I was craving for French food and I decided to come to Brasserie Gavroche for dinner one evening. Walking down Tras Street, you'd probably miss this eatery because of the lack of obvious signage.

When we entered we were shown to our tables very promptly. Service, needless to say, was excellent. We started off with the bone marrow on toasted Poilane bread with garlic confit ($19). This was Chef Frédéric Colin's grandfather's recipe (one of many actually) and it was super delicious. Loved the bone marrow and garlic confit combo - I think I could've easily polished off two plates of these!The French onion soup ($15) was another thing we had to share. Unfortunately, their version is disappointing. I've had better elsewhere (Au Chocolat & Antoinette to be exact). The soup lacked punch and wasn't flavourful enough. By the way, this is also another of Chef's grandfather's recipes. My boyfriend ordered the pan-roasted Angus sirloin with Béarnaise sauce and French fries ($48). It may look plain and ordinary but this was really phenomenal. Without any sauce, it was still great. My main course for the evening: Grandpa Henri’s fish quenelle with crayfish sauce ($35). Served with bechamel sauce and prawns, the little white dumpling-like things are actually made of fish meat. This dish was quite nice as well, but it was really a little too gelad for me (the bechamel sauce must be to blame, although it was nice - not saying it wasn't)Finally, dessert. We had the vanilla mille-feuille and wild strawberry sorbet ($14). This was the best mille-feuille I'd ever tasted. No competition here. The strawberry ice cream was SUPER well done too.

Overall, I had a lovely time at Brasserie Gavroche. However, I think this is good enough for a one-time experience and I think my wallet feels the same as well. Total damage (plus 2 glasses of wine): $181.

I was kinda worried that nothing would be open on the second day of CNY. Boy oh boy, was I wrong. MBS was buzzing and completely full of life (maybe a bit too much life... I hate crowds) - I guess times have changed, eh?

I'd been meaning to give Au Chocolat a go for quite a while now and it seemed like the right time so I picked the eatery for dinner. I didn't make any reservations but it wasn't that long of a wait; I got seats in about 5 mins.

The first thing that struck me about the interior was the decor and the furniture. The bistro really does resemble a quaint French cafe along a Parisian street - from the staff's uniform to the tables and chairs. Cute!This is what I ordered: Boeuf Bourguignon ($26), beef cheek stew with baby carrots, mushrooms and mashed potato in the pot, slow cooked in veal stock and red wine. Comes with oh-so-soft brioche bread and chocolate/balsamic vinegar-topped salad too. I must say, I was super impressed with this dish. Beef stew is easy to make, but damn good beef stew is another level of heaven. The beef cheek chunks were very tender, and the gravy made from veal stock and red wine was divine... I took my own sweet time to scoop everything up with a spoon after all the ingredients were consumed. Delicious!!!My boyf had the Roast Pork Belly ($29) - slow-roasted pork belly accompanied with garlic infused potato puree and raspberry infused apple sauce for that added oomph. The pork belly slices were nice and tender, and he loved the raspberry concoction which he used as a dipping sauce. Very interesting combo!Finally, for dessert, we had the Au Chocolat Tart ($7).

Before I carry on to review the chocolate tart, I have to point out that as a patron, your choice of dessert is not limited to the menu. Don't forget to check out the confiserie next door for cupcakes, macarons, cakes and tarts! All you have to do is hop over after you're done ordering your mains (or before if you like), tell the staff at the counter your order, have them write a receipt for you, and bring that receipt back to the bistro before handing it to one of the staff. Tell them to serve it after your mains. This is a bit troublesome, yes, but as foodies I guess we'd do anything for food right?

Now, for the tart, it was kinda disappointing as it was really average. I found the chocolate a bit too bitter (my boyf liked it though), and the crust was too thin for me. I like it thick and moist... this one was on the flaky and crunchy side. It was a bit much too. I didn't finish it - which was a shocker cos I usually polish my plate clean when it comes to sweets. Oh well! I did want to try the other one, this chocolate cake made of milk choc mousse, raspberry gelee and vanilla cream. Next time I suppose! I wouldn't mind returning. Wait, scratch that, I WILL COME BACK!!

