I am currently home for the holidays in Singapore and this afternoon, I visited Les Amis with a friend who had some dining vouchers to redeem. It is hardly customary for me to go to such posh places back home as cheap and good alternatives are readily available at hawker centres or casual eateries, but after redemption the lunch here would be as good as free, so why not?
Les Amis, flagship of the Les Amis restaurant group, is located in a little side street just off the main Orchard Road shopping belt, and is a well-known establishment with a reasonable history in Singapore's gastronomic scene; it is commonly regarded as the granddaddy of fine-dining in this country, and the inspiration behind many newer start-ups. Perhaps not surprisingly, the cooking is very traditional French. Les Amis is currently in 53rd place on the St. Pellegrino's list, and is the only fine restaurant in Singapore to be a member of the prestigious 'Les Grands Tables du Monde' association.
We arrived full of anticipation for the upcoming experience, and personally I was also curious to find out how Les Amis would match up to my prior experiences with gastronomic establishments in Europe; considering the style of the cuisine and prices equivalent to those charged at Michelin-starred restaurants, I thought it would be reasonable to evaluate Les Amis by similarly high standards.
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| Nice table by the window - lots of light, yet shielded from public view by a discreet curtain. |
Upon arrival, we were cordially received by the manager, who promptly directed one of the servers to show us to our table by the window, as I had requested in an earlier email. The restaurant was extremely bright and spacious with a very high ceiling, but I couldn't help noticing how quiet it was for a Saturday - perhaps a reflection of the prices charged and the fact that fine-dining isn't quite a part of Singapore's food culture.
Lunch here is a pretty good deal - $68 for 3 courses or $88 for 4 courses (with 2 starters) before the service charge, comparable to set lunch prices at top restaurants in London, with ample options for each course. No prizes for guessing that we both went for the 4-course option.
Bread and butter to start: this was my choice of peanut & walnut bread and sea salt bread, served slightly warm. I preferred the former's texture with delicious crunchy bits nestled within the moist fluffy bread. The sea salt bread had a rather hard crust that wasn't the most appealing to bite through, and internally it was somewhat dry.
Two types of butter to go with the bread: unsalted butter and cep mushroom butter. Both were excellent, possessing a lovely velvety texture and rich creamy taste. The cep butter stood out in particular for its robust aroma and deep earthy flavour. The butters' presentation on a stone plate, and the speckled bits within the cep butter instantly reminded me of Marcus Wareing in London (where a burnt caramel butter is served, and the speckled bits are due to the caramel). A dash of rock salt from Austria was provided on the side, though I didn't really think it was necessary; neither of the breads needed it, and the butters were perfectly fine as they came - unless, of course, the customer happened to prefer salted butter.
Amuse-bouche: fresh Norwegian salmon on tarte flambée.
This was a straightforward and pleasant way to start the meal proper. Slices of raw salmon were simply put together in a mound on a very thin layer of baked dough, and garnished with chives and salad leaves. The quality of this oily fish was evident - it was tender, succulent, with an almost creamy mouthfeel and a characteristically deep flavour. The crispy tarte flambée crust provided further texture while chives imparted a pleasant aroma to match the rich taste of the fish.
Starter 1: marinated maguro (Japanese tuna) with mange tout, pickled black radish, salad leaves (including cress), tuna roe, fennel, and an agrume (citrus) emulsion.
The tuna had a strangely fishy taste and a rather fibrous and chewy texture - all signs that it was probably not as fresh as it should have been (thankfully, no tummyaches after the meal). The elaborate toppings fared much better, and compensated for the dubious taste and texture of the fish with their pleasant crunchy textures and fresh clean flavours. A particularly spicy and savoury edge was contributed by the roe and cress - both of which were excellent and generously given. The citrus emulsion was equally refreshing and delightful, possessing the right balance of sweetness and acidity as well as a smooth viscous texture.
Starter 2: lightly smoked eel served warm, with garlic croutons, ratte potatoes, raw fennel salad, and a sauce of beef broth with salad dressing.
This was much more successful than the first starter. The eel was tender, moist and very tasty, with a mild smokiness. It was complemented by both the crispy garlic croutons and the crunchy fennel salad, with very pleasant aromas and textures, and even the blanched potatoes on which each piece of eel was sat had a wonderfully delicate and non-starchy texture. To top off this lovely dish, a sauce of beef broth with salad dressing contributed a fitting richness in flavour, yet always with a fresh edge that kept this dish feeling light and balanced.
Starter 3: ciabatta-wrapped crispy egg with Lomo Iberico ham, served on a bed of spinach and smoked mushroom ragout.
This dish displayed a lovely variety of textures from the crispy ciabatta coating to the velvety slither of ham, the firm and gelatinous egg white, and the runny and creamy yolk enhancing the richness of the thick mushroom stew. The flavours were unabashedly robust and comforting - you can't really go wrong with a combination of the earthy, smoky and savoury.
Starter 4: herb-roasted sot-l'y-laisse (also known as chicken oysters), seaweed and oyster emulsion, fava beans, tomato and almond vinaigrette, basil oil.
