"Good honest french food"
Being the awesome gf that I am, I took my bf to a French restaurant P’tite Ardoise Bistro for his 25th bday. I was very excited as I heard many good reviews about this place from both friends and reviews from Urbanspoon.
I made reservations 2 weeks in advance and was told the seating at 7pm was booked out and that I can come at 6:15pm but they will need the table back at 8:30pm. I said no worries and made my booking. I also queried if they do anything special for a birthday occasion and was told they would stick a candle in the dessert and sing happy birthday..sounds good enough to me.
On arrival we were greeted warmly with a french flair. The restaurant is small and cosy and tables are close together but that didn’t really bother us. Probably not a good place if you’re planning to dirty talk your date haha.. Menu had quite alot of options both front and back in french and english. One side being the classic menu and the other being menu du jour which has dishes that changes daily.
Firstly we were presented a basket of bread to indulge with butter, olive oil and olive mash on the table. Delicious. For entree I ordered the pork belly and scallops from the menu du jour..it was a hard choice but I ended up going for my usual likes =-= . The bf chose the escargot..I’m terrified of snails so the last thing I'd do is put one in my mouth, but I was very excited for him.
Pan seared scallops and Pork belly on celeriac puree, bouche cider sauce
Unfortunately I was so excited to dig into this dish that I forgot to take a photo first =-= This was delicious, to me if pork and scallops are cooked well..you really can’t go wrong with the dish. I still preferred the pork and scallops from Silverspoon though. It was great but there wasn’t anything unique about it..I think it needed something sweet to it? apple?
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| Pan seared scallops and Pork belly on celeriac puree, bouche cider sauce |
Snails cooked my way
Bf enjoyed the escargot, he found it difficult to describe the taste but he enjoyed it.
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| Escargot |
While we waited for our mains, the staff came out singing happy birthday to a customer just a few tables down, I was thinking DAMMIT there goes my ultimate surprise, but bf didn’t really put alot of thought into it. PHEW!
For mains I had the duck *face palm* always going for the duck, but my friend recommended the duck so I couldn’t resist. Bf had the steak. We were also given a complimentary side dish of steamed vegetables to share.
Twice cooked duck leg with vegetable tian, orange sauce
Overall, I enjoyed this dish, the crispy skin and the meat that just fell off the bone delicious! Orange sauce went well with the duck and I loved the potato stack.
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Twice cooked duck leg with vegetable tian, orange sauce |
Char grilled rangers valley black angus 300 day grainfed sirloin steak with herbs sauteed potatoes red wine jus and bearnaise.
Bf loved the steak, I had some too and it was perfectly cooked and tender. bearnaise sauce was abit sour for my liking, I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be that way. The hand cut chips looked and tasted delicious as well as the gravy. Steak size was more than enough and the bf got rather bored of the dish after awhile, I guess in the end of the day, steak is steak.
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Char grilled rangers valley black angus 300 day grainfed sirloin steak with herbs sauteed potatoes red wine jus and bearnaise. |
After finishing our mains, we ordered desserts, I ordered the crème brulee (classic menu) and the bf had the trio of mini's chef selection (menu du jour) which was what I initially wanted but didn’t want to order the same thing. The restaurant quickly filled up with diners by then and it was almost 8pm. I was still optimistic that we’d finish by 8:30pm but it turned out to be quite a wait. I realised almost half of the guests were celebrating a birthday function including the table beside us. We waited to the point that we started fiddling with our phones and while the bf was browsing through his phone the staff came out singing happy birthday and boy was he surprised haha! Watching his face was priceless. Dessert had a little candle and was presented nicely that made my night and hopefully his night haha.
Creme brulee
This was delicious! Lovely caramelised sugar topping and creamy brulee, perfect texture and flavours. The shortbread cookie moulded into an Eiffel tower was average, just a cookie and was a little bit hard. I didn’t finish it in the end, overall an enjoyable dessert. You won't be disappointed creme brulee lovers.
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| Creme brulee |
Trio of mini's chef selection
Visually this was very cute and wasn’t as sweet as it looked so the bf who doesn’t normally like desserts loved it to pieces.
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| Trio of mini's chef selection |
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| Happy Birthday! |
We finished just after 8:30pm and was not pushed to leave nor did it look like they needed the table, I’m thinking it’s just a business tactic to maximise table turnovers. After paying the bill, the lady presented a box full of candy for us to choose, that was nice ^^. Just a little warning though, the bread is $3.50 pp..so if you're going to eat bread..eat 10! Haha..*so asian*.
Overall, I had a pleasant meal, but I have to admit I was abit disappointed, though it could be because I had high expectations. I just felt the dishes didn’t have a sense of uniqueness or a modern feel. I guess this place is where you’d get good ol French cuisine. No doubt the chefs have skill and I'd come back knowing the food would be cooked to high standards. Service was excellent and the french waiter is very cute! BONUS! So YES I'd come back ^^