Christmas came early this year and my boyfriend and I decided to have our special Xmas dinner at Prive Grill. Located on Singapore's only private island, Prive Grill isn't the easiest eatery to reach, but it sure is worth the journey.

We had the 5-course Festive Menu which was about $80++ per person. The dinner took about 2 hours and the pace the food was served at was perfect; they'd wait for you to be done with one before preparing and serving the other. We also had the BEST seats in the house, right by the waterfront! That evening we saw not one, but two firework displays right from where we were seated. Apparently, one of the staff told us that December sees weekly firework shows because of the festive season, so that was an awesome experience!
Tataki of Yellow Fin Tuna
Tataki of Yellow Fin Tuna was one of the starters and this was arguably one of my favourite items on the festive menu. The freshness of the yellow fin was unrivalled and it was seasoned so well. I gobbled this baby right up!Josper-grilled King Prawns
The king prawns were huge, firm and juicy (must be the magic of the Josper grill). The bits of caviar added that burst of flavour to every bite, and the bed of truffled mash the prawns sat on was heavenly.Pan-roasted Atlantic Cod
The cod was cooked to PERFECTION. What made this so tasty was the Niçoise olive and parsley crust which added a savoury touch to the dish. I love dishes that play with contrasting textures and flavours and the crust did just that, while complementing the smoothness of the fish meat.Pineapple Carpaccio
Dessert was pretty out of this world. Thinly sliced pineapple topped with chilli, vanilla ice cream and olive oil coconut cake. Again, the contrasting textures and flavours with the sweetness of the pineapple and the spiciness of the chilli did it for me.

To top it all off, the service at Prive Grill was splendid. Our evening was perfect thanks to these guys. Bravo Prive!!

My friends and I made reservations for lunch at 1pm but to our dismay, they weren't offering the full menu until after 2:30pm so we were stuck with limited choices. BOO!

I ordered the brunch set which was about $58++ for one main and one dessert or appetiser.I chose the appetiser of French onion soup. This was the best thing I had during lunch here. Super strong broth that hits you instantly and the amount of cheese was amazing!!!We ordered a side of truffle fries to share. Every table seemed to have this so we thought why not? Verdict: good but the truffle wasn't evenly distributed. Some didn't have truffle on them at all.The duck confit was my main course. The chocolate sauce that accompanied the mash potatoes was just plain weird for me (although my friends thought it was okay). It has this weird aftertaste. As for the duck itself, one word: overcooked. The skin was nice and cripsy but the meat was just too tough. Sigh.

Also, not pictured, we ordered 4 desserts to share - cheesecake platter, banana nutella crepe, bread and butter pudding cake and raspberry chocolate cake. All of them were really bad and disappointing, maybe except for the banana nutella crepe but even that barely passed.

A friend introduced this place to me back in 2011 and I've been back since.

This was probably my 5th or 6th time here and this time I had the set menu. I think it's about $30++ for one savoury crepe, one dessert crepe, the soup of the day, plus a drink. Not too shabby, eh?Soup of the day: clam chowder. This was awesome and this is coming from someone who is NOT a fan of clam chowder. Too many times have I tried fishy-tasting, weird clam chowder. This on the other hand, was not the case. For my savoury crepe, I chose the La Groix - camenbert cheese with potatoes and bacon bits. I usually would go for Geraldine's Cheese (different kinds of cheese in one crepe), but I wanted to try something different and was very happy with my choice. The addition of bacon bits was great!Lastly, the dessert crepe. I had to try the Entre-Nous (homemade salted butter caramel) crepe. Actually I was quite surprised I hadn't tried it till now. This creation was da bombbbbb. It's salted caramel done right - not too sweet and not at all hard on the throat! I'm craving for this right now, sigh. A must-try!