** Andre was awarded 2 Michelin Stars in 2016
As the World’s 50 Best Restaurant’s website states, ‘Andre is an intimate three-storey 1920s heritage shophouse located in the conservation district of Bukit Pasoh in Singapore. Helming the pristine kitchen is chef and owner André Chiang who is best known for his unique style of Southern French nouvelle cuisine that is often interspersed with vibrant Mediterranean touches.’ (see here).
As the World’s 50 Best Restaurant’s website states, ‘Andre is an intimate three-storey 1920s heritage shophouse located in the conservation district of Bukit Pasoh in Singapore. Helming the pristine kitchen is chef and owner André Chiang who is best known for his unique style of Southern French nouvelle cuisine that is often interspersed with vibrant Mediterranean touches.’ (see here).
With it’s current
ranking at 68 in the list (up 32 places from the previous year), it should have
been one of the highlights of our holiday. Nahm, at number 50 (here and here) was the main reason
for the trip.
Friends
of ours had been the night before and were sat in the main plush, light,
carpeted dining room and thoroughly enjoyed the food and the whole experience.
We
were sat in the narrow, dark, wooden floored corridor where a constant flow of waiters
clomping past at close proximity destroyed any ambience. Sadly, this let down
the whole experience (as did a few ‘service issues’ that I’ll get to later).
These
issues aside, the food was indeed ‘world class’ - in conversation, a one star chef, who has
eaten at Andre, suggested that it would receive three stars in Europe. Of
course, he probably knows much better than I do but I’m not sure it would even
get two.
A
delightful selection of amuse bouche
featured chocolate & garlic soil, porcini crisps, patatas bravas, fish and
chips, chicken skin with masala spices, popcorn with a vanilla crème and a
lobster sandwich.
The
first dish was called ‘Pure’ and featured
premium Palamós prawns, Japanese ama ebi, Spanish mussels, abalone herb coulis
cream and Japanese chives. The maître’d reinforced the point that the dish was
called ‘pure’ because no seasoning had been used in its preparation to allow
natural flavours to shine – This idea sounded great in principle but I couldn’t
help feeling it could have done with some seasoning.
The
dish called ‘Salt’ was much more
pleasing on my palate. It was visually impressive too with sea lettuce, sea
corals, shimeji mushrooms, bursts of sharp sweetness from apples, and pops of
saltiness from Beluga caviar, golden caviar and an oyster tartare.
‘Artisan’ featured three umami rich
ducks tongues set atop a block of smoky heritage Kyoto aubergine with macadamia
served with a smoked aubergine custard with fried shards of crisp salsify and
black sesame.
‘South’ was supposedly inspired by the
chef’s time in the south of France with the 3 Michelin starred twin brothers, Jacques & Laurent Pourcel, although it did seem to have more of
a Japanese influence.
It came in two parts on stacked interlocking plates: the uppermost plate
sporting a chilled risotto with a sliver of Hamachi (Japanese Yellowtail), a
razor clam tartare and seared Spanish mackerel. The lower plate had a colourful
arrangement of seaweeds, cresses, petals and white peach with the French
influenced radishes and tomato sorbet.
‘Texture’ starred sweet meaty bites of
lobster were served with clouds of ‘air injected potato gnocchi’ floating in a
scallop cream with heavenly orbs of salty Beluga caviar and petit pois. It
would be easy to criticise and to say the dish needed more ‘texture’ from
something crisp, crunchy or alike but I felt that what was on the plate did
enough.
‘Unique’ a tartare of Japanese Kisu Fish
(known in the UK as Whiting) wrapped in a fillet, black olive, tomato confit,
artichoke heart with red sorrel leaf. This was my favourite dish of the meal –
wonderful Mediterranean flavours with an Asian twist.
‘Memory’ was a delicious hot foie gras
jelly topped with stunning black truffle coulis and chives. Chef Andre created
the dish when he worked with the Pourcels and it was implied that it was a
major contributing factor to their restaurant receiving 3 Michelin stars. Guest
were invited to ‘share this memory’ with Andre by making it ‘their own’.
My
overriding memory is of the maître’d reeling off his spiel and patter and
robotically cracking the same jokes that we had just heard at the previous
tables. Perhaps if we had just been served the food with a brief description, it
may have been the food that stuck in the mind for it was actually very good!
‘Terroir’ rabbit wrapped in pancetta with
a rabbit jus, Dijon mustard seeds, butternut squash purée, garlic soil, black
olive salt, salted and charred leeks - beautiful presentation with flavours to
match.
The
first dessert, named by the chef’s wife, was called ‘Snow White’ – freeze dried berries, fig, honey ice cream and shaved
ice. It was a beautiful tasting dish – I felt the honey flavours balanced well
with the fruit.
Next
came, ‘Snickers v2012’ – this was a
triumph. Very reminiscent of what I still like to call a Marathon.
‘Citrus Nitro’ – a great tasting and
very welcome palate cleanser.
‘Petit fours’ featured madeleines, butter
popcorn with popping candy and fruits pastilles and a variety of sweet treats
on sticks.
There
was an option of a cheese course. I asked what cheeses were available as I
would have ordered it if there had have been an interesting selection; maybe
something that I hadn’t tasted before or even some favourites. Unfortunately,
my question was met with what I felt was a dismissive response along the lines
of, ‘One goat, one sheep, one cow.’
This
was indicative of the service throughout – my wife and I felt we were often
being ‘treated like fools’ or ‘patronised’. Perhaps many of their customers
have no real interest in food and just eat there for some sort of kudos? It was
a huge shame that for us, the whole experience was let down by the seating arrangements
and a feeling of being patronised.
Follow @HungryHoss
Shame about the service but the presentation is amazing!
ReplyDeleteNow that`s a stunning meal , beautifully presented. My choice would be the foie gras dish...so rich Oh and the truffle one looks mighty fine....Superb.
ReplyDelete