This exquisite starter was my favourite of the lot - delicate in execution yet incredibly intense in flavours. Sot-l'y-laisse actually refers to two small round pieces of dark meat near the thighs of the chicken, and translates roughly from French as 'the fool leaves it there', since unskilled carvers tend to leave them on the carcass. They are also commonly known as chicken oysters because of their shape. Here, the two pieces of meat were superbly cooked - with a thin crispy outer layer from the roasting, pleasant herb aromas, and extremely tender and juicy texture within. Its rich sweetbread-like taste and texture was enhanced by small dollops of a creamy seaweed and oyster emulsion with an astonishing umami, as well as almond shavings with a characteristically sweet and nutty flavour. Accompaniments of salad, vinaigrette and basil oil contributed a wholesome freshness to this understated and luxurious dish.
Main course 1: sous-vide (slow-cooked) bar de ligne (line-caught wild seabass), with seasonal vegetables, crispy lentils, and a seaweed-bonito consommé.
For a fillet of fish that had been cooked sous-vide (as proudly highlighted on the menu), this felt strangely rough and dry (i.e. overcooked); there was very little of the silkiness and succulence that one usually expects as a result of this procedure. A question of inadequate control of time and temperature perhaps? The accompaniments fared much better; the bed of sweet diced vegetables, coupled with toppings of crispy lentils and aromatic chives, provided a pleasant multitude of subtle flavours and textures, while the concentrated and savoury broth (poured into the dish upon presentation) made up somewhat for the dryness and blandness of the fillet. On the whole though, this dish was still rather mediocre and disappointing.
Main course 2: crispy skin guinea fowl, savoy cabbage pickled in balsamic vinegar, courgette, root vegetables and smoked onion ragout.
This was definitely the better main course. I did have some issues with the 'crispy skin' - it was more lumpy and chewy than crisp - but this was a minor concern and the rest of the dish was generally very solid. The thick fowl slices were remarkably tender and succulent, and their delicate flavour was aptly enhanced by a very fragrant and tasty onion stew. The pickled savoy cabbage (reminiscent of German sauerkraut in all aspects except colour) and sliced vegetable accompaniments provided an effective balance for this rather heavy and indulgent dish.
Dessert 1: 'a fancy lemon tart' with thyme ice-cream.
A signature dessert of the restaurant, created by former pastry chef Daniel Texter who had trained at Noma, this was creative and simply charming - essentially, a deconstructed lemon tart with all its components (lemon curd, soft meringue, cookie dough and biscuit base) beautifully spread out on the plate. Two scoops of thyme ice-cream with a strong citrusy edge further enhanced the light and refreshing nature of this dessert.
Dessert 2: variations on coconut with mango, lime and Thai basil.
On top of full marks for taste and presentation, this dessert benefited from a wonderfully apt and familiar combination of tropical ingredients; it is always nice, I think, for a restaurant to respect its surroundings and have a couple of relevant dishes to reflect its indigenous environment. Here, the main focus of coconut was featured in several delightful ways: most prominently as ice-cream spheres with a thin dark chocolate shell (to imitate a real coconut!), and also as cream (in the forms of a pretty swirl and tiny balls), jelly, fresh slithers, and toasted dessicated sprinklings. Bits of juicy diced mango glazed with lime jelly, and aromatic fresh Thai basil leaves completed this picture of sunny tropical perfection.
Petit fours to end the meal: lemon madeleine, vanilla canele and chocolate fudge. All pretty good; the fudge in particular stood out for its rich heady taste and velvety texture.
Summary notes: cooking was generally decent with a few hits and misses; the main kitchen seems to handle poultry far better than fish. Desserts were outstanding and definitely the highlight of this lunch - kudos to the pastry chef and his team.
As the pioneer of fine-dining in Singapore, the restaurant's service certainly had some room for improvement; while the manager was friendly and attentive (e.g. he promptly brought my friend a box of tissues when he heard him sneezing - very nice touch), his team was rather less stellar. Our main waitress remained somewhat cold and unsmiling throughout the meal, and the service staff in general didn't always seem to know their dishes very well; verbal descriptions were scanty (nothing more than what we could read off the menu) and when I made more detailed queries on the food there was quite a bit of hemming and hawing and going back to check with the kitchen. At the beginning of the meal, there was also some confusion as to who had ordered which starters, and the commis waiters appeared a little unsure if they had arrived at the correct table, while they waited for their more experienced colleagues to serve us the right dishes.
However, I wish to credit one affable young lad (I reckon he was quite a new member of staff), who though was not serving our table, approached me at the end of the meal (while my friend was in the washroom) to ask what we had thought of the food and our visit in general; he had been the only worker in the restaurant to bother to solicit any form of feedback. He also spoke the best English amongst his colleagues, and led me on a brief kitchen tour upon request (I'm not attaching any photos to this review because they show a near-empty kitchen with staff sitting around idly after finishing the lunch service - not the most flattering image to be honest).
It may be premature to judge the true quality of this restaurant after only one visit, and perhaps I have been spoiled in Europe where the art of service is more highly regarded, but suffice it to say that I am not tempted to return to Les Amis just yet - at least, not when I would have to pay full Michelin-level prices.
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