aux graines de sésame, sauce au curry (€145)
The signature. A wafer-thin sesame tuile gives a dry, glassy snap; beneath it, the langoustine is perfectly just-set, that narrow window between translucence and chalk. The curry is aromatic rather than hot, framing sweetness without blurring the line. It is legendary because it resolves three assertive elements into harmony, and because langoustine is a notoriously difficult crustacean to get right.

Turbot meunière au poivre Kampot, ravioles de tartuffon (€155)
Turbot meunière demands restraint; here the beurre noisette was clean and lifted, Kampot pepper warming rather than stinging. The small ravioli carried a clear truffle note that deepened the sauce without tipping it into heaviness.

Fromages frais et affinés (€45)
Competent service, but the selection felt narrower than expected at this level.

Tarte fine sablée au cacao amer, crème glacée à la vanille Bourbon (€48)
A slender, bitter-edged tart with crisp sablé and cool Bourbon vanilla, finishing clean and dry. A palate reset rather than a flourish.

Verdict

Consider what you receive: absolute precision and a living archive of haute cuisine. Consider also the price: extremely expensive for lunch, even by Paris standards. The experience reads like time travel in its codes, yet the cooking is not dusty; it is lucid. Service is formal to the point of stiffness. I left fascinated, keen to return and explore more of the canon. For a midday meal when attention is sharp and the afternoon unhurried, it fits perfectly.

• Location: Paris, France
• Chef: Shintaro Awa
• Michelin rating: ★★★
• Visited: November 2025

For a contemporary, sauce-driven counterpoint to L’Ambroisie, see our review of Plénitude at Cheval Blanc Paris.

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

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