le bistrot du sommelier

Le Bistrot du Sommelier, 46 Prinsep Street, #01-01

[ duck tartine foie gras with fig jam, $23]

Prinsep Street! I spent much of my nerdy youth round the Prinsep Street area, first for the endless games of dota with army pals and other friends then for the occasional board games fiesta at mind cafe, followed by a swing by the rochor beancurd stall, right next to sewers, rats and garbage dumps. =) this place brings back memories.

Anyways, tucked in a pretty nondescript corner lies Le Bistrot du Sommelier, a really unpretentious french restaurant that really does have a love affair for wine, to the extent that the menu and serving boards are all made from planks of wood used as crates of wine previously. cool stuff. and it was pretty darn authentic, i mean, the waitress (owner?) spoke in a distinctively european-accented english whilst describing the specials to us – which included some veal head and tongue (!?), fresh oysters and others. interesting..

anyways, we chose the foie gras + fig jam + baguette for our appetizer, which honestly is a combo that can’t go wrong. the soft-faint sweetness of the baguette with the savory taste of the foie gras topped with the awesome sweetness of the fig jam makes for a mouthwatering, delicious and nuanced-flavored dish. amazing stuff.

[Vacherin with Bacon+ Onion + white wine, $58]

this was a cheese fondue mixed with bacon and onion along with generous portions of baguette, which sounded like a winner on its own right – i mean, i tried a similar variant of cheese fondue with white wine in vancouver once with my sis and it was epic. sadly in this case, the “fondue” wasn’t kept warm and hence it became a race against time to finish all that cheese before it solidified into chunks. and that was alot of cheese, expensive nonetheless (i mean.. 58 bucks for cheese!?!). so it was more a miss than a hit, hmm.. if only it was heated in some water bath or something throughout the duration.

[Welsh lamb, $68 for 2]

now this was a winner. the lamb was perfectly grilled and infused with a refreshing herby mix of mint and rosemary that tasted awesome. the potato-gratin-ish thing was good as well. the lamb sauce was so good we were using the remaining baguettes so soak the goodness up =) [i noticed that they used an ornellaia, bolgheri wine board for this dish, which happens to the one of the better supertuscan wines from italy.. these people know their wines eh..]

[profiteroles, $12]

methinks it was the overconsumption of baguette, or that the race against the cheese was finally taking an effect, but we were pretty stuffed when it came to dessert. the profiteroles ought to have been shared (we had order 3 desserts for 3 people) because it was pretty gigantic and tasted pretty good, what with the mix of good ole’ chocolate, choux bread and vanilla ice cream. methinks it’s slightly a bit too jelak and the flavors not as nuanced as other french desserts per say.. but maybe i was just a little too full. or maybe i just dont really prefer profiteroles (the best i had was in paris)

overall, a quaint location, kinda acceptably-priced honestly (besides the cheese). we didn’t try the wine which i guess was kinda a waste but then.. all the wines start at 60 bucks and above.. so.. hmm. good, authentic french food but the ambience was kinda well.. i dunno.. it wasn’t exclusive enough or french-countryside style enough and well.. felt for some moments like we were at a non-air conditioned cafeteria of sorts.. overall? 7.5/10

[photos taken with ian's eos 550d camera. i am so jealous. i didnt even need to post-process these pictures. -_-]