It has been a week of exploring new menus so I decided to share where I’ve been most recently.
Over the weekend, we decided to have dinner at The French Table at Northpoint in celebration of Mother’s Day.
Our initial plan to The Queen & Mangosteen (VivoCity) got cancelled because the brother would not make it home on time. How unfortunate, because I honestly think the experience there would be unparalleled to what I had to go through at The French Table.
The newly opened restaurant replaced Bakerzin and serves a menu of Japanese and Western food at what I would consider reasonable prices if the food was decent.
The four of us ordered a one appetizer, one soup, one salad, three mains and two drinks. The total bill came up to about $120 if I remember correctly. Allow me to reiterate once more that I would readily consider the prices reasonable if the food was actually up to standard.
I was disappointed on so many levels. With each dish, my expectations dropped and I gradually lost my appetite.
For appetizers, we ordered a plate of Garlic Chicken Wing ($6.80)
I don’t know about you but fried chicken almost never fails me, especially when I’m really hungry.
But what was trying was that I couldn’t taste the garlic at all! Garlic has a very distinct taste and you can always taste it because of its strong smell but there didn’t seem to be any garlic in this marinate. The prawn paste pre-marinated chicken wings you get at Cold Storage tastes better than these.
Moving onto the Countryside Wild Mushroom Soup ($6.80).
I’m really sorry but even Campbell soup tastes better! This tasted like a bowl of milk with mushroom bits, which you can hardly taste. The texture was too thin that it didn’t even feel like soup. If it doesn’t feel like soup, it most likely won’t taste like soup. I don’t know how you can screw up a simple dish like this but if you can (and you’re doing it for scratch), please don’t even try.
Mushroom soup is almost a staple in every Western menu but this is truly a shame.
Each of us also ordered a serving of Chawan Mushi ($4.80)
By this point, I was wondering why we hadn’t gone to The Queen & Mangosteen instead.
To be fair, I’ve only eaten chawanmushi from Sakae Sushi but I at least can confidently say that Sakae serves better chawanmushi. This too watery, too bland and too awful chawanmushi is not made for humans to eat.
For the mains, we began with Mac & Cheese ($7.80).
You would think you can never go wrong with Mac & Cheese.
I mean, it’s basic but absolutely delicious if done correctly. Anyone who craves a simple but satisfying meal would be contented with Mac & Cheese because melted cheese does wonders to a hungry person. But not this one.
Beneath all the Mac & Cheese is a layer of mushroom soup, that doubles up as mushroom sauce too (how is that even possible?). Let’s not even get started on terrible the mushroom soup/sauce is but the combination was just so bad. The cheese and mushroom soup clashed that I couldn’t decide which to focus on! Even the brother who normally eats anything gave this a thumbs-down.
What followed shortly was the Salmon Avocado Salad ($8.80).
The only dish acceptable on the table that night was this salad.
I am never much of a raw greens person (but I enjoy my sambal kangkong, Chinese-style stir-fried eggplant, broccolis and spinaches) so it was surprising that I gave this the okay. Although not fantastic, at least there were generous chunks of sashimi and I happen to like avocado too.
The only really annoying thing was the dressing, which is probably basic vinaigrette. The vinegar was too strong so it overpowered the crunch from the vegetables. I ended up picking the leaves without dressing instead.
The sister ordered a TFT Finely Roasted Chicken in Half with mushroom cream sauce ($14.80).
Like I said, the mushroom soup doubled as a sauce so this is what we get: half a roasted chicken soaked in mushroom soup.
The chicken itself wasn’t too bad. There was no distinct flavour to the marinate and we, for one, don’t really dig into the skin but at least the flesh was decently cooked and fresh. Fortunately, the sauce went well with the meat. Something about the roughness of the meat and smoothness of the sauce balances out in a nice way.
I bravely ordered a Seafood Rice ($12.60).
I believe they used short-grain rice but that’s not the point. It came with heaps of mussels, clams and two juicy prawns. Unfortunately, I don’t eat clams so I can’t judge but the mussels were well-cooked and edible. It didn’t have any fishy stench so I ate in comfort. BUT, the rice was literally soaked in tomato chunks and its juice, which I couldn’t understand? That wasn’t very appetizing anyway.
Threw away all my rice and ate but the prawns and a single mussel. (Shared the remaining seafood with the family who still didn’t eat very much.)
