Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Affordable French @ Saveur, Purvis St, Singapore

I first read about Saveur while flipping through a magazine in our hotel room in Singapore. The article caught my attention since apparently here is where you can find "affordable French cuisine" and "foie gras for under S$15".  French cuisine and affordable are two words that very rarely appear together. 

I then read elsewhere that there is always a queue from the time the doors are opened for business, so unless you're early, you have to be prepared to wait. Wow, is it really that good? I was really curious.

Just before The Stone Roses concert, we decided to come here for dinner. We arrived at 5.58pm and the queue was crazy long! We couldn't get in the first seating so went to Menya Musashi for dinner instead. We returned the next day and the queue was much shorter this time (Monday) and it didn't really get busy until after we finished our meal around 7pm. 



Saveur is the brainchild of two young and enterprising friends who decided to pursue their dreams of offering quality yet affordable French cuisine to the masses. They have previously worked at various fine dining restaurants such as Guy Savoy, Fifty Three and Tetsuya’s in Sydney.




Inside, the restaurant was quite basic but clean and comfortable. It is however, not a place to go for a romantic date as the noise levels can get quite high when it's busy. Furthermore, tables are placed very close to each other, to maximise the tables they can squeeze in. (Btw, think they opened up another space next door so perhaps the wait isn't so bad now)



Menu is a simple two-pager. Hubby and I ordered a few items to share. We started off the pan fried foie gras with lentils and pickled onion. There was the option of 35g or 70g of foie, obviously we went for the larger portion at S$14.90. Btw the food here is served in no particular order, hence you might get 3-4 dishes served to your table at the same time.

What we observed about the food here was: they were nicely presented, they certainly looked the part of "French cuisine" but what we ate that night were mostly under seasoned. Luckily, we managed to get hold of a salt shaker and added salt to all the dishes that we ordered. I think if the food was seasoned properly, it would definitely have been a memorable meal.

The foie gras was nicely seared, however it was quite stringy (the veins were too prominent).




There are 2 pasta dishes to choose from - we went for the angel hair pasta with tiger prawn and lumpfish caviar (S$6.90). The presentation was good, portion was very generous but it was just lacking the seasoning to make this a good dish. Again, we had to save it with the salt shaker.




We also ordered the crispy pork belly with poached egg and diced vegetables (S$10.90). I should mention that I am not a big fan of lentils, so I wasn't very pleased to see lentils again in this dish! Luckily Hubby ate my portion too :P The egg was perfectly cooked and the pork belly was decent too, but again, why is it underseasoned?




The confit of duck with orange segments and saute shitake (S$8.90) was definitely my favorite dish of the evening, as this was well-seasoned. The duck confit was nicely prepared with a crisp skin and juicy meat.




Purvis Street

 Walking past Raffles Hotel after our meal - majestic as always


Artwork at Swissotel lobby
Che Guavara


Barack Obama

The King of Rock 'n' Roll, Elvis Presley


Verdict: Saveur is an okay place if you want to try French cuisine without burning a hole in your wallet. The food had potential to be good but the restaurant should get their food seasoning right. I rather pay slightly more and eat at Gunther's (right opposite Saveur). 


Opening times: 12:00 pm - 2:15 pm, 6:00 pm - 9:15 pm

Location: Saveur, 5 Purvis Street, Singapore 188584

Tel: +65 6333 3121

Website: http://www.saveur.sg

Nearest MRT: City hall

26 comments:

  1. "...the noise levels can get quite high when it's busy..." I don't like the place already. And I thought that would be something I would find around here only...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most ppl just eat and then leave. It's not really a place to linger around.

      Delete
  2. The food looks good. Seriously, if I don't do the conversion..I would say its dirt cheap! No wonder its crowded...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Looks good only, but the taste is really lacking cos of the seasoning.

      Delete
  3. I am going to queue there someday

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe it's not so bad, since they have two restaurants side-by-side now (more space).

      Delete
  4. the pasta looks delicious ...
    nicely curl up..

    ReplyDelete
  5. The location looks gorgeous. "affordable French would have caught my eye too."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The row of shophouses there is really nice...

      Delete
  6. Yen, don't care that the food were underseasoned, I want to eat them all, hahaha! Foie gras, I want, pork belly, I want, confit duck, want want want!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha! You got same taste in food as me then! All those dishes are my choice, my hubby just eat anything that I order ;)

      Delete
  7. Are you based in Singapore now? Surprised to read your post on Saveur. Many of my friends find it over-rated, not as good as when they were at their old premise.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nah, not based in Singapore. We just visit from time to time for holiday.

      I was just wondering what the hype about Saveur was, so we visited. I thought the food had potential, but they shd get something basic such as seasoning right. It's been a while since I visited a restaurant with underseasoned food.

      Delete
  8. ooo, i LOVE lentils though, so i'd have happily eaten the lentils for you. quite impressed with the prices too. i guess the seasoning wouldn't take too much effort for them to fix, so maybe it might be worth returning here in future :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They have a pasta dish with sakura ebi which costs only S$3.90! Apparently, it's a take on Iggy's signature pasta dish. (I think it was on an article pasted outside their restaurant).

      Delete
  9. The food looks pretty good! And you are right, is pretty reasonably priced!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah can't believe they have a pasta dish for S$3.90!! The most expensive one is monkfish at S$23.90.

      Delete
  10. Ahhhh...crispy pork belly with poached egg...a match made in heaven! =)

    ReplyDelete
  11. This looks decadent and delicious! Yummy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They certainly did well in the looks dept, just need to improve on taste.

      Delete
  12. Have always wanted to try this. But the queue is always so long.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think the queue during weekdays not that long, I went on a Monday and there was hardly a queue there. Furthermore, they have opened up a bigger space next door.

      Delete
  13. I always love a good duck confit! .. and I am also not a fan of lentils... ;)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Indeed very affordable French cuisine although the restaurant setting not really "French" :P

    ReplyDelete

Please drop any comments or questions you may have here. Thank you so much for reading!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...