I like Saint Pierre far more than sister French Kitchen. For a fish freak lover like me, a restaurant sharing the same name as a fish (yup, Saint Pierre is also known as John Dory, a small fact gleaned from Julia Child’s My Life in France which, by the way, is a fabulous read) is one after my own heart ha. Service was flawless, the chef charismatic and most importantly, the flavours of the food were so clean and distinct that my palate was doing the happy dance by the end of the meal.
The 3 course lunch ($48++) turned into so much more cuz Saint Pierre serves, by far, the most pre-meal nibbles I’ve ever seen, and all complementary too. Besides cheese sticks with bacon (which I forgot to snap a shot of) and boring bread rolls, there’s black olive and sundried tomato chips, and an interesting trio of cod in air dried olive crumble, fried sardine sticks and anchovy dip.
The first amuse bouche of the day: salmon mousse with home-smoked salmon crusted with capers and yuzu zest, ginger dust, citrus and saffron gel, and olive oil powder. Sounds very complicated, yet it’s such a nice surprise to find that it tasted anything but. This succeeded in making me look forward to my first course even more!
Admittedly, the olive oil marinated mackerel fell short of expectations. I like its smooth oiliness but not the bouillabaisse jelly base and dots of rouille dressing cuz they were pretty bland.
I heard nothing but raves for the duck confit risotto with smoked duck breast so I reckon it’s gotta be quite good.
The chef sent out another complimentary amuse bouche right after the starters, this time a killer langoustine tortellini with lobster cream, crunchy bits of lobster jelly and rich lobster bisque. This was so good that I wish I wish I could have this as my main!
That said, I still adore my main of white miso marinated black cod! Perfectly cooked and incredibly umami. And it’s a good thing I like fennel too, what with the theme of braised fennel, warm fennel and roma tomato salad and fennel emulsion by the side.
The neatly presented roasted lamb saddle with spinach and mascarpone stuffing, ratatouille and fondant potatoes.
Desserts were decent though nowhere as awesome as the savoury. If I have to choose just one word to describe Grandma Stroobant’s flourless Belgian chocolate cake, it’s “decadent”. Layered with dark chocolate mousse and paired with a scoop of absolutely ferrero rocher praline ice cream, this was so rich (in the best way) that it’s a good thing that portion was small enough to be just right.
The warm granny smith apple tart was average to me but the almond ice cream was a hit. Refreshing with a strong almond flavour that didn’t taste artificial at all.
I was already feeling ultra happy and satisfied with lunch when petit fours arrived. And gosh, lunch really ended with a bang with the small and harmless looking piece of smoked caramel. I put it in my mouth and bam, the smoky flavour was released as it melted! Potent stuff there.
Just 2 more words to add: par excellence =)
The lamb looks good!
Sounds like a great deal (:
Quick question: So does petite fours doesn’t neccessarily means 4 different kinds? haha
Ahh.. I just googled my own question.. lolx “petit fours” literally means “small oven” in french..
huiyuan: I didn’t try it so I can’t say how good it tastes.. But I agree it does look good =)
Stargirl: Yes, it is! You gotta try it sometime.
Daniel: Haha, your qn makes me laugh =D I think most people are misled by the word “four”.. Should read them together and just treat it as one word haha.
petit four…you are right Daniel, the translation is “little oven” but it means “low fire” or more precisely “low temperature”.
It was first mentioned in 1807 in a french book called “l’almanach des gourmands” referring then to a small dry cake made of almond paste, stuffed dry fruits, liquor and rolled in melted sugar.It was so popular that it even gave it’s name to a new “profession”.
Sorry i love my food history
LF