The French Stall

Believe it or not, I have never tried French cuisine before and I think the closest I've ever come to are French fries. So I was pretty excited for the whole of yesterday because Qin was going to treat me to French Cuisine for dinner. And an authentic one at that! My first thoughts of French cuisine were small pieces of food on ridiculously large-sized plates with sauce dribbled sporadically accompanied with sky high bills! But glad to say, the place we visited yesterday serves up authentic French cuisine at a reasonable price with appropriate portions.



The French Stall, located at 544 Seragoon Road, is opened by Mr Xavier Le Henaff and is a cross between a French Restaurant and a French coffeehouse. Before that, Mr Xavier was a chef with a 5-star hotel in Madina with customers including the President and the Prime Minister. Woah, quite impressive huh?

First impression of the place gives me a feeling of a club-house kind of non-air conditioned restaurant with orange lights giving it a comfortable feel. Not bad. The walls were also "decorated" with various publications the French Stall had been featured in including AsiaOne, Elle, 8-days etc. Service was also good and the staff will gladly explain the menu which is written in both English and French.

So lets get down to the food shall we? Qin had the set meal ($14+) which lets you choose from 3 main courses and comes with Soup of the Day and Creme Caramel for dessert but we had it changed to French Onion Soup and Chocolate Souffle. This can be done but at an additional price. We also had Mussels in white wine sauce ($6+) and I ordered Steamed Marinated Salmon with Sun Dried Tomatoes ($18+) since I've been longing to try sun dried tomatoes.

The French Onion Soup was very interesting and its the first time I saw something like that! Two slices of baguette with mozarella cheese were soaked in the soup which was filled with stir-fried onions. The soup tasted great and didn't had an overwhelming onion flavour. The bread, having been soaked with soup, was flavourful and soft with the cheese still being soft and stringy.




I didn't really like the Mussels in White Wine Sauce cause of its strong taste. Qin said they were fresh though.



This was Qin's main course which was Chicken Leg with Rosti and some sauce (I forgot the name). The sauce was a little sourish and went really well with the Rosti which was really really good. Crispy at the bottom and soft at the top and not too greasy. Uhmm... even I who wasn't a potato person kept sneaking in a few mouthfuls. The chicken was too dry though and wasn't that nice.




Finally, my Salmon with Sundried Tomatoes. The salmon didn't really tasted like it had been marinated and tasted quite bland actually but the sun dried tomatoes, being a little sour and quite refreshing, added flavour to it. Eating the tomatoes with the spinach was also suprisingly good!



Ah ha! Dessert! I've read about Chocolate Souffle but never had the chance to try it before. Sad to say, I didn't really like it. The spongy top gives way to a mousse-like center which tasted like cocoa powder to me. Nah, not for me.



All in all, the bill came up to just $50. Not too bad for 2 right? Do pay this place a visit, especially now during Deepavali when you can walk to Little India and visit the various street stalls. Qin even got herself a Henna done :)



Address:
The French Stall
544 Serangoon Road (near Sturdee Road North)