Le Louis XV - Alain Ducasse à l'Hôtel de Paris is a French restaurant in

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

. Run by the chef

Alain Ducasse Alain Ducasse (; born 13 September 1956) is a French-born Monégasque chef. He operates a number of restaurants including Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester which holds three stars (the top rating) in the Michelin Guide. Early life and career D ...

, it holds three

Michelin star The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...

s. It has appeared in lists of the world's top restaurants.

Description

Le Louis XV is Ducasse's flagship restaurant. It is located inside the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo in Monte Carlo. He opened the restaurant in May 1987, having been challenged by

Prince Rainier III Rainier III (Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi; 31 May 1923 – 6 April 2005) was Prince of Monaco from 1949 to his death in 2005. Rainier ruled the Principality of Monaco for almost 56 years, making him one of the longest-ruling m ...

of Monaco and the

Société des bains de mer de Monaco The Société des Bains de Mer (SBM; en, Society of Sea Baths), officially the Société Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers à Monaco (; en, Society of Sea Baths and of the Circle of Foreigners in Monaco), is a publicly traded ...

to win three Michelin stars there within four years, becoming the first hotel-based restaurant to win that level of the award. Ducasse won the three stars for the restaurant 33 months later, some fifteen months earlier than his objective. The wine cellar contains around 400,000 bottles of wine. A number of food trolleys are used by the waiters, including for champagne, cheese and one holding herbs to make herbal teas at the tableside. Several chefs who went on to lead Michelin starred restaurants underwent training at Le Louis XV, including Alexis Gauthier,

Massimo Bottura Massimo Bottura (; born 30 September 1962) is an Italian restaurateur and the chef patron of Osteria Francescana, a three-Michelin-star restaurant based in Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label= Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is ...

Clare Smyth Clare Smyth (born 1978) is a Northern Irish chef. She is the Chef Patron of three Michelin starred Core by Clare Smyth which opened in 2017. Previously she was Chef Patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay from 2012 to 2016, won the Chef of the Yea ...

and

Thierry Laborde Thierry Laborde is a French, Michelin-starred chef, working in London. Early life Laborde was brought up in southwest France, in Maylis. He decided to become a chef while in secondary school. Training and subsequent employment Laborde compl ...

Reception

Food critic

Paolo Tullio Paolo Luigi Mario Tullio (; 1949 – 5 June 2015) was a writer and a Michelin star-winning head chef of the former restaurant Armstrong's Barn in Annamoe, County Wicklow. Tullio came to Ireland in 1968 to study English, arts and philosophy a ...

described Le Louis XV as one of the "great French restaurants". In 2003, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' identified it as one of the top five restaurants in the world.

Howard Jacobson Howard Eric Jacobson (born 25 August 1942) is a British novelist and journalist. He is known for writing comic novels that often revolve around the dilemmas of British Jewish characters.Ragi, K. R., "Howard Jacobson's ''The Finkler Question'' a ...

was sent to review it by the newspaper, who thought initially that the dishes served were "droll" but changed his mind when he tasted them. He enjoyed the ambiance of the place, and thought that the numbers of staff gave it an air of professionalism. ''

Fodor's Fodor's is a publisher of English language travel and tourism information. Fodor's Travel and Fodors.com are divisions of Internet Brands. History Founder Eugene Fodor was a keen traveler, but felt that the guidebooks of his time were boring ...

'' travel guide described Ducasse's cuisine as "superb", while also describing the interior of the restaurant as "magnificent". Le Louis XV holds three Michelin stars. It was included in the first published list of the world's 101 top restaurants by ''The Daily Meal'' in 2012. It has also been included in

The World's 50 Best Restaurants The World's Best 50 Restaurants is a list produced by UK media company William Reed, which originally appeared in the British magazine ''Restaurant'' in 2002. The list and awards however are no longer directly related to ''Restaurant'' magazine ...

by ''

Restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

''; in 2003 it was ranked the third-best restaurant in the world behind the

French Laundry The French Laundry is a three-Michelin star French and Californian cuisine restaurant located in Yountville, California, in the Napa Valley. Sally Schmitt opened The French Laundry in 1978 and designed her menus around local, seasonal ingredie ...

and

El Bulli El Bulli () was a restaurant near the town of Roses, Catalonia, Spain, run by chef Ferran Adrià and driven by the culinary ideas of Albert Adrià. The restaurant overlooked Cala Montjoi, a bay on Catalonia's Costa Brava. It held three Michelin st ...

, by 2006 and 2007 it had dropped to eighth place, dropping to fifteenth in 2008. It had a significant drop in rankings in 2009, falling to 43rd place. The restaurant has been the recipient of the ''

Wine Spectator ''Wine Spectator'' is an American lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine and wine culture, and gives out ratings to certain types of wine. It publishes 15 issues per year with content that includes news, articles, profiles, and general entertain ...

'' Grand Award since 1995.

References

External links

* 1987 establishments in Monaco Restaurants in Monaco Michelin Guide starred restaurants in Monaco 1987 in Monaco {{Monaco-stub