Cuisine: French / Asian
Address: 85 Beach Rd, #01-02, Singapore 189694
Nearest MRT: Bugis station (East West line / Downtown line)

The Masses is a Franco-Asian restaurant serving honest, good food that Monsieur, Mademoiselle and Ah Ma will love. They are passionate about bringing Franco-Asian food and heartfelt service to the people.

The interior of the restaurant was decorated with quirky posters, such as this one of an astronaut. The words are in Italian, which means “Winemaker in space”. I like the use of neon lights with cheerful phrases to light up the restaurant.

While some of the decor is mainly French in style, there is also an oddly looking Chinese phrase, adding to the authenticity of the Franco-Asian style that the place is trying to evoke. Even from the dinnerware, they use traditional porcelain with its beautiful motifs.

We chose the set lunch menu, which is either $33.90 or $$45.90 depending on the type of dishes ordered. As for the bread, it was not complimentary unlike at other European style restaurants. We topped up $4.50 for the homemade bread and beurre (butter). We liked the butter a lot because it was homemade and had specks of black stuff inside, probably kombucha, which made it a delicious spread for the bread.

The lunch sets come with a choice of coffee or tea. I did not see the waitress serving water to us immediately upon being seated, which is quite strange. We were only served the drinks after we had placed our order. The tea selection includes earl grey lavender, lemon ginger mint or pineapple mango basil. We opted for the earl grey lavender tea.

For starters, I had Vichyssoise, which is a cream-based soup made of smoked eel, pickled leek, creme fraiche and chive oil. The waitress poured the soup from a teapot into the dish filled with all the ingredients. Vichyssoise is indeed a unique French soup as I have never tried it before. I liked the creamy taste of the soup, with bits of smoked eel that added some savoury taste to it. Even with the chive oil that was greenish mixed into the soup, it didn’t feel like the soup was heavy on the palate.

History has it that King Louis XV of France accidentally invented a version of today’s Vichyssoise Soup.  The paranoid King loved his comforting potato soup and had it for dinner quite often.  He was always worried that someone was trying to poison him and demanded that his servants taste his food before he ate it.  King Louis’ favorite recipe for potato soup was often passed from one servant to another.  By the time it finally reached the King, it was cold.  King Louis decided he preferred the potato soup to be cold.

C&C&C&C Pasta – The Masses’ signature mainstay in their rotating menu. The Cs in this dish stand for crabmeat, chorizo, caviar and confit lemon. This was rich and bursting in umaminess – first the lobster sauce hits you. You also have the chorizo bits, the generously laden crabmeat, and a sprinkling of caviar. It goes really well with the pasta, for which the texture is just right. Served warm since this is a main dish, it is definitely something that I would have again. I would suggest to get the starter portion (unless you’re sharing the main portion with others), so that you can try some of their other dishes as well.

On the other hand, I chose the duck for the mains. Duck Confit ($19.90) – The duck was super juicy and tender! The meat was easily removed from bone, but the horfun was a bit of a disappointment because supposed to have wokhey according to the menu but I couldn’t really taste it. It was pretty lacklustre even though they tried to infuse Singapore and French elements into this dish. I would stick to my potato gratin or mashed potato for the duck confit.

Last but not least, it was time to end off our meal with desserts. There was a $5 supplement for desserts and it was Chocolate & Mint. The dessert was made of 75% Valrhona chocolate mousse, hazelnut and mint ice cream. It was not the best French dessert I had, in part due to the chocolate mousse which was still quite sweet, and also the mint ice cream. Perhaps a scoop of plain vanilla ice cream would be better as not everyone appreciates mint. If not, dessert could also be an apple crumble with ice cream or a French crepe. That would have been a better ending for my meal.

Overall, we are impressed by the food served at The Masses. The chef was come up with very creative ideas when trying to incorporate elements of French and Asian cuisine into the dishes. The Masses should appeal with its food quality matched with those wallet-friendly prices. However, the service was mediocre, they did not serve us drinking water upon arrival and also the food took a slightly long time to be prepared. I wish the staff were more attentive to the needs of the customers and not just stand around at the bar area.