A little slice of Paris on Duxton Hill, L’Entrecote serves up just one main course – entrecote steak drenched with a signature sauce, and free flow fries. The lack of variety for the main course is more than made up for with the array of starters and desserts.
I ordered the duck rillettes with gherkins and buttered toast, and A decided on the goat’s cheese salad as a nod to his greens for the day. (Alas, we didn’t realise that the steak also came with a substantial side salad) The duck rillette was good, and tasted lighter than most duck rillettes due to the addition of some parsley in the rillette. Paired with the buttered toast and the gherkins, this was a really good start.
The goat’s cheese salad was actually very good too, with slices of goat’s cheese on top of croutons, together with sundried tomatoes and olives. The cheese was more like a brie/camembert than something particularly goaty, which suited me just fine.
We ordered the steak medium rare, and the first portion arrived perfectly cooked, and accompanied with a mountain of fries. Props to anyone who actually has refills of the fries, man. The steak was drenched in their signature sauce, the ingredients of which are a closely guarded secret. We tried to deconstruct it, but couldn’t get much further than “butter, herbs, maybe mushrooms, some kind of acid”.
Don’t expect a super flavourful piece of meat, or you’ll be disappointed. I think you still need to go to a proper steakhouse for that. Here, the meat is pretty subtle, almost to the point of getting slightly lost amongst the sauce that’s packed with flavour. Still, at $29 for all the fries you can eat and 2 helpings of steak (they keep the second (smaller) helping warm for you, and bring it out when you’re almost done with your first helping), you can’t really complain.
With an enticing list of desserts, we decided to go the whole hog and ordered one each. I had the Truffled Brie, somewhat amusingly against the waitress’ recommendations. I guess she’s not used to Singaporeans having a savoury cheese for dessert, and enjoying it. Except for a slightly elusive truffle flavour, this was awesome. Oozy, creamy and pungent almost to the extent of a blue, I was in heaven with every bite.
A had the waffles with vanilla ice cream and salted caramel sauce. Finally, a place that does a proper salted caramel that could rival Canele’s. The waffle was light and crispy, and the caramel was properly salty and wonderfully buttery. Wonderful.
Everyone’s equal here – the restaurant doesn’t take reservations, so you just have to take your chances and hope to get a table. We got here at about 6.30 so getting a table wasn’t a problem, but it filled up pretty quickly after 7. Just like a typical French bistro, tables are barely half a foot apart so don’t expect to have a romantic or private conversation, but it makes for a nice convivial ambience.
The starters and the desserts actually impressed me much more than their ‘signature’ main. I wonder if they’ll let me order just starters and desserts next time, and pass on the steak. There are many more starters on the menu that are already calling to me.
A says:
Spectacular service. Attentive without being intrusive. I also like the cramped, yet laid back atmosphere.
With regards to the food, I agree with C that the only main wasn’t exactly mind-blowing. It is very filling and priced affordably.
The starters and the desserts are really the stars. Unlike C, I’m much more interested in the desserts than the starters. It’s going to be tough not ordering the waffles again, but I definitely want to try the chocolate cake at some point.
Their practise to not accept reservations is both a good and bad thing. Good cause you’ll never find it fully booked by regulars like other popular places. Bad because you have to get here either really early or late to get a table.
But all in all, we’ll be back on the rare occasion where we can get off work and get a table here before 7.
L’Entrecote
36 Duxton Hill
Tel: 6238-5700
Weekdays: 12 noon to 11 pm
Saturdays: 6 pm to 11 pm
2 comments:
So pleasing to the eyes and definitely pleasing to taste. Love it!
I like your blog, it's a pleasant read. Just discovered it today via some random googling.
However I felt compelled to point out that with a lot of your qualms about meat, you deem them "too chewy". Meat is SUPPOSED to be chewy (to a reasonable extent)!!!
In the last decade the whole sous-vide craze has amped up food snobbery and made us forget the primal pleasures of sinking our teeth into a meaty steak; nowadays we expect our animal flesh to be flaccid, textureless, melt-in-the-mouth. That just ain't right!
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