Singapore - Etoile French Japanese

The Siglap area is not known to be a high-end dining area.  It has been and still is a collection of decent mid-range eateries catering to the folks who live in the Upper East Coast area.  A village feel but a lot more laid back than Holland Village.  Perhaps the proximity to the beach in the East has something to do with the casual and relaxed feel of the area.  Certainly in the old days, many ventured East to the waters and the seafood restaurant row not far from here.  


Etoile is the newcomer to the area.  But it is different to anything we have in the area.  It's always a welcome change to introduce variety into the neighbourhood.  I can only hope that it does well enough to sustain its awkward position tucked away from the main road and right in the midst of what we've come to call Opera Estate, taking up an operatic address on Figaro Street.  (It's accessible through Jalan Tua Kong, and has taken over what used to be a coffee shop).

Bread Basket

The bread was decent but since I'm still in my sourdough phase, I wasn't wowed by it.  But those who like theirs soft, airy and fluffy would like this.  It was subtly oiled and herb-flavoured like a Focaccia would be.  I did prefer the Walnut version as the nuts were roasted and had a fragrant nutty flavour to it.

Scallop Carpaccio topped with Uni and Yuzu

The starter of Scallop Carpaccio was a very nice start to the meal.  Served chilled but not cold, it was sashimi fresh, sweet and crunchy.  The garnish of fresh sea urchin (Uni) and salmon roe (Ikura), then drizzled with Japanese Citron (Yuzu) essence on one side and sweet balsamic vinegar on the other was an explosion of many different tastes and textures, complementing rather than fighting for attention.

French Onion Soup

The soup was a slightly different take on the classic version, but enjoyable.  Rather than the consistency of broth, this was considerably thickened, resulting in a very robust, almost gravy-like beef and onion soup.  Personally, I prefer a consistency closer to broth, and a tad less salt.  Instead of topping it off with one whole slice of toast with Gruyere, the chef cleverly sized them down to croutons and melted the cheese over, so you can easily take a bit of everything with each spoonful.

Wagyu Beef with Pan fried Foie Gras

This course was my favourite of the evening for the simple reason that the beef was a truly exceptional piece of meat.  So well marbled that it was just short of melt-in-your-mouth, so that you can still taste the beef with a couple of nominal chews of the jaw.  Unfortunately, the piece of foie gras over the top was a tad overdone. However, it did go complement the beef texture wise, since you wouldn't want everything melting on the palate and leaving nothing to the imagination.  My only complaint with this dish was again the slightly heavy hand with the salt.

Apple Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream

For dessert, we had the apple tart.  Thankfully, it was very good since it took close to an hour to get to our table.  A well-cooked spiced apple seated atop a fluffy and buttery croissant-like pastry and served with Vanilla ice cream, then dusted with bits of crumble.  Nothing to fault, really.  


Food wise, there is little to fault at Etoile.  But there are many nits to work out eg. cover up wires from a bad interior decoration finish, don't advertise a discount if no one in the restaurant remembers until shown the message from Etoile's very own FaceBook page, don't make servers wear a grey polo shirt with the "Etoile" work scribbled on the back, and don't play Richard Clayderman.  It's just not that kind of place, at least the menu does not suggest so.  The other nit was training - the staff didn't know who the chef was when we asked.  And so he finally came back with "Joseph" and we went, "Joseph who?".  Took another journey to the kitchen for him to tell us he is "Joseph from Les Amis", to which we went, "really!?".  


But the biggest nit was still dessert.  How can a French Japanese place not serve dessert?  When we sat down to dinner, we were told that the oven had broken down and no desserts would be served, not even ice cream - go figure.  Then midway through our meal, our very nice server told us the oven was fixed and that we could order dessert.  We chose something else when we were told the tart would take an hour.  Then when our nice server came back to tell us that the chef was just pulling her leg and that it would take the usual time of 20 minutes, we changed our order to the tart.  Long and short, it did take a full hour and they should just be thankful the joke wasn't on us.  


Here's hoping the jokes stop here and that they manage to work things out.  I would go back just for the food. 


1 Figaro Street

Singapore 458322

T. 6445 5669