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2013-12-16
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Antoinette is a Parisian pastry and tea salon place that offers some of the most excellent selection of classical French desserts. Besides the lovely and luxurious presentation of cakes and pastries, the restaurant's ala carte menu also provides diners with an extensive variety of savoury dishes going from all-day breakfast, starters, main courses, pastas, sandwiches, crepes and coffee to a wide selection of aromatic tea!Ever since I've read tons of great reviews about this place, I finally got
Ever since I've read tons of great reviews about this place, I finally got a chance to visit one of its outlet at Mandarin Gallery. My first impression of Antoinette was great, the exterior design was amazing, displaying the vintage French outlook that can hardly be found anywhere else in this country.
Although it was a late afternoon on Monday, the queue seems to always be never ending. We've waited roughly around 5 minutes, we were lucky and were led to this 2 table seating with a really comfortable European styled cushion.
The interior decorations were really lovely as well, full of vintage elegance that perhaps for a split second you may actually think that you could be sitting in a corner shop in a small town area in France.
I always believe that interior design is key to all customers' hearts because it does a lot to adjust their mood before they read the menu. At Antoinette, it was truly an inviting environment that prepares you to enjoy their exquisite French fare.
So once seated, the menu we got at the table were the ala carte menu, we weren't sure whether to order from the counter directly or to ask the waiter, but since we wanted to choose the desserts up close, we personally went to the counter to order ourselves. Their cosy retail section showcase some of the loveliest pieces of art it's hard to not want everything!
I've got myself their signature, Antoinette ($10). This is basically a chocolate biscuit with earl grey tea crumbles covered in milk chocolate mousse infused with earl grey tea, coated with dark chocolate mousse cremeux then carefully topped with raspberry coulis. Before I've had this, I always thought that the raspberry coulis was a hard coated chocolate, but you were actually supposed to slice it so that every part of the cake would get some raspberry flavour as enhancement. The dessert was really rich and true to its price, there's hardly any flaw but you may want to get someone to share it with because it can make you really full.
My friend got herself a beautiful piece called Charlotte ($9), which is a kirsch brandy infused fresh strawberry finger biscuit with strawberry compote, the Bavarian vanilla cream and Chantilly cream in between gave the dessert a great texture and the ribbon that it came with made it seem like a sweet Christmas gift, really interesting!
Honestly, we wanted to get the Cafe Antoinette Creme to pair it with the desserts, but heard that their coffee machine broke down and my friend don't like tea, so we had ice water instead. But because of that, the total price came out pretty good! It was interesting because instead of a bill holder like other restaurants, the bill came in an exquisite European style container. This actually says a lot about how meticulous the owner is to let customers experience the Antoinette way from start to end.
Overall, I am really impressed with Antoinette. Although the service here wasn't exceptional, but from the fine and elegant furnishing to beautifully crafted cakes, they were enough to make this trip a memorable experience. I can't wait to try out the savoury dishes the next time I visit. After all, this restaurant definitely is the place to go if you want a short getaway to France without getting the air ticket!
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