Saint Pierre

Hello,

I arrived in Singapore a few month ago and am a big big food lover:)
I visited Saint Pierre twice since april, once for lunch and once for diner and both time i had a adorable experience.
First surprise is to have a truly natural welcome. you may find the decor a bit "cold" but the waiting staff compensate in warmth. Second surprise: a french sommelier! Hold on, i mean a real one! A sommelier who knows his wine...i ate in every single french restaurant in singapore and i can confidently say that french sommelier are an endangered species! we may have a couple left on our little sunny island and i am not sure if they would reproduce. Anyway Saint Pierre's sommelier is one of them...and he knows his stuff!
Lunch: At 28$ for 2 course you can barely found better value for money ( in Paris i have a Sandwich at that price ). I started "light": a classic panfried foie gras with caramelised apple and old port sauce. The waiter had recommended this dish as the "house" speciality and it looked like he was very enthusiastic about it. My colleague had a smoked salmon salmon salad with ikura dressing after the waiter told her that the salmon was "home smoked".
The foie gras was if not the best, one of the best i ever had, even in France! As for the smoked salmon, well....it is not the commercial over salted orangy dry stuff that i had at occasional cocktails...it is sweet, soft, smooth while the ikura ( salmon roe) popped in the mouth adding texture to a very simple dish.
we both took a cod for main ( my colleague is boring ) and it was a perfectly executed juicy piece of fish. The miso cod is nothing new i remember it for the first time at Nobu but his was spicier and dryer ...maybe a different type of cod? Saint Pierre cod has nothing to envy to the original, mainly when paired with a red wine sauce that matched my glass of cote du rhone.
Diner: Here the atmosphere is totally different: what i though was cold at lunch was transformed in a cosy small room where the dimmed light and the soft acid jazz reminded me of trendy bars in europe.
As the trolley of aperitif approached, the sommelier ask me if i would take the same champagne then last time for lunch...and that was touching considering that i was there once only more than one month earlier. However they have 6 champagne by the glass and i was happy to see that not everybody carries supermarket brand as the house pour!
My husband is from Champagne and he ordered a bottle he haven't see since he arrived in Asia: De souza! A Portuguese name for an underrated champagne producer.
It was also a good choice as we move on the degustation menu: Most of the starters were seafood, all fresh, elegant and creative.
The first course is a lobster salad with a tabouleh, an interested and refreshing approach of a classical Moroccan dish revisited "fine dinning" style. A dish rather complex but a smart way to introduce you to what the meal is going to be like. A bit like a resume of the situation on plate!
Next come a Tapas plate with spanish ham, smoked mozzarella and momotaro tomato. When you drink champagne, one of the best accompaniment is salted ham...here nothing is cooked, it is just a few ingredients that the chef has decided to put together, like fleur de sel on sweet tomato...and it works perfectly. the next dish was a vichyssoise. A vichyssoise used to be a cold soup cooked with vichy water. I doubt that today we still use vichy water but i can't see a dish called a eviantoise or a pannatoise, For this menu they decided to associate caviar and cauliflower, a reference to Joel Robuchon except that this dish had texture! Texture from a paper thin crouton of poilane bread.
Next was my favorite: Red Mullet! A small tartlette with tomato marmalade and red mullet just cooked...it will only work with super fresh fish otherwise the flesh rends to fall apart ...no comment, simply my favorite.
Next was the foie gras and again a beautiful dish to look at. Surely those guy must have done some art school or something.
We both took salmon for main as we wanted to finish the champagne before looking for a dessert wine , but also because chicken is not the most exciting ingredient for me...but we had a choice and i am sure that it is a good thing to be able to choose your main course during a 10 course menu.
The difficulty with fish is the cooking time needs to be very precise. My salmon was juicy and crispy, a perfect combination of crunch and moist simply layered with the fatty taste of the fish. It was paired with lobster tortellini and braised onion...a choice of few ingredients matching nicely, no pretention, nothing fancy but strait to the point! we had fancy earlier and we were please with a dish as simple as salmon.
during all the meal the service has been pretty attentive, disregarding a customer who spilled his red wine on his neighbor, but from far it was rather funny.
Finally the dessert. Dessert are the finale of a great meal: if the dessert is not right the wle meal ends up as an average experience and i would not spend my time writting all of this if this was an average evening.
So, to cut a long story short, in my view this was an experience who brought me back in Paris in some of the very best michelin rated restaurant...i definitively recommend this place.

I was told dining here would be an unforgettable experience. Well, at least that statement can work both ways.


On the Saint Pierre website, a writer said that the chef brought French food to life. After a couple dining experiences here, I felt that the chef brough French food to...well you get the idea.

