This is an iconic restaurant and you should reserve 8-12 months prior. It is a once in a lifetime experience and if you don't eat at high end restaurants all the time, this is a great special occasion destination restaurant. It has all the pomp...and circumstance and if you treat it like a show performance, you get exceptional value for the money.
I am not a food critic but I have eaten at many 1 star and some 2 & 3 star Michelin restaurants. Although the food presentation is exceptional and the food quality is quite good, in my opinion, I do not believe they will get back their 3rd star. If I am being honest, the food quality is more attune to a 1 star Michelin restaurant. We are talking food quality, not food presentation. All the dishes we had were good but nothing was exceptional. There were quite a few restaurants we ate it during our trip to France which had better dishes that Paul Bocuse but more variation. We had their signature wild sea bass stuffed in puff pastry presented tableside. Presentation: magnificent. Food taste: very good but not wow, the best I have ever tasted. Probably not even notable in my mind.
Service was good but again not exceptional. Partly is because I did not speak French and I am sure wait staff is much more comfortable in French. I don't think Lyon gets as many international visitors as Paris so I would say the majority of the diners at the restaurant speak French. They have a set way of doing things and I think this has probably not changed for 30 years. However, any little variation, it seems like they can't really accommodate or adjust, which in my opinion, is the mark of a great 2 star and 3 star restaurant. I ordered more than one wine and wanted 2 wines served side by side and that seemed to confuse them. Pace was really fast for the first few courses and that was weird since they only have 1 sitting for each table (I think). We had to purposely eat slower to slow down the pace.
All in all, still a wonderful experience. I would do it once in my life for the experience but I have no burning desire to go back. I have had better meals and a better overall experience in many other restaurants in the world and given the cost, the wait time for a reservation and the location outside of Lyon, there are many other alternatives.More