Le Louis XV: absolute luxury and the surprise of a garden
By Thiago Freitas · The Prime Traveler
Michelin: edition indicated above. World’s 50 Best: best historical ranking, with the year it was achieved.
On my better half’s birthday, the Jardin menu, the team’s delicacy and a gift from the house made our experience at the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo even more special.
On July 3, 2026, we went to Le Louis XV–Alain Ducasse to celebrate my better half’s birthday. For me, it is the most refined restaurant in the world. The memory begins in that spectacular dining room of the Hôtel de Paris, in Monaco, and continues in the way we were welcomed and cared for throughout the celebration.
We chose the Jardin menu out of curiosity. We wanted to know whether a restaurant of this caliber, working with a vegetarian sequence, could give us a satisfaction equal to all that expectation. We left astonished by the result.
A dining room that asks for time to be observed
I remember about eight tables in that room. That was the scale we perceived around us, within a setting of extraordinary richness of detail. The gilding, the mirrors, the ceiling paintings and the large windows made the eye travel even before the first dish arrived.
In the images, the large circular light fixture crosses the space beneath the ornate ceiling. Tables with pale cloths, the armchairs and the reflections in the mirrors complete the scene. There is a comfortable distance between one table and the next, which helps give the meal a sense of intimacy.
This setting has enough presence to become part of the memory of a trip. It is worth arriving ready to take it in and setting aside time to live everything that happens there.
Service as a ballet of precision
The best comparison I can find for the service is a ballet, performed with an almost Germanic discipline. The team’s movements were synchronized. Each gesture had its moment, and that coordination made the meal unfold with impressive naturalness.
Drinks were served at exactly the right temperature. This kind of care may seem small when described, but it is very noticeable when seated at the table. Refinement shows in what one sees and also in the way each element reaches us.
The precision of the service matched the demands of the kitchen signed by Alain Ducasse. Instead of having to think about what would come next, we could concentrate on the experience. It is a form of attention that makes luxury felt.
The delicacy of celebrating a birthday
The team knew how to give that day a personal touch. The handwritten birthday message, which we kept in the photograph, was a delicate gesture amid all the precision of the service. There was care for the celebration that had brought us there.
We also received a gift from the house. It was a very thoughtful gesture, which added a keepsake to the experience. In a place of such refinement, this personal attention made a difference: we were celebrating my better half’s birthday, and the team treated the occasion with warmth.
Jardin: the choice that made the visit even more interesting
The decision to order the Jardin gave the meal a particular curiosity. We wanted to follow what that kitchen could do with vegetables: how to build a sequence, create differences between dishes and arrive at a result that fully satisfied us.
The vegetable tradition is part of the house’s history. The Michelin Guide records the launch of the Jardin de Provence menu on May 27, 1987. The choice we made was therefore tied to an idea Ducasse has cultivated since the beginning of his journey in Monaco. [1]
In the official menus of 2024 and 2025, the Jardin is presented as four vegetable preparations in half portions, selected by the chef, followed by cheeses and dessert. The official spring and summer 2026 material also records the menu. The recipes follow the season; these documents help in understanding the concept, although they do not identify the whole sequence served to us on July 3. [3] [4] [6]
The first portions already showed this work of scale and presentation. Small vessels, a stone base, a piece on wood, creamy preparations and other finishes created a table full of detail. There was a lot for the eye to follow.
A garden made of layers, shapes and colors
One of the photographed dishes featured pale, very thin slivers on a rounded base, with small green dots and delicate flowers. The arrangement spread across the plate, letting one see the layering and the attention given to each finishing touch.
In another stage, a golden sliver rose in the center of the plate, surrounded by pale elements, a green preparation and sauce. The change of shapes gave the dish another presence. It is a record that captures well the kitchen’s visual care.
The courgettes and their flowers
On the darker-toned plate, we recognized the small courgettes with their yellow flowers, presented with red elements and a creamy portion in a golden vessel. The flowers were part of the very reading of the ingredient: they helped make visible the garden that gave the experience its name.
The courgette from Nice also appears in the house’s official menus, an example of the importance of Mediterranean vegetables in this cooking. In our vegetarian choice, the interest lay in following the starring role of these products and the way they were presented. [3] [5]
The photographs preserve the arrangements. What struck us most while eating was the result of the whole: the menu reached a level of satisfaction that deeply surprised us. The bet we had made in choosing the Jardin was rewarded throughout the meal.
