Day Fifteen – Les Amis
Le Menu Hive Classique
* Comte with air dried beef
* Breads
* Mini truffle tart, crispy phyllo
* Onion confit, mushroom veloute, black truffle – milk bun
* Kegan crab with caviar, autumn apples
* Slow roasted Erquy scallop with extra virgin olive oil sauce
* Sea urchin cream with velvety fennel sauce
* Black forest venison cooked with truffle & juniper berries and grapefruit compote
* Duck breast with ginger caramel pear
* Chocolate Tarte
* Blue Mountain coffee in a sugar sphere with ice-cream & coulis
* Petit fours
* Lemon spongecake
The pandi hasn’t been a great time of fine dining. Living in Hamilton there is a dearth of restaurants doing those fancy take away meals you see in Toronto. I was able to dine at The Heather before its heartbreaking demise, and I continue to mourn its loss.
I was curious about top-ranked newcomer Odette. But mother demurred and then booked 3 Michelin Star Les Amis. It has been over 20 years since I’ve been so I was excited for a return.
It was very, very good. Service was impeccable and I was proud of local Singaporean waiters who were warm, good-humoured and invested, interesting pronunciations aside. The dishes came at a fast pace, and were enjoyable.
To me, the brightest stars were the opening amuses. Lovely and delicious. Also the choc tarte and dessert sphere were great. But did I have a mouthgasm? Was I ever utterly elated? Not really. Scallop was great, Uni was more murky than lush. Also petit fours were overly sweet, especially the chocolates.
I felt the dishes looked backwards more than forwards. Lots of truffle, but there weren’t really any interesting or novel ingredients, and nothing local. Oriole, Alinea, Crenn have all these. Even my beloved Heather always had surprises, not to mention overall deliciousness.
I am lucky to have gone, and am very grateful to my mother for her generosity, but she agreed: Les Amis was very good, but alas, no spark.