POULET AT RAFFLES CITY
No free cold waterWarm water is 50 cents.
We were famished! We started out looking for places to eat and we ended up in Raffles City. We passed by Poulet at #B1-65/66 and decided to give it a go. What is on Poulet's menu is decidedly quasi-french dining with gourmet fare at a middling price.
When we first stepped into the establishment, a waitress of thick Philippines accent showed us to the table. The time was around 6pm and the restaurant was not crowded with many empty tables. However she seemed to be very much concerned with the potential crowd that she kept showing single seater tables. Eventually we settled on a booth seating but apparently near to some very loud humming industrial noise which we could not fathom where it was coming from. This immediately spoilt the mood for us as our conversations will be competing with the loud noise. The wait staff seemed oblivious to the noise and seemed content to just following orders and not exercise an ounce of common-sense. But at least they were friendly.
The menu consisted of a wide array of choices ranging from soups to starters to entrees and deserts.
For starters we ordered the Pan sautéed three mushrooms combination for $7.80 and also added a Salad De Paris at their recommendation for $9.80.
For the entrees, reminiscing of my time at Au Petit Salute at Harding Road having the oh so delectable melt in your mouth Braised Pork Belly, I decided to try the same. My wife ordered their promotion which is their signature French Roast Chicken Roti with cranberry sauce and wholegrain dijon mustard. We ordered the whole chicken instead anticipating the small portion of pork belly.
We tried to ask for water to be served with the meal but was told that we had to pay $1.80 for the bottled water and fifty cents for warm water. We decided to purchase the sodas instead at $3.80 and $4.80 respectively (coke and lemonade).
Starter Course:
The wait time for the starter was approximately 5-10 minutes which was quite acceptable considering the restaurant was not crowded at the time and you would not want them to rush the preparation. The mushrooms was, I believe sautéed in butter and the combination was simply magnificent. It was without doubt the best dish of the evening. The greens followed very soon after but I was disappointed that the greens was shredded to such tiny pieces that it was impossible to eat it with the fork and I finally resorted to using the spoon to get at it.
Entrée
Braised Pork Belly: The plating was quite nice. However, the menu states that the Pork belly will come with mashed potatoes, but little did I realise that the mashed was simply the garnish on the side of the plate and not even a proper side. Terribly disappointing. Anyway, I cut the Pork and realised that it needed effort, lots of effort for my knife to penetrate the meat and the melt in your mouth fats from the belly meat was nowhere to be found on the meat. It was simply the lean part of the meat period. At least if the meat was the fall apart goodness of what a braised meat ought to be, it would have been okay, but it was not, the meat was overcooked and rough. The pork was served with a dollop of Dijon wholegrain mustards on top. The texture and taste does not make up for the small portions. Definitely a disappointment.
Chicken Roti: In a word, let down. Okay that was two words, but you get the idea. The chicken, which was overcooked and the meat was hard, you could tell that it was simply reheated from chicken that had been roasted earlier. On top of that the restaurant uses so tiny chicken that for what they were trying to attempt it is definitely not possible to achieve a good consistency and texture. The cranberry sauce was more akin to brown chutney rather than proper cranberry sauce shown on the menus and promotion materials. I think if they had served proper cranberry sauce it would have complimented the chicken better. And of course if came also with the same dijon wholegrain mustard which my wife commented that it was too salty.
The Entire meal with the soft drinks worked out to $85.69. Despite my feedback on the above to the wait staff none saw it important to even take it seriously to raise it to management to at least try to soothe my displeasure. Maybe they were used to Singaporean patrons simply swallowing it and keeping quiet.
Oh by the way when we left at 7 plus pm, the restaurant was still pretty empty. Clearly, they were looking to appease customers in the future, but they clearly forgot that there are customers in the present. They forget the adage that a bird in hand is definitely worth more than 2 in the wilderness. Would I go back again? Hard to say, but would be highly unlikely.
Ratings :
Ambience: 4/10
Food: 6/10 (saved by the mushrooms)
Wait Staff: 4/10 (your typical service staff in Singapore, just going through the motions)
TOTAL: 5/10 (not an average)
POULET RAFFLES CITY
252 North Bridge Road #B1-65/66
Raffles City Shopping Centre
Singapore 179103
TEL: 6336 3119
