LE Restaurant and Asian Tapas Bar

LE Restaurant and Asian Tapas Bar

Suntec City

Have long heard about this bar and when I stepped into it, everything felt so UK. The first two restaurants that came to my mind were Yauatcha and Hakkasan! They are all really similar in concept as they are all really dark restaurants with just a few spot lights lighting up your food. A good effort from the Paradise group to introduce such an upmarket restaurant that would usually appeal more to caucasians. Would like to see more of such restaurants in Singapore actually. Have always hoped for a ‘Yauatcha-like’ restaurant in Sg and finally it’s here. When you enter this restaurant, you will first enter the bar and through a pretty dark walkway before you reach the main dining area. there’s an open kitchen. Very modern and western decoration but slightly overdone I felt as I am not too comfortable with having a Buddha in the dining area – it doesn’t feel too respectful somehow.

Dim sum baskets hanging on the wall.

I like the shiny metallic cups used to serve tea.

So we got the ‘dirty’ duck. According to the waitress, it’s named dirty as it looks dark and brown. But is actually marinated with loads of herbs (I could only remember basil) before deep frying. The meat is then pulled into shreds and placed into the wraps for us before serving. This was the restaurant signature dish and tbh, it looked and tasted similar to the crispy aromatic duck that you get in almost all UK chinese restaurants. It is pretty good though as the skin was super crispy while sauce was fragrant. The wrap is slightly different from the usual wrap we get at peking duck restaurants as this is fluffier and more doughy. The wrap was good. $30.

Very well plated crispy wasabi prawns we have here. The wasabi mayo wasn’t over powering and not too much mayo was used. Each succulent prawn is evenly and well coated with the mayonnaise. They also make an effort of cut the mango pieces into diamond shapes. $20 ish for 6 prawns.

Cod fish with butter mushroom sauce. This is a fusion dish as sauce is quite western but can still be served as an oriental dish. Very smooth and moist cod fish definitely and the sauce is something that I haven’t had before. Super delicious sauce and I almost finished all of it. It doesn’t even make you feel thirsty after that. $40.

Then we got the seafood angel hair with truffle oil for sharing. There wasn’t any truffle taste in this bowl of noodles actually and just felt like seafood cao mian with too much oil. I had to get green chilli to bring out the fragrance in this dish. This was a miss I felt though many people seem to enjoy it. Maybe should have gotten the less heavy tasting noodles as that will really put the chef’s skills to test.

And so verdict is, this is a good meal. Very fresh concept in Singapore and I realised they do make an effort to have some fusion dishes in each section of the menu. Ah, that’s when it’s dangerous as it usually is very subjective and can be a hit or miss easily. Like the cod fish is definitely a hit for me but the truffle oil angelhair was a big miss too. Really like the way these dishes are plated and reminds me of the yummy cantonese restaurants I’ve been to in London. Service was also attentive and friendly. Love the open kitchen concept as you can see all the chefs in action though restaurant was only 4 tables full. Maybe it is one of the place that I will revisit.