Les Amis

Les Amis

Shaw Centre

Being ranked at 14th in Asia’s top 50, this is one of the restaurants that I am interested to visit. Had the lunch menu and thought that it was quite cheap actually. They have 3 different set lunches priced at $45, $60 and $120. I got the $60 one while my dining companion got the $45.

 Bread was served first as always and it was really a huge basket. We have sour dough, olive, brioche, ham and one that is like a mini baguette. Bread was good here. Warm and fluffy and I finished quite a lot of it. The brioche was less buttery though and less fragrant but still pretty good.

So, lets start with the $45 menu.

Salad with oil dressing, tomatoes. Taste was expected and refreshing.

The second course is an onion soup. The soup was deliciously fragrant and not too queasy as it isn’t super oily.

The black cod I thought was really well cooked and presentation is quite pretty too. Fish was not overcooked at all despite it being quite a big chunk. Flesh inside was smooth and melts quite quickly. Really good main I thought.

Dessert was a fruit tart. Isn’t too sweet and the biscuit wasn’t too dry. Goes well with the yoghurt beside it. It’s my friend’s birthday and I only realised it 30min before we started out meal! Luckily, managed to call them in time to write a happy bday message for the dessert. Quite a good dessert.

And then we move on to the $60 menu.

Maki of smoked salmon and celeriac. The maki was quite interesting as it wasn’t rice in the maki roll but some vegetable strands. I personally didn’t like the presentation as the salmon looks black and stale even though it wasn’t. This is I think a fusion course that failed to shine. But still a not bad course.

This cube consists of alternating layers of anago (eel) and foie gras. It actually looks a lot like our kueh lapis. Taste was not bad though. The foie gras was really smooth. This combination of tastes actually works I thought. Quite a good dish.

Angel hair pasta with lobster, crispy ebi and parmesan. This was a small plate of pasta but the taste was quite flavoursome. Pasta felt fragrant and slightly creamy and of course not dry at all. The ebi added a bit of asian flavour to it. Quite a good mains.

Dessert was mango puree with some mango cubes in it. Pretty normal I thought.

This traditional French pastry was really well made here. It is lemon flavoured and the crust was slightly crisp while the inside is moist. Very delicious.

Les Amis is really quite a pretty restaurant. I wasn’t blown away by the lunch menu though. While the $45 serves normal French courses and the taste is what you would have expected, the $60 menu aims to do fusion courses – Japanese with French. It was good but not excellent I feel as it doesn’t come as sophisticated and delicious as I thought it would be. Maybe cause I’ve also been comparing it to Andre which is in a realm of its own as it loves to do Japanese-French fusion courses which are all executed perfectly. Maybe Les Amis serves more daring and delicious courses at night. It was still a good restaurant though as service was good and prompt while the interior is quite beautiful.

Verdict: A good restaurant. (Worth a visit)