Le Bistrot du Sommelier: A French classic perfect for dates

COCONUTS CRITIC’S TABLE — Picture this. Its date night. You’re starving. A quick café meal won’t cut it, and you don’t have the patience or cash for some fancy pants degustation menu.

Enter Le Bistrot Du Sommelier. It’s French. It’s classic (and classy). There’s good wine (to facilitate the romancing). And affordable steak frites ($30), made with value-for-money onglet cut (hanger steak), to fill that gaping hole in your belly.

It’s a nice space too. Traditional dark wood furnishings are accented with a few offbeat details that add character: regional maps of France and a chandelier made of downturned wine glasses.

Service is friendly but unobtrusive, so you don’t have to worry about servers hogging the dinner conversation with unnecessarily long menu explanations or overzealous checking in on the food quality.  

Everything on the menu is gutsy, delicious and comes in hulking portions. It’s impossible to eat light here. So don’t fight it. The full-on meat and cheese onslaught is part of its charm.

We start with the vacherin ($48, top pic), a simple indulgence of runny melty cheese. Scooped up with crusty bread (you can get boiled potatoes too but that’s a mite heavy for a starter), it’s addictive, with contrasting creaminess and crunch.

For mains, we go for the plump quail stuffed with foie gras ($38), crisp-skinned and packed with buttery duck liver.

The time-consuming and effortful classic is a great measure of a restaurant. And like their other traditional plates — think duck confit ($34) and steak tartare ($32) — it looks like it came out of a culinary textbook. Totally on point. Their consistency night after night is real impressive.

For desserts, the rhubarb crumble ($24 for two) is well worth carving out extra stomach space. A house specialty, the portion is meant to be shared, but the servers say regulars polish off a whole dish (it’s bigger than your face) on their own.

The rhubarb is sweetened just enough — so it’s not cloying — and the crunchy butter topping is sprinkled on with restraint, letting the pure fruit flavour shine through.

The more low-key prunes in armagnac ($18) provides a lovely grown-up close to the meal, too. With all that fibre and a good hit of booze, it’s a great digestive.  
Also, avail yourself of their stellar selection of French boutique wines (from $68). The list — it’s like a thick novel — is full of write-ups on the different wine makers and regions to help you along with your decision.

Our only gripe is that there aren’t any wines by the glass on the menu (disappointing if you’re on a budget, a teetotaller or just want variety).

But they usually have two or three reds and whites open. Ask nicely, they’d gladly pour you a swig of those.

Now, we’re not suggesting folks do this every day. You’re going to need some time to process all that red meat and butter fat.

And most nights, we’d much rather head upstairs to their rillettes bar for a more manageable nibble of killer charcuterie and wines.

But after a good refractory period (which is just as well because even after seven years in the business, reservations are a hard get) there’s nothing like a night at Le Bistrot Du Sommelier.

Le Bistrot Du Sommelier, 53 Armenian St, +65 63331982. Mon-Sat 12nn-3pm, 6pm-11pm.
 

Read Also: 

– The Black Swan: An American Beauty that can leave you wanting more
– Points for effort, but Arterial lacks cafe magic

 


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