Les Amis

It's been a looooooong time since zq and I met up with jes. So we made plans for lunch and settled with Les Amis. Jes made the reservation and we made our way on the day of our reservation. There's the $55/$75/$95/$125 set lunch.

Breads. We were served breads while waiting for our food to arrive. The waiter placed the bread and told us the bread that they served- Mini Baguettes, focaccia with black olives and sun-dried tomatoes,  bacon and pommery mustard roll and another bread that I can't remember. They also gave us a plate with unsalted butter and salt. My favorite was the focaccia. The saltiness of the tomatoes and olives complemented the plain and slightly chewy bread. The bread with mustard and bacon was nice as well. It was crunchy but not overly crispy and the mustard(which was quite mild) and bacon goes well together.

White aspargus in "Blanc Mange", Oscietra caviar. Blanc Mange actually refers to a sweet gelatinous dessert like pudding. The dish looks really pretty! Taste nice too. To me somehow the asparagus 'blanc mange' tastes a little like cheese and the caviar added some nice fishiness to the dish. The base of the dish(not sure what it was) was quite plain which helped lower the saltiness of the asparagus.

Oscietra caviar in harmony with cold angel hair pasta and sherry vinegar. Another picture worthy dish that not only looks nice but taste nice. On the side are edible (japanese?) flowers and chives. The pasta was well seasoned and I could taste truffle instead of sherry vinegar. The amount was just nice, not too mild but not too strong as well. The flower added(as you would expect) a flowery taste to the pasta and the caviar was simply pure black bliss.

Warm lobster encased within baby spinach accompanied by fish bone sauce. This wasn't one of my dish but jes was nice enough to let me try hers. It was truly yummy. The lobster was warm, juicy and firm, the sauce was flavorful and the roe on top was wonderful.

Crispy cornouaille langoustine balanced with a 'Folichonne' side salad. The langoustine was wrapped in pastry before being deep fried had salty pastry and sweet tender langoustine. Quite nice but what I really love about the dish is the side salad! It's one of the nicest salad I have eaten maybe because of the seaweed that gives it some Japanese feel(I have a weakness for jap food).

Now on to mains. Baby lamb rack with pommery mustard ice cream. The waiter said to eat the ice cream with the lamb to experience the hot and cold combination. The lamb was a little tough to cut as compared to beef. However when I placed the lamb in my mouth, it was soft and very easy to bite. So tasty. The ice cream melted too fast in my mouth for me to taste it with the lamb. The mashed potaoes on the side were good, smooth, creamy and buttery.

Grilled dry aged Australian beef tenderloin with a robus aroma of Telllicherry pepper accompanied with traditional sauce. Jes said that the pepper was a little too overpowering. The beef was slightly tougher than the lamb.

Granite of fresh coconut on a mosaic of tropical fruit and milk jelly. The granite really tasted like fresh coconut. The tropical fruit that we were served was pineapple. At the bottom of the glass was the milk jelly. There's also a biscuit(?) in a round shape which tasted something like love letters.(the biscuit eaten during Chinese New Year)

Hot souffle of Reine-Claude with a refreshing sorbet. My first souffle ever. Tasted like I was eating airy sweet egg. It was nice but I didn't like the airy texture.

Petits fours served with lemon custard dip. Lemon Madeleine and canele. The warm Madeleine were slightly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It tasted sweet and lemony. The canele had a slightly hard exterior but on the inside, it was something like a steam cake. The lemon custard was sour and somehow I think the dip was a little redundant since the petit four tasted nicer on its own.

Rate:
Breads: 7.5/10 ☺
White aspargus: 9/10 ☺
Cold angel hair pasta: 10/10 ☺
Lobster: 9.5/10 ☺
Langoustine: 8.5/10 ☺
Baby lamb rack: 8/10 ☺
Beef tenderloin: 8/10 ☺
Granite: 6/10 ☺
Hot souffle: 6/10 ☺
Petits fours: 7/10 ☺