All in all, I had a very bad dinner and I won’t be going back anymore.
I would try to be understanding if part of food actually tasted good but there was an unexplainable queue for such a lousy place. I am not convinced to give this a second chance. I did a Google search and found an authentic The French Table at West Coast but this is vastly different.
Anyone who’s keen on visiting The French Table at Northpoint after reading this has been warned.
Over the weekend, we decided to have dinner at The French Table at Northpoint in celebration of Mother’s Day.
Our initial plan to The Queen & Mangosteen (VivoCity) got cancelled because the brother would not make it home on time. How unfortunate, because I honestly think the experience there would be unparalleled to what I had to go through at The French Table.
The newly opened restaurant replaced Bakerzin and serves a menu of Japanese and Western food at what I would consider reasonable prices if the food was decent.
The four of us ordered a one appetizer, one soup, one salad, three mains and two drinks. The total bill came up to about $120 if I remember correctly. Allow me to reiterate once more that I would readily consider the prices reasonable if the food was actually up to standard.
I was disappointed on so many levels. With each dish, my expectations dropped and I gradually lost my appetite.
For appetizers, we ordered a plate of Garlic Chicken Wing ($6.80)
I don’t know about you but fried chicken almost never fails me, especially when I’m really hungry.
But what was trying was that I couldn’t taste the garlic at all! Garlic has a very distinct taste and you can always taste it because of its strong smell but there didn’t seem to be any garlic in this marinate. The prawn paste pre-marinated chicken wings you get at Cold Storage tastes better than these.
Moving onto the Countryside Wild Mushroom Soup ($6.80).
Mushroom soup is almost a staple in every Western menu but this is truly a shame.
Each of us also ordered a serving of Chawan Mushi ($4.80)
By this point, I was wondering why we hadn’t gone to The Queen & Mangosteen instead.
To be fair, I’ve only eaten chawanmushi from Sakae Sushi but I at least can confidently say that Sakae serves better chawanmushi. This too watery, too bland and too awful chawanmushi is not made for humans to eat.
For the mains, we began with Mac & Cheese ($7.80).
You would think you can never go wrong with Mac & Cheese.
I mean, it’s basic but absolutely delicious if done correctly. Anyone who craves a simple but satisfying meal would be contented with Mac & Cheese because melted cheese does wonders to a hungry person. But not this one.
Beneath all the Mac & Cheese is a layer of mushroom soup, that doubles up as mushroom sauce too (how is that even possible?). Let’s not even get started on terrible the mushroom soup/sauce is but the combination was just so bad. The cheese and mushroom soup clashed that I couldn’t decide which to focus on! Even the brother who normally eats anything gave this a thumbs-down.
What followed shortly was the Salmon Avocado Salad ($8.80).
The only dish acceptable on the table that night was this salad.
I am never much of a raw greens person (but I enjoy my sambal kangkong, Chinese-style stir-fried eggplant, broccolis and spinaches) so it was surprising that I gave this the okay. Although not fantastic, at least there were generous chunks of sashimi and I happen to like avocado too.
The only really annoying thing was the dressing, which is probably basic vinaigrette. The vinegar was too strong so it overpowered the crunch from the vegetables. I ended up picking the leaves without dressing instead.
The sister ordered a TFT Finely Roasted Chicken in Half with mushroom cream sauce ($14.80).
Like I said, the mushroom soup doubled as a sauce so this is what we get: half a roasted chicken soaked in mushroom soup.
The chicken itself wasn’t too bad. There was no distinct flavour to the marinate and we, for one, don’t really dig into the skin but at least the flesh was decently cooked and fresh. Fortunately, the sauce went well with the meat. Something about the roughness of the meat and smoothness of the sauce balances out in a nice way.
I bravely ordered a Seafood Rice ($12.60).
Threw away all my rice and ate but the prawns and a single mussel. (Shared the remaining seafood with the family who still didn’t eat very much.)
All in all, I had a very bad dinner and I won’t be going back anymore.
I would try to be understanding if part of food actually tasted good but there was an unexplainable queue for such a lousy place. I am not convinced to give this a second chance. I did a Google search and found an authentic The French Table at West Coast but this is vastly different.
Anyone who’s keen on visiting The French Table at Northpoint after reading this has been warned.
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