Les Amis is a 2 Michelin star French restaurant just off Orchard Road in Singapore. Mr A and I were only in the city one night, on the back of 3 weeks in Indonesia, where I presumed the food wouldn’t be that great (I was so wrong), so I put a bit of research into finding a fine dining spot where the menu would have me salivating!  I made the reservation at Les Amis 3 months earlier, when they release tables, and sent them a credit card authorisation form to secure it.  I chose Les Amis because it serves French food, Andy Hayler gave it 19/20, and it was named in the 50 Best Restaurants in Asia list (and was still on the list when the 2019 ranking appeared).

We arrived in front of a pretty non-descript glass-fronted restaurant and a relatively plain, rectangular dining room fashioned with thick carpets and wood panelling. It was calm and chilled.  The friendliness and professionalism of the staff was immediately apparent, as they welcomed me by name (throughout the evening everyone did, after the excellent Maitre d’ confirmed how we wanted to be addressed).

We began with a glass of Champagne; vintage white Taittinger for me and a vintage Deutz rose for Mr A.  And while we explored the menus (a la carte and set) we were brought canapés in the form of a sautéed green fava bean tartlet with very fine pastry, and a few Comte gougeres, which were so light and fluffy with the flavour of a great cheese. 9.5/10

A third canapé was half a Loire valley poached tomato on a puff pastry disc, with basil and rosemary. Eaten in one go by hand, this brought a fresh burst of sweet cleanliness to the palate 8.5/10 I forgot to mention that most of the ingredients used at Les Amis are imported directly from France.  Not the best idea in terms of food miles, but a very good one in terms of getting superb (European) in-season produce.

Next up we were offered a choice of home-made breads from an amazing trolley display. I’ve never seen such an offering, and they came with a lovely salted French butter. 10/10

And then came the ‘amuse bouche’; a tomato veloute atop cucumber jelly and cucumber brunoise, with a mini anchovy croissant on the side. The fresh acidic taste of the tomato was reminiscent of “essence de tomate” at Le Manor au Quat’ Saisons. I preferred it to the sweeter tomato in the previous canapé and I preferred it to the cucumber flavours beneath it. The croissant was lovely. 9/10 Without the cucumber element it would have been a ten.

We had chosen to eat from the “Menu Ete” (“Sumer menu”) at S$420, plus a wine selection at S$170 each – a 7 course feast of luxurious French dishes. A “menu classique” of 4 courses at S$270 and a la carte were also available.  Our starter included caviar, but before it was served Patrick, the lovely Maitre d’hotel, came to display and describe this French farmed caviar, and give us a generous tasting. He described it as “crystal” caviar, which I hadn’t heard of. It was delicious, and the eggs were a slight golden colour, like Oscietra.

The starter was impressively presented on a convexly domed glass plate from beneath a glass cloche.  There were eight 1cm thick discs of soft Roseval potatoes topped with a sour cream mayonnaise, a tiny square of shallot and herbs, all surrounding another generous dollop of caviar. Patrick told us the potato element was intended to capture the essence of traditional caviar garnishes and blinis. And boy did it!  I’ve never been that big a fan of blinis because I find them too starchy and heavy for the caviar. But this potato combination was exceptional! 10/10

Our second course was a “savoury fondant of blue lobster” with even more caviar! It was a mound of soft lobster mousse covered with fine slices of baby courgette, topped with lobster tail meat and a dollop of caviar, some gold leaf and a fine chive. Around the base were ‘stars’ of delicious mayonnaise and micro parsley petals.  This was another exceptional plate of food which demonstrated fine chef skills and respect for the ingredients. 10/10. I must note that our portions were good-sized; this was a multi-course meal of the French ‘menu gourmand’ school, not little mouthfuls of the British ‘tasting menu’ fashion.  So yes, my chronic stomach pains began to surface and I became very worried I wouldn’t be able to finish my meal. So I explained my situation to Restaurant Manager Ruziq and went for a short walk outside to ‘take some air’ and help my stomach to move things along.

Our third course was a delicate watercress soup. Beneath it in the bowl was a “Royale of chicken bouillon” which was in effect a very chickeny panna cotta. Eaten together, I thought the chicken flavour was drowned by the watercress, and scored it 8.5/10 , but individually the watercress and chicken elements each score 10/10 for their delicate flavours and smooth consistencies.

