Le Bon Marche

C says:

Finally made it to Bon Marche! We came on Sunday with W and M, and unfortunately were about half an hour too late for breakfast. On hindsight, this was actually a good thing, because it eliminated a few choices from an already very enticing menu.

Bon Marche started out as more of a delicatessen when it was still in Tiong Bahru. When they recently moved to Alocassia Apartments, I think they expanded their dining menu and added greater seating capacity. The restaurant itself emits a very casual unassuming vibe, reminiscent of a rustic neighbourhood café.

However don’t let the casual ambience fool you, because the quality of the food and (especially) the prices are considerably high end. I think some trial and error is required, before figuring out what best to order, and what isn’t quite worthwhile.


Case in point – the salmon platter that A ordered cost $25, for a few slivers of smoked salmon, a few blinis and a dollop of sour cream. The word platter to me denotes something fairly sizeable, so we were very disappointed with this. They have cheese and charcuterie platters too, but after this experience, I think we’ll still go back to La Fromagerie for our cheese and charcuterie fix.


In contrast, the Berkshire pork cheek “Chacutiere” was, at $35, a lot more reasonable for the portion size and the quality. In fact, I think this was one of the best dishes that we tried. The pork was fork-tender, moist and very flavourful, and came with creamy mashed potatoes and a killer mushroom sauce. We ordered this last, after the disappointing salmon arrived, so we were quite full by the time this came, but we still polished off the entire plate.

W had the Croque Monsieur, which was a very decent portion size for just $12. The filling was ham, cheese and tomato, and the combination went down very well. If you’re not up for a huge meal, this is good for a light snack.


M’s porcini risotto wasn’t too bad. Not sure if this fulfils my risotto yearning, but it was better than the ones I’ve had recently (which isn’t saying much). Quite flavourful, and the portion size was good. While some restaurants mean well in trying to give you value for money, large portions of risotto just don’t work because of the jelak factor.


We shared the Alsace tart, which turned out to be more like a skinny pizza and less like a tart. Flavours were good – we had the bacon, Emmenthal and onion one – and it was very light and easy to eat. This is great for sharing with a small group.


Finally (and I know it sounds like we’re absolute pigs), we shared the Raclette, which comes with some crusty baguette and a plate of air dried beef. Frankly, I could’ve done without the beef, and had a plate of cornichons instead, to add some much needed acid to the cheesy raclette. But other than that, this was fabulous. The cheese had a wonderfully rich, smokey and slightly charred flavour – so absolutely unhealthy but oh so divine.

So far, I’ve been quite impressed with Le Bon Marche, and I’m very keen to try more of the menu, to find out which are hits and which are (hopefully fewer) misses.

A says:

I’d give it 8/10. Some dishes like the pork were phenomenal. Some, like the salmon platter, were good but horribly overpriced for the amount you get.

I’ll be back though.

Le Bon Marche
383 Bukit Timah Road
#01-01 Alocassia Apartments
Tel: 6226-3269
Tues to Fri: 10 am to 10.30 pm
Sat & Sun: 9 am to 10.30 pm
Closed Mondays