Restaurant review: ‘It's more fun — and less arrogant — than it used to be, and I consider our €404 lunch bill to be good value right now'
I was first brought to Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud as a student, when it was located on James Place East. I didn't know much about French food beyond what I'd learned eating my way around the cheapest restaurants in Paris on the meal vouchers that came with my summer job at Habitat in the Forum des Halles (yes, I have a fairly niche French vocabulary), but I recognised RPG as something special.
The restaurant moved to its current site beside The Merrion Hotel 25 years ago, and I have eaten there on occasion over the years. In the past, I struggled with the formality of the service. I felt it got in the way of the food; it put me off. But I've noticed a gradual change, and the sometimes strangulated French-ness of the past is now gone. The staff are younger, and their accents are from all over the place, not just France; RPG is more fun — and, whisper it, less arrogant — than it used to be.
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