Dish four was “slow roasted Erquy scallop with herbs and aromates”. The Brittany scallop was plump and perfectly cooked (still translucent inside) and the herb sauce, umami-boosted with seaweed was delicious. A black capsicum tuille added texture and flavour to this stunning dish. 10/10

Course five, the main fish course, was “French line-caught turbot paired with morisseau mussel & sauce mariniere”. The turbot was perfectly cooked and had very fine slices of king oyster mushrooms on top before being finished under the salamander, so they resembled fish scales. The mussels from Mont Saint Michel were plump, sweet and very well prepped, and with the delicious herb and white wine sauce this dish tasted beautifully sea-side fresh. 10/10

With the intuition of an excellent Restaurant Manager, Ruziq suggested this would be a good moment for me to stretch my legs and ‘take the air’ again. Upon my return I was given a tour of one of their wine cellars which impressed me with many famous bottles and chateaux on show.

The main (6th) course was “roasted Challans duck breast from Vendee”, which was served on a pate with a baby turnip and some aged Balsamic vinegar. Then came side dishes containing Normandy carrots, sautéed girolles and fresh cherries and almonds.   The duck was so tender, delicious and quite pink and it had a great duck jus with it to emphasise the flavour.  The girolles were really beautifully done, the cherries brought a refreshing touch of acidity, but in my opinion the carrots were absolutely outstanding – easily the best carrots I’ve ever had. I was told they were from a “late harvest” and grown in sandy soil. They were so sweet, soft and packed with flavour. This was an unbelievably delicious plate of food! 10/10

We were visited by chef Sebastien Lepinoy, who struck me as quiet, calm and very modest, as I heaped praise on the dishes we’d had so far. Sebastien served 17 years next to the legendary Joel Robuchon (RIP), and was widely regarded as Robuchon’s ‘right hand man’. He took up his role in Singapore in 2013.

Ruziq and Patrick had got the kitchen to slow our service, and that combined with my air breaks meant that my stomach wasn’t feeling too full – just well-satisfied. So I let myself be tempted by Patrick into having a selection of French cheeses, as an additional course, and a glass of 1965 vintage Kopke Colheita port (s$68 a glass).

I chose to have some Pont l’Eveque, a 36 month aged Comte and two washed rind cheeses; one with Champagne and the other washed with Burgundy. Mr A also had a blue cheese and some Camembert.  The cheeses, and especially the port were all very good. 10/10

Patrick then appeared with a trolley loaded with iced containers of ice creams and sorbets, as a ‘pre-dessert’ course. I chose to have a coffee ice cream, which was super smooth and creamy; just like a good iced latte, and a tropical fruit sorbet which majored on mango and passion fruit. 10/10

Dessert proper was “la Peche du Roussillon”. A perfectly soft poached half of a white peach had a basil cream inside it and it was surrounded by a verbena sorbet.  It was surprisingly light and delicate, very refreshing and not heavy on the sugar content. 9/10

Our wine flight was served by the charming Emily and I enjoyed all of them except the Arbois Vin Jaune which came with the soup course. I just don’t have much of a liking for dry sherry type wines. For me the standout wine was the 2016 Clos St Jean Chateauneuf-du-Pape which was served with the duck. 9/10

We didn’t order coffees because of the late hour, so that’s where we called it a night, conscious that we were keeping the staff from their beds. It was 11pm, some 3 hours 45 minutes since we arrived, and I thank and congratulate the front of house and kitchen teams for intuitively slowing things down for us – I made it through the meal without encountering the familiar abdominal pains I get when I’m full, due to a medical condition.

The bill was a new (highest) record for me; S$1653 (£974).  But I had no regrets; we had just had the best meal ever, served by incredibly good and friendly staff.  The produce was of the highest quality and the chef’s brigade prepared it all with amazing skill.  I’ve eaten in all 4 of the UK’s Michelin 3-star restaurants and every aspect of this meal was better than any of them.  By quite a big margin in some cases. And I’ve become well used to eating in 2 star restaurants around the world the past 12 months, and Les Amis, also 2 star, was clearly the best.  So I’ll state now that I expect and hope Les Amis gets its third star when the Singapore Guide comes out in September 2019!  This is a superb place to eat! 10+/10