Cuisine: French
Address: 35A Keong Saik Road Singapore 089142
Nearest MRT: Outram Park (East-West line) or Chinatown (North-east line/ Downtown line)

Taratata Bistrot serves an authentic regional French cuisine. This semi-casual restaurant opened its’ doors in 2011. It has been voted as Best Restaurants 2016 by Tatler Singapore. Their Business Set Lunch starts from $28 for 2-course and $38 for 3-course includes Pan Fried Foie Gras as choice appetizer.

Looking at the interior of the restaurant, it has a classic bistrot décor with French music in the background and classic bistrot food – nothing particularly innovative. It feels like I am dining in one of the old school bistros in Paris. At the helm is the chef and owner Bertrand Raguin from the Loire province, who is trained in traditional French classic cuisine.

The 3-course set dinner starts from $69++ and it is definitely value for money. It consists of an entree, a main course and a dessert or cheese. Considering that most of the mains start from $36++, I think it is worth it to go for the set menu, as you get to save $7-10 except if you had ordered the vegetarian dish. If you come to the restaurant for lunch, you can have the set lunch from $38++.

The first course of any French restaurant is bread or baguette. We were served with sourdough bread and salted butter. It is not unlimited servings like in some other restaurants, so if you want more bread, it is charged additionally at $5.

My wife had the lobster bisque soup for entree. It was thick, creamy and really tasty.

For me, I had the pan-baked escargots on mushroom gratinated with garlic butter sauce and Mesclun salad. While the presentation does not look very appealing, but the escargots were thick and succulent. The lettuce was seasoned with a light salad dressing, while the garlic butter sauce added an additional fragrance to the snails. It has been a long time since I ate escargots, and this dish fulfilled my craving.

For mains, I had the grilled tenderloin in a black truffle sauce infused with madeira and served with gratin dauphinois. It was done medium, and there were some red streaks in the meat, but still juicy and not too chewy with every bite. Even though the portion seems small, but with the potato gratin, it made me fuller than expected.

For her, she had the vegetarian option because the other choices do not look so appealing. The dish consist of a grilled portobello mushroom topped with baked goat cheese drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar and vol-au-vent sauteed enoki mushroom cream sauce. While the English translation seems like a mouthful, the ingredients on the dish seem so petit and suitable for someone who is on a diet. We later found out that the vol-au-vent is the puff pastry. That day, the enoki mushroom was not available, so the chef replaced it with ratatouille instead. We loved the creamy pairing of the cheese with the mushroom, and cutting into it would reveal its molten inner layer. The vol-au-vent was crispy and buttery.

Last but not least, it was time for our favourite dessert. We chose the chocolate mousse cake with orange wedges marinated in grand marnier and served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. While it was not the typical lava chocolate cake that we normally have, we really enjoyed this cake. The mousse is firmer because it has now been integrated into the cake, yet not too dense and chocolatey so we were able to finish it without much guilt.

Lastly, the staff surprised me with a scoop of ice cream as part of my birthday. It was salted caramel flavour and I loved it. There is definitely space for dessert because I am a sweet-tooth.

Taratata has also been featured as part of the Restaurant Week, so do check out this place and be transported momentarily to France. While the prices are slightly more expensive than a typical cafe or restaurant serving Western food, the food here won’t break the bank because you are getting premium French ingredients.