Le Bistrot @ Stadium

I have been looking forward to our first Valentine's Day dinner ever since the one last year where it clashed with Lunar New Year, hence not able to celebrate properly. So he brought me back to the place where we had our very first date - Le Bistrot at the premises of the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The place was very crowded because it happened to be the night Eric Clapton was in town, having a performance at the Indoor Stadium itself. Nevertheless, we made a reservation for 8:00pm and arrived slightly earlier. Coincidentally, we were seated at the very place where we last sat too!

Unlike other restaurants, this place does not have a special Valentine's Day menu. Theirs is a normal set or a la carte menu, with a fixed price. The price did not increase for Valentine's Day too, which is a good thing!

Starter was bread with soup. Mine is French Onion (how can anyone go to a French restaurant without tasting the onion soup?) and his was mushroom cappuccino, with cream on top.

Bread with Olive Oil

Mushroom Cappaccino Soup

Authentic French Onion Soup

For my main course, I ordered boeuf burgignon, but the dish came out small albeit tasty.

His was braised leg of lamb (what else?) and looks as good as it tastes!

Finally, for dessert, we had vanilla bean ice cream with raspberry caramel tart (for me) and three different kinds of creme brulee (for him). Since both of us have a sweet tooth, we devoured everything on our dessert plate!

Vanilla Bean ice cream with Raspberry Caramel Tart

Different types of Creme Brulee

This is really a memorable and cosy place. How I wish we can come here again!

Food - 3.5 out of 5
Ambience - 4 out of 5
Service - 3.5 out of 5

Price - 4 out of 5 (especially being Valentine's Day, the price is very low compared to other places!)

The French Kitchen @ Central Mall

We tried this new restaurant on Friday afternoon. Not so new actually, but new as in we have never tried it before. Since there was a promotion on a Julia Child set lunch, we took the opportunity to try it.

And I must say, the food is heavenly! Kudos and compliments to the chef! The beef is so perfect! I have never tasted a juicier and more tender beef than this! And the creme brulee, it is just so sweet and just the right texture!

The ambience is great too! Nice interior decoration makes for a cosy meal, the service is pretty good, and the pricing is not too bad for lunch!

If you have not tried that place, I will highly recommend it!

The French Kitchen (entrance to the restaurant)

Table setting

Part of the interior decoration

Raisin and rye bread with butter

Pre-Appetizer : Consomme Ambassadeur

My appetizer : French Onion Soup
(how can I not have this in a French restaurant?)

His appetizer : Foie Gras de Canard a la Plancha

His main course : Boeuf Bourguignon
(which later ended up as my main course)

My main course : Cabillard En Nage
(which later ended up as his main course)

My dessert : Moelleux Au Chocolat

His dessert : Creme Brulee

Cuisine : French
Food : 4.5 out of 5

Ambience : 4 out of 5

Service : 4 out of 5

Price : 3 out of 5

Picotin @ Turf Club Road

I was at Picotin at Turf Club Road last Saturday for dinner. A friend introduced me to this place when we were wondering where to have a gathering. According to him, it is a nice place with good ambience, perfect for casual dates! Thus, I checked it out.

The chef Sebastien is really nice! I sent him an email asking about a personalised menu, and he actually replied! In the end, due to the varying tastes of the group, I decided it would be better to choose from the a la carte menu instead, which is already pretty good in variety!

The place is along the stretch of the old Turf Club. It is a bit inconvenient to get there without a car, but at least it is not too far from the main road, so is still within walking distance from a public bus stop. Of course, there are also free shuttle services from certain designated train stations, but the shuttle buses come only once in a while.

The restaurant itself is cosy, even when we dined alfresco. There are two alfresco areas - a normal and a tented one. The normal alfresco area is sheltered, next to a fence with creepers and leaves. At night there is dim lighting by candlelight. Really a cosy place for dates!

We ordered Demi douzaine d’escargots de Bourgogne au beurre d’herbes (escargots), Crevettes grillées, salsa a la mangue et réduction de betterave (king prawns with salsa sauce) and a salmon bruschetta dish which I cannot remember the name for appetisers. The appetisers were shared amongst all eight of us.

For the main course, mine was spaghetti bolognaise (yes, not a good choice, considering it is a French restaurant so I should order something more special), while the rest had Tagine d’agneau (lamb shank), Cote d’agneau pane, champignon et pommes amandine, sauce a l’ail confit (lamb chop), Mignon de porc farci aux prunes et sauce au cidre (pork chop) and oxtail. The lamb shank was good - it consists of a big piece of bone. Needless to say, my friends had a hard but enjoyable time partaking and sucking the bone dry!

Dessert was ice cream and sorbet (with eight flavours), and a couple of them ordered Crepe suzette et glace à la vanille and Crumble a la canelle et aux pommes (apple crumble). There was also a big screen with a rugby match. We seemed to be the only Asian table around as the rest of the tables consisted of Caucasian families, friends, couples and a few hunks too, all enjoying the rugby match!

It was a wonderful dinner! I will definitely go back there again! The menu looks so tempting that I want to go back as many times as possible to try everything on the menu! This place is definitely highly recommended for those who want to try something new and want a cosy ambience to be in, as well as special occasions for couples. The ambience is good, the food is better, and the chef gives personalised service! What can be better than that?

Cuisine : French
Food : 4.5 out of 5
Ambience : 4.5 out of 5
Service : 4.5 out of 5
Price : 3.5 out of 5

Au Petit Salut @ Dempsey

I went to a fantabulous dining place on Saturday night - a cosy French restaurant called Au Petit Salut, the one at Dempsey, although there is another one at Holland Village. Kudos to the chef, because almost everything was perfect! We ordered a la carte instead of the set, so started off with traditional French Onion soup (how can anyone go to a French restaurant and not have onion soup?), pan-friend onglet beef (medium) for me and roasted quail for my friend, and ended off with dessert, where I ordered Creme Brulee and he Orange Souffle. I had a glass of lychee martini, mixed to perfection!

The food is really good, the beef is perfectly medium and the creme brulee is on par with the one I had in England last year. Even the quail is tender and juicy (well, but then that was the first time I actually ate a bird other than chicken and the occasional duck, so there was no basis for any comparison, still it tastes pretty good). Service is good too, the waitress is polite yet not overbearing, and enthusiastic (too enthusiastic at certain times!). The only gripe is that the onion soup is a bit too bland, despite putting pepper in.

We were dining al fresco, but luckily it rained that afternoon, so the weather was not too hot and humid. The ambience is really nice, dimly lit, candlelight, with trees and the roadside just next to us. It kind of reminded me of the open restaurant in Gozo (Malta) which I went to last year, where the dining is by candlelight, with the restaurant being next to the sea. Compared to the Pump Room where we went for drinks after that (it has the worst Long Island Tea I ever tasted - too concentrated!), Au Petit Salut is really a highly recommended place to go to.

Cuisine : French
Food : 4.5 out of 5
Ambience : 4.5 out of 5
Service : 4 out of 5
Price : 3 out of 5