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Going Haute: Star-Studded Savings

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No need to sink $400 or $500 into dinner at a Michelin three-star. Why not take advantage of the discount lunch? I slide into a banquette ready to be fussed over at Le Grand Véfour (17 Rue de Beaujolais, First Arr.; 33-1/42-96-56-27; lunch for two from $186), which is packed with businessmen, tourists, even a sextet of young Americans on spring break, as daylight floods the glorious room off the Palais Royal. Chef Guy Martin's global-contemporary mood dominates the four-course lineup, beginning with a chilled soup of yellow peppers and pineapple, then rare and lush tuna belly jeweled with bits of mango and radish confit and an oddity of raw potatoes in saffron cream. But the chef bows to tradition too, in his tasting of rabbit to start and classic calf's head, followed by the cheese trolley and dessert—tangy rhubarb and wild strawberries, perhaps.

Still the hottest ticket in town more than a year after the legendary master leaped out of premature retirement, L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon (7 Rue de Montalembert; 33-1/42-22-56-56; lunch for two $148) tops our list. We have a choice of reserving at 11:30 for lunch or 6:30 for dinner, or joining the queue. "Let's call it a late lunch," I tell my friend, booking two stools for just after 6. I rage as an indifferent hostess ignores a shivering flock of us early birds huddled outside in the rain. But once she lets us enter, cruelly slow, two by two, I can't believe the luck of our view, which cuts across the kitchen. We try the carpaccio of scallops to start and the squid sautéed in peppery tomato water, then share both the pork chop with marjoram and lamb chops. With a glass of wine each and a dessert sampler offering five or six slivers of fabulous tartes du tradition, you have a Robuchon indulgence for $74 each.

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