Saint Pierre

Maureen
Maureen
August 01, 2012
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Today is our 2nd anniversary. Unfortunately, the boy is now stuck in training camp, so we have to celebrate it last weekend. He bought me an oven as an anniversary gift, while I decided to bring him to a good dinner at Saint Pierre.

Dinner that night didn’t start off well. I baked two Hokkaido chiffon cakes for the boy and dropped by Saint Pierre early that afternoon to pass it to the restaurant. I do understand that some restaurants do not allow outside food to be consumed within, but I went to try my luck.

The kitchen staff who attended to me was a very friendly chap. I showed him the Hokkaido chiffon cakes which I baked and asked if he could help me to refrigerate it and it would be eaten after our dinner. He said,”OK, he will let the manager know about it.” And he even wrote my name on the cake.

In the afternoon 4.30pm, the restaurant called me twice. When I called back, a waitress picked up and said she wanted to confirm my reservation. When I went that night, the manager came to my table, before I ordered anything, and tell me they can’t let me have the cakes in the restaurant for hygiene reasons.

Well, I kinda expected it but I thought they should have rejected me earlier instead of now. Anyway, I am still going to be fair in my review of the restaurant.
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Chef Leandros Stagogiannis used to work in Restaurant 53 before coming to Saint Pierre as the Chef de Cuisine. I think he looks like Hagrid from Harry Potter!

Each of us ordered a degustation menu ($148 per pax). It started with some sourdough bread, not a fan of hard and tough bread.

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We were served with amuse bouches, one of which is the Grilled Chicken Slice with Onions.

But we couldn’t eat it because there was no fork nor spoon on the table. The staff didn’t notice it. I had to wave for a long time before catching their attention to bring our utensils.

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Foie gras arancini
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Pumpkin Soup, too creamy for me.
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Tomato mousse poached in liquid nitrogen is a very interesting dish. The tomato mouse was poured onto a spoon, then immersed in liquid nitrogen to “freeze” it. Liquid nitrogen has a temperature of -196 degrees! When it is done, we have to eat it immediately. First, the cold sensation was felt, then as it melts in the mouth, I can taste the sweet and sour combination from the tomato mousse.
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Couteau de Mer is french razor clam with tomato and coriander salsa, shaved fennel, dill, hanaho flowers, jam, swiss chard, sorel and hijiki seaweed. Couldn’t really taste the razor clam though.
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And here is Poached and grill langoustine with broccoli pesto, japanese cucumber and langoustine consomme. The langoustine was done perfect, with the strong flavours from the consomme.
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Foie gras parfait was served with beetroot tile, baby mache, rose apple and fig-port reduction was a pretty side. The dish was flavourful and very creamy.
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One of our favourites for the night is King oyster confit with pickled shimeiji, raw enoki, lotus root and kombu sauce. Kombu sauce gave the savoury touch to the king oyster, with small refreshing nashi pear balls to complement. Nice presentation yea?
Saint Pierre
Pan-fried snails came in different portions. One was lying in garlic scented oats, which we find it too salty. The rest was drizzled with truffle dressing, the strong flavours from truffle complemented well. But we didn’t like the mixed green leaves at the bottom, it was too healthy with practically no dressing.
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I like the barbecued iberico pork secreto with rapeseed stems and leek dauphine dumplings! The iberio pork does look and taste like satay, but it is definitely more tender and well marinated. I like the leek dumplings, a very unique dish.
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As we slowly transit to the desserts, we had sweet corn with barley sprouts, yogurt and cherry almond sorbet. Perhaps I was too used to eating corn alone, the sourness from the cherry almond sorbet wasn’t welcomed here.
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Carrot parfait with coconut ice cream and coconut crumble represents the chef’s artistic approach nicely. I can see much effort goes into carving the carrot parfait.
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We end off the dinner with a coffee dessert.
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And a cherry sweet with some alcohol in it. Pardon me for my not-so-nice photos, didn’t want to use flash in the restaurant and my hands aren’t stable enough.
Generally, we enjoyed the presentation of each dish, but as for the dishes, there isn’t really a ‘wow’ factor. The service was pretty laid back and throughout my whole meal, nobody came to ask how was I doing and if the food was okay. But I have seen the manager walking to other tables doing that. We also had some trouble trying to catch the staff attention.
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Happy 2nd anniversary, baby. It has been a wonderful journey with you. When I saved enough money, I will bring you to your favourite restaurant ok!
Saint Pierre
Address: 3 Magazine Road#01-01 Central Mall
Tel: 6438 0887
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