The champagne offered by the house
That day, we drank the Bérêche & Fils Brut Réserve, offered by the house. We kept a photograph of our toast, with the bottle on the table and the dining room in the background. The champagne accompanied the welcome and the celebration of my better half’s birthday.
The temperature of the drinks was one of the details that most caught my attention in the service. Everything seemed designed to reach the guest at the right moment. Together with the crystal and the care of the gestures, this rigor helped make the experience so refined.
A cellar for those who also travel for wine
The Bérêche from our toast earned an affectionate place in this memory. But the world of wine at the Hôtel de Paris goes far beyond that bottle: there is a cellar that, on its own, can inspire the wish to plan a trip.
Excavated from 1874, the cellars of the Hôtel de Paris held, according to the official 2024 dossier, more than 350,000 bottles and about six thousand references, spread over 1,500 square meters. It is a collection of the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer group, which supplies different addresses of the resort, among them Le Louis XV. [8]
To give an idea of this richness, I selected 12 references documented by the house itself. The 2021 Le Louis XV dossier records ten of them; Dom Pérignon and Cristal appear in the Hôtel de Paris presentation of October 2023. The selection portrays this historical repertoire: vintages and availability for a new visit should be confirmed with the sommellerie. [7] [9]
- Fleury — Fleur de l’Europe, Champagne.
- Dom Pérignon — Champagne; the hotel’s presentation does not specify the vintage.
- Louis Roederer — Cristal, Champagne; the hotel’s presentation does not specify the vintage.
- Domaine Jean-François Coche-Dury — Meursault Premier Cru Perrières 2008.
- Domaine Leroy — Romanée-Saint-Vivant 1989.
- Domaine d’Auvenay — Mazis-Chambertin 1995.
- Tertre Roteboeuf — Saint-Émilion 2001.
- Château Latour — 1964, cited among the old vintages of the vertical selections.
- Pétrus — 1964, also cited in the house’s vertical selections.
- Château Cheval Blanc — 1949.
- Château d’Yquem — 1936.
- Clos Saint-Joseph — Côtes de Provence white 2012.
Among the consecrated names, I like to find room too for a discovery such as the Clos Saint-Joseph white. For those planning a trip around a table, the conversation with the sommelier can begin with a curiosity: a region, a producer or a vintage one has always wanted to know.
These labels were not the wines we drank at that lunch, nor do they represent a pairing we tasted with the Jardin. Our toast was with the Bérêche & Fils Brut Réserve. The selection widens the view of the house and helps imagine a next experience, with time to choose the bottle and enjoy it at the table.
The sweet finale
The photographed dessert had a pale dome, covered with a delicate green powder, with red fruits appearing at the base and in a separate bowl. When the spoon broke the surface, it revealed the layers and the intense red inside.
The delicacy of the presentation kept up the care we had been observing throughout the sequence. The sweet ending completed the meal and left one more image to keep from that table.
Three stars and a story that began in 1987
Le Louis XV holds three Michelin stars. Alain Ducasse took over its kitchen in 1987 and earned the house’s first three stars in 1990. The year 1987 also marks the start of the vegetable concept that interested us so much. [1] [2]
Knowing this history gives the experience another dimension. Choosing a menu centered on vegetables in a house like this is also coming into contact with a vision of cooking that has become an important part of French gastronomy.
The refinement that remains after the trip
Le Louis XV stayed with me as a reference of refinement and delicacy. The spectacular dining room, the team’s coordination, the drinks at exactly the right temperature and the surprise of the Jardin menu added to the warmth with which they treated my better half’s birthday.
What we took away was immense satisfaction with the choice. We went in curious to know how far that kitchen could take us with a vegetarian sequence. We left astonished, with a memory that still holds a special place in our gastronomic travels.
To live a table like this, it is worth thinking of the experience as the central part of the trip: choose the menu that stirs your curiosity, set aside time and organize the rest of the day to enjoy it calmly.
In The Prime Traveler’s Gastrotrip, this care guides the creation of personalized gastronomic itineraries. We connect tables to your tastes, to hotels, to dates and to the rhythm of the trip, always subject to the availability of each restaurant.
Your next trip can hold an experience like this. Discover The Prime Traveler’s Gastrotrip and commission your personalized gastronomic itinerary.