Antoinette

Antoinette - Closed
30 Penhas Road

333A Orchard Road
#02-33 Mandarin Gallery

33 Erskine Road
#01-02 Scarlet Hotel

390 Orchard Road
#B1-08 Palais Renaissance

http://www.antoinette.com.sg/


Delicious And Beautiful Desserts, Quality Food, But At A Price

(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 8
Ambience & Setting: 9
Food & Beverage: 8
Service: 8
Value for Money: 7
Spent about SGD $40 per person.


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Named after Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France, Antoinette exudes elegance and sophistication, both in its ambience, and in its presentation of fine French food and pastries. Helmed by the award winning pastry chef Pang Kok Keong, Antoinette is rightly known for its artistic and decadent desserts.

The ambience at Antoinette is styled after the Parisian patisserie, which is a French (Paris) bakery that specialises in pastries and sweets. The term 'patisserie' itself implies the presence of a master pastry chef. Decor at Antoinette is elegant, with furniture that looks luxurious. Various breads, pastries and sweets are beautifully displayed, and looks very inviting.

Service at Antoinette tries hard to match the quality of a fine dining restaurant, that is, friendly, professional, attentive, observant and with initiative. Staff are generally friendly, professional and attentive, though the inexperience of some younger members on staff do show through. I commend their effort though, and overall, I haven't had a bad service experience at Antoinette.

Prices at Antoinette do match those of a fine dining establishment. Dining here is a somewhat expensive affair, as a starter sets you back around SGD $20, the mains costs around SGD $30, and the desserts cost around SGD $10. You do get really good quality, tasty dishes though. Still, Antoinette isn't a place to dine in on a daily basis, and is more suitable for special occasions, celebrations, gatherings, brunch, or high tea and desserts.

Antoinette is "vraiment un excellent endroit pour les desserts"!


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The Classic French Onion Soup is a strong, intensely flavoured, potent broth, not for the faint of heart. Packed full of onions, with cheese toast floating in the chicken and veal broth, it was warm and satisfying. The cheese crust was a little out of place for me though, and quite messy to eat as it doesn't melt into the soup.

Classic French Onion Soup 01

Classic French Onion Soup 02

The Country Style Mushroom Soup has an intense earthy aroma of wild forest mushrooms, and is slightly thick and chunky. A dash of fresh herbs and pepper livened the dish. The crisp toasted country bread made for excellent dipping, I only wish there was more of it!

Country Style Mushroom Soup 01

Country Style Mushroom Soup 02

The classic Boeuf Bourguignon or Beef Bourguignon is a traditional French dish from Burgundy, France. It is a stew prepared with beef slow braised in red wine, traditionally red Burgundy, and beef broth, then flavoured with garlic, onions, and bacon. It is served on a bed of smooth and creamy mashed potatoes. This version differs from the classic preparation by using wagyu beef, which is wonderfully tender and juicy. It also replaces the baby carrots, pearl onions and braised mushrooms with seasonal vegetables like string beans and sauteed baby potatoes.

Boeuf Bourguignon 01

Boeuf Bourguignon 02

Boeuf Bourguignon 03

The signature Antoinette consists of a earl grey tea infused milk chocolate mousse, sitting on a chocolate biscuit and earl grey tea crumble. Inside is a dark chocolate and earl grey tea cream, and a raspberry coulis sitting on top. The combination of earl grey tea and chocolate worked really well, with the earl grey lending a touch of fragrance and almost elegant taste to the smooth chocolate mousse. The coulis just oozes its rich and tart raspberry interior when cut, looking totally sexy.

Antoinette 01

Antoinette 02

As its name implies, Angelique is a light and heavenly white chocolate mousse, infused with essence of violet flowers, and sitting on a sponge cake and hazelnut feuilletine base. Within is a sweet and refreshing strawberry and blackcurrent jelly, topped with a vanilla infused marshmallow knot. Created as a limited edition dessert, where 50% of all proceeds were donated to the MILK (Mainly I Love Kids) Fund.

Angelique 01

Angelique 02

The Saint Honoré L'Amour embodies romance and love, with 3 choux pastry puffs, rose petal glaze, rose petal cream, fresh raspberries and strawberry compote on an almond tart. Lovely to look at, lovely to eat.

Saint Honoré L'Amour 01

Saint Honoré L'Amour 02

Saint Honoré L'Amour 03

Saint Honoré L'Amour 04

Sipping the smooth and rich Royale Hot Chocolate makes one feel like a Maharaja. A rather thick, decadent drinking chocolate, it's infused with orange zest, cinnamon, star anise, cloves and vanilla essence. On the other hand, the Cafe Latte was rather thin, though it had a nice aroma. The Latte Art was beautiful, though a little too much milk was used in its creation, which affected the overall texture of the drink.

Royale Hot Chocolate

Cafe Latte

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Update Mar-2016: Almost 3 years on, and Antoinette is still doing well. The creative pastry chefs here produce new desserts on a regular basis, and have established themselves as more than a fad, but a benchmark of the dessert cafe industry, regularly making the 'best of' lists. The ambience, service, and food at Antoinette still remains as consistent as before too.

The Chili Crab Pomodoro Papardelle Pasta (SGD $26) features homemade papardelle pasta noodles, flat and large in size, with a soft chew, which is not too good, as I prefer it al-dente. Sauteed in a white wine, tomato, clam broth sauce, garnished with generous chunks of fresh deshelled crab and cherry tomatoes, which is savoury sweet and delightful. The sauce is inspired by the Singaporean chili crab sauce, and has a mild, spicy heat that lingers. Tasty, but could be better. Worth ordering!

Chili Crab Pomodoro Papardelle Pasta (SGD $26)

Chili Crab Pomodoro Papardelle Pasta

Inspired by the bright colours and smells of the season, Summer (SGD $10) is a dessert mousse pastry that features a raspberry mousse containing pistachio bavarois, forest berries jelly, pistachio sponge cake, and pistachio glaze, on an almond sable biscuit. This vibrant dessert is sweet, sour, tart, zesty, with textures of soft, creamy, chewy, and crunchy. Good!

Summer (SGD $10)

Summer

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