The French Kitchen

After art jamming at Arteastiq and eating the small Bunny bento, we were hungry of course! The boy planned our Valentine’s Day dinner at The French Kitchen, which is located at Central Mall (no, it’s not Clarke Quay Central Shopping Mall, but Central Mall is near Clarke Quay too!)

Initially, he didn’t want to disclose our dinner venue. The only thing he said was,”We are eating French!”. But being the inquisitive one, I was dying to know which restaurant was he bringing me too (actually, I was secretly hoping it was Au Petit Salut because I had a set lunch at Bistro Au Petit Salut and it was good!).

Of course, I didn’t tell him that I was bringing him for Art Jamming too. But after bugging him for a few days (and he kept guessing where would I bring him to), we decided to reveal all our secret missions for that day. (Yes, we can’t keep secrets from each other.)

So last Saturday, we arrived at The French Kitchen for dinner. The restaurant does not serve ala carte menu, but only has 3 set dinner menus for you to choose from. We ordered the Traditional Dubois ($78++/pax) and TFK Degustation ($88++).

*Apologize for the photo quality, I didn’t want to use flash that night as all the tables are quite close to each other.

Our appetizer is a very unique dish. In the small cup, there was Poached Egg in Cauliflower Emulsion, together with parmesan cheese chips and capsicum bruschetta. I thought it was rather unique to have an egg in the cauliflower emulsion, but I guess adding some truffle powder would enhance the flavour more.

Traditional Lobster Bisque with Tiger Prawn Beignet and Leek Custard was good. I was still worried that my tempura tiger prawns would be too drenched but it came with two dry prawns in the plate and a pot of lobster bisque by the side, so you can add as and when you like it.

Gratineted Spanner Crab Cannelloni and Parmesan Beschamel warms the stomach. The cannelloni was stuffed with crab meat and baked in cheesy sauce. Every bite, you have a mixture of pasta, crab and cheese. Perfect for someone who likes cheese.

I enjoyed my Wagyu Beef Cheek with Asparagus and Eggplant Caviar. The beef cheek is slowly braised for 48hours, it melts perfectly in the mouth.

After eating the Cannelloni, there came the Pan Seared Atlantic Sea Scallop with Glazed organic Linguine Pasta and Summer Truffle. The boy was complaining that it was a pasta and cheese overload for him. The scallops was a tad overcooked and slightly salty. We felt that the pasta didn’t go well with the scallops. It would taste better eating the scallops by itself. Perhaps, they shouldn’t have two pasta dishes in the Degustation menu.

His dessert was Traditional Dubois Warm Chocolate Fondant with Caramel Ice Cream. Warm Chocolate Fondant was soft and definitely a dish that couldn’t go too wrong.

I had the Champagne Sabayon with Pear Marmalade and Strawberry, which was well executed. The pale golden dessert had a burst of flavours in the mouth.

So that concludes my Valentine’s Day celebration for this year. 🙂

The waitress in the restaurant was very jovial and friendly. However, as we were seated at a narrow passageway, we have seen the manager dropped utensils and bowls so many times that night, so much so that we were afraid that they would drop something on us too. They have to be more careful when handling the utensils.

I hope you had a great Valentine’s Day too, be it with your loved ones or your friends. Now, I look forward to another eat-drink-be merry occasion!