Firstly, I am appalled by hype surrounding this ridiculously-overpriced-and unjustified- type of restaurant. Its been 8 years since Saint Pierre's opening. The prices have gone up exponentially. The decor is starting to age, with the exception of a couple minor renovations. The food has been steadily declining for the past 8 years (when it first opened, the food was remotely edible if I recall correctly).

Secondly, I am also mortified that this restaurant might get a Michelin star. It already has been accredited by the Relais & Chateaux. Clearly, something fishy involving monetary funds is going on.

I feel that I have to mention that Emmaneul Stroobant - the chef - show "Chef in Black" is a complete utter joke -- a show that lampoons local fare. He is Belgian, not Asian.

There is absolutely no reason to even try the food in Saint Pierre. The ambiance is relatively pleasant, though if you bring kids (or at least people that look like children, for that matter), be prepared to be shown to the worst table (it only adds to the already abhorrent experience). Waiters will not bother much with you unless you are A) a celebrity, or someone who looks rich B) Caucasian, or a very well dressed Asian (the best tables are reserved for white people).
I don't know whether the "head" waitress wearing an ugly outfit is still working there. She was one of most pretentious and pompous waitresses I have met in my life.
When the waitresses/waiters blurt all the specialties to you in a rapid-fire succession, do remember to perk up your ears a bit. Or wear a hearing aid. They hardly have a clue on what they are talking about, let alone seemingly simple questions you might ask.
When you ask for bread, they will insist they are always baking in the oven. Right before starters are served, they will give you a scalding hot piece of bread that will burn your fingers first, then your tongue (a similar experience in Restaurant Nicolas). Though in between meals, they will randomly shove a piece of cold bread on your bread plate.
Now the food...
Saint Pierre has been famous for its foie gras menu -- specifically, the perennial "favorite": Pan-fried foie gras with caramelized green apples and old port sauce. The reason why this is a specialty baffles me completely. There is no texture on the foie gras, which is surrounded by a "moat" of bland "sauce" they call a reduction. (from what I understand, you should expect a crisp exterior and a melt-in-your-mouth interior). Well, unfortunately, it did not; in fact, i found it a little bit slushy in my mouth. The more accurate name for the dish should be: "Regurgitation of Foie Gras drenched in a pool of tasteless reduction."
There was a seafood cream soup infused with "smoke" for flavor. I will not comment further on what it reminded me of.
The seafood main course with random morsels of shrimp, scallops, langoustines, etc was the first dish that was edible. Although a dish scattered with pieces of seafood and a lemon garnish will not fill up your appetite.
I also tried a rack of lamb with what looked like an Asian polenta wheat cake on the side. The lamb was grilled nicely and had a succulent texture; however, I took one bite of the wheat cake and pushed it aside.
I left the meal at that, paid a hefty bill, and left.

All in all, a nightmare experience, if I would be so kindly put it.

Saint Pierre's is a relatively small French restaurant located within Central Mall, the restaurant isn't hard to find, though if you don't live in the area and don't drive, it probably isn't the easiest to get to....

looking through the menu, it was hard to decide what to have, but since i had heard that their foie gras was one of the better ones in town, not to mention the wide selection they had on offer, i decided to start my meal off with one of the foie gras choices on the menu. I eventally ordered the Royale de Cepes et Foie Gras Roti, which consisted of braised leek with black winter truffles, royale of porcini mushroom, caramelised hokkaido scallop and cubes of roasted foie gras, and for my main course, one of their specials of the night, Roasted Lamb... both dishes were absolutely mouth watering.. and the lamb was probably the best I've had ever... it quite literaly melted in your mouth... my friend had the Ventreche de Thon Aux Lentilles, the flamed japanese toro with warm salad of green lentils, tomato-fumet dressing, imperial soy sauce and grated fresh wasabi... which was beautifully presented, and I'm told tasted just as good... and the sea bass.. another special of the day..


For dessert, I had the Creme Brulee Au Sake, which was an interesting twist to the normal creme brulee you usually get, though I wasn't quite sure about the rice pudding that came with it.. though that's probably more cos i'm not a huge fan of rice puddings in general. My friend had the Clafouti Aux Pommes et Chataignes, or caramelised winter apple clafouti with home made candied chestnut and marron glacé ice-cream... for the english speaking of us...


I was really impressed with my meal overall, though I did find it a tad expensive... I figure, anything that comes up to above $100 per person without wine is a little pricey.. but, at least you get quality and a memorable dining experience.. I think I'll definitely be going back there again.. though, I may have to save up a bit first... =)