Classical French with a touch of the Mediterranean at Joséphine

After a particularly filling and satisfying Saturday brunch buffet at a wine bistro, we took a leisurely stroll around Telok Ayer to ward off food coma.

One of the restaurants we walked past was Joséphine, and our friend shared that it was highly recommended by his female colleagues.

Their menu was displayed outside, and judging from the weekday lunch sets from S$28 to S$44++, I could see why it was popular among office ladies working in the CBD.

Of course, it doesn’t threaten the undisputed champion of OL lunches — the humble Teochew sliced fish soup. But for an occasional splurge, fancy French food is a good option.

Besides the value-for-money set lunch, the ala carte menu also looked quite appetising. As expected, French classics like pan-seared foie gras, steak frites and duck confit featured prominently.

Sprinkled among the choices were a handful of Mediterranean dishes like seabass ceviche, fresh burrata and octopus casserole.

It sounded like a restaurant that we’d enjoy. I fired up Google Maps on my mobile and added it to our ever-growing shortlist of places to try in Singapore. In case you’re wondering, the current count stands at 148.

Hmm, come to think of it, maybe I should refer to it as a longlist instead.

As you’d expect, Joséphine got buried in the crowd. That is, until we started browsing the restaurants participating in the Spring 2024 edition of Singapore Restaurant Week.

We had decided to stick with a French theme this time round, and serendipitously, Joséphine appeared. So, instead of being just 1 in a sea of 148 candidates, it got upgraded to a respectable 1 out of 6.

Given such promising odds, it wasn’t a surprise that we ended up at the restaurant for an early dinner on a Saturday night.

The three course menu that they curated for Restaurant Week featured:

• Starters: Pan-seared foie gras, or Snails from Burgundy or Truffle mushroom soup
• Mains: Le confit de canard, or Chorizo cod fish or Grass-fed Maori Lakes striploin (250gm)
• Desserts: Le profiteroles, or Riz au lait “Joséphine”

We also asked to see their ala carte menu. You know, for research purposes. And totally not because we were feeling greedy and wanted to order additional dishes.

Although it would have been a lie to say that we weren’t sorely tempted by several dishes, like:

• Roasted bone marrow | Herb crumbs, sourdough toast
• French onion soup | Served with Comté cheese toast
• Monkfish Blanquette | Monkfish, creamy sauce, mushroom, onion, potato, carrots
• Quenelle “Lyonnaise” | Gratinated pike fish quenelle, crayfish, lobster bisque
• Baba au Rhum | Yeast-risen French cake soaked in rum syrup, served with homemade vanilla Chantilly

Sanity prevailed, and we stayed within the prescribed dinner set menu.

Deviating from our usual practice of choosing different starters and sharing, we both ordered the foie gras. We have nothing against French snails, but they didn’t stand a chance against fatty liver.

Likewise for truffle mushroom soup. Though it would have been a different matter if the onion soup was available. I’m a sucker for a nice French onion soup.

Beautifully-browned duck foie was served on crispy and buttery sourdough toast. The honey sauce that it came with was syrupy and rich, but I felt that it lacked sufficient acidity to cut through the fat.

Having said that, it was a delightful morsel that helped to start our meal on the right note.

After the server cleared out our plates, she came back with new cutlery. Since I didn’t order the striploin, I was surprised to received a huge-mongous steak knife.

Thinking that they may have keyed in my duck confit order wrongly, I double-checked with the server. She confirmed that there was no mistake, and assured me that it would be easier to navigate the duck thigh with the heavy duty knife.

It had a good heft to it, and was clearly well used. As I was admiring its weight and balance, I noticed the custom engraving that bore the restaurant’s name. Nice.

When my duck confit arrived, I was taken aback by its unexpectedly large size. Even the accompanying sauteed potatoes and onions were upsized.

Together with the generous portion of protein and carbs was an equally impressive amount of red wine sauce. It looked a bit scary, almost like a pool of blood, but it was very tasty.

The skin was crispy, as it should be, and the meat was moist, also as it should be. There was none of the stringiness that you’d sometimes find with overdone duck confit.

Both The Wife and I found the seasoning slightly heavy, though it could just be an us thing. We’ve been consciously cutting down on our salt intake, resulting in a lighter palate.

And our server was right. The chunky steak knife wasn’t clunky at all, and was the ideal instrument for swiftly dismembering the duck leg.

The chorizo cod fish arrived dramatically in a cast iron skillet, with a heavily-used wooden cutting board acting as a coaster.

It looked less like a classical French dish, and more like hybrid between a Moroccan shakshuka and Spanish fabada.

Flavour-wise, it tasted exactly like how it appeared — tomato-ey, spicy and bursting with flavour. The cannellini beans added body, and the piquillo peppers contributed a delightful sweetness to the rustic stew.

At first glance, the cod fillet looked dainty and underwhelming. It was only after cutting into it that our initial impression was overturned, and its true heft was revealed.

The fish was meaty, juicy and flaky, proof that it was cooked perfectly. A thin layer of chorizo sat on top and wasn’t just for show. It added a spicy note and crunchy texture, almost like the crisped-up skin of the cod.

It had us at first bite.

We scraped every last bit off the skillet, and were disappointed that no bread was available to sponge up all the sauce.

When dessert was served, we were glad that we didn’t add any additional ala carte dishes.

By then we were already feeling the effects of the large mains, and the generous portions of both the rice pudding and profiterole didn’t help. That didn’t stop us from finishing both though.

Fat grains of rice in the pudding were cooked al dente, and lounged in a pool of vanilla sauce with almond slivers providing the necessary crunch.

The profiterole started out slightly too crunchy, in my opinion, but developed into the right consistency as it started absorbing the melting ice cream.

Throughout the night, the manager and his team took great care of us. We appreciated his warm and friendly service and requested for his name card.

It said “Aldrick Digno Asanon”, but since it was quite a mouthful, he asked us to call him by his nickname “Drex”.

“Drax?!” I exclaimed, “Like in Guardians of the Galaxy?”

“No, no. D-Rex, like T-Rex the dinosaur,” he corrected me with a hearty laugh. I suppose I was close enough, since both are destroyers.

Either way, cool name.

The plating at Brasserie Les Saveurs is just so pretty

I asked him what his favourite dish in the restaurant was, and without missing a beat, he immediately replied: “Duck Magret, medium, with honey sauce and a side of creamed spinach!”

Okay, looks like we’ll have to add that to our earlier list.

By the time we left, all the tables on the first floor were taken and service was bustling. They have a second floor, but since it was a weekday, it wasn’t open for service.

I can understand why Joséphine is so popular, and I have a feeling that we’ll be back soon. Especially since we already know specifically what to order next time.