Bistro Petit Salut

Located along the stretch of Chip Bee Garden restaurants, is this french bistro Petit Salut. It just so happen that a friend of mine also went to another Au Petit Salut restaurant but at Demsey Hill on the same day.

Bistro Petit Salut offers authentic French fare, and the restaurant provides both indoor and alfresco dining experience for diners. The environment is rather cosy with warm lightings and is of a contemporary style. There are quite a wide variety of choices for the food. Being a french restaurant, their wine list consist of a huge selection. Wine lovers will be spoilt for choices.


Food
Cold cut platter of smoked speck bacon, pork pâté, duck rillette, pistachio sausage and sliced Parma ham (S$24)

Presentation:
The starter comes with some greens and slightly crushed walnuts. There are simple dashes of olive oil on the plate for decorating the dish. Being in a platter of different kinds of processed meat, I am not totally in the know of what each type of meat that i am eating, though i can guess a few. Though i am not able to tell which is which, this platter overall is a very good starter, the portion is quite huge and almost fill half of my stomach.

Taste:
This is a very strong platter to start with. For people with a light palate, this dish will prove to be too strong a starter. This is especially true for the duck rillette. Most of the meat are smoked and has a slight peppery taste. The parma ham is too salty. After this starter, you may want to rinse your mouth with water to clear your palate for the main course.


Seared onglet beef “Café de Paris” with French fries (S$30)

Presentation:
Onglet beef is also known as the prime cut of beef in english. The Onglet beef comes with french fries, that lies on top of some onions. The sauce is green in colour and it is not that appetising if seen in the bright day light. The medium cooked beef retains the pinkish colour on the inner part of the meat, while the outer part is slightly charred.

Taste:
I had ordered the beef to be medium done. The outer portion is well done but the inner part is still juicy and tender. However as the cut of the meat is not uniform throughout the whole piece, some of the thinner portions were well done. Even though the thinner portions were well-done, the chef done the meat just right, that is the meat is not too tough.
The green sauce, could be their special sauce but overall it is a little too salty. What i can taste from the sauce is mostly pepper, and a little bit of mushroom.
The fries tasted normal, but it is lightly salted.


Floating Island (S$10)
Poached meringue and Crème Anglaise topped with almonds and caramel

Presentation:
Floating Island is simply poached meringue and Crème Anglaise topped with almonds and caramel. Why this dessert is called floating island is because the meringue lies in the center of the plate and surrounding it is the Crème.
Crème Anglaise is a light pouring custard used as a dessert cream or sauce. It is a mix of sugar, egg yolks and hot milk, often flavoured with vanilla. It is also known as English Cream.
The web of solidified caramel put some patterns on the otherwise white meringue and the finishing touches of the almod makes the dessert looks nicely decorated.

Taste:
A lot of times, meringue are taken in the hard form, and it is a totally different texture in this poached cooking method. Meringue has the characteristics of disintegrating and melting in the mouth especially when it touches the tongue. The hard version usually will absorb all the water and disintegrates, making the mouth very dry, but leaves a sweet feeling in the mouth.
If you had taken poached egg before, the poached meringue tastes just like poached egg white (though it is really made from egg whites). When taken alone, without the creme, it is only slightly sweet. However when consumed with the creme, some people might find it a bit too sweet, though i find it still acceptable.
The caramel web add to the extra sweetness but I find that it is only suitable for display purposes as the caramel always sticks to my teeth when it enters the mouth. The almonds gave the dessert a welcome twist to the sweetness of the taste.
I would highly recommend this dessert and i wont hesitate to order it again.


Petit Salut Service Attitude
Considering that this bistro is located in part of Chip Bee garden, the service staff may not be giving full attention to the patrons. Most of the times, the interaction between the staff and the patrons are only when they take the order, and serve the dishes. I feel that the servers should check more on the patrons to ensure that things are going right and more interaction can be made.


Petit Salut Cleanliness
Speck and clean throughout the restaurant. Nothing much can be said.


Ratings
Food Presentation: 3.5/5
Food Taste: 4/5
Service Attitude: 2.5/5
Cleanliness: 4/5
Value for Money: 2.5/5

I would want to go back again to try their other main dishes and also the other desserts. I was also told that their escargots were good. I would be going back for the food and not their service. It is also a good place to hang out, though sometimes the other patrons could be speaking a bit too loudly, especially after they had drank some wines, that you can hear all their conversations.