Saveur – Affordable French Cuisine

“French cuisine” and “affordable” are words you seldom, if ever, see in the same sentence. Having read about  their mission to bring French food to the masses, we checked out Saveur restaurant at Far East Plaza which is just off the famous Orchard Road shopping belt of Singapore.

Located on the street level of Far East Plaza, Saveur faces the busy Scotts Road thoroughfare. The restaurant has a modern/minimalist decor. It is quite dark but the clever use of spotlights and the natural light coming in from its one large window gave the place a youthful, energetic feeling. The restaurant was full when we entered. While waiting for our table, we noticed that most of the other patrons and the restaurant staff were all really young.  As firm believers that age is just a number, we fit right in!

For starters we ordered the French onion soup ($8.90) and the Saveur’s Pasta ($4.90). The soup was medium bodied, not as rich as you may find elsewhere, but had a good taste. The pasta was light and came with a topping of chopped mince pork sauce, chives and sakura ebi (tiny shrimps). We enjoyed this dish with its combination of flavours.

For mains we had the beef bourguignon (16.90) and duck confit ($12.90). The beef was tender but the taste was dominated by the strong red wine sauce. The duck was very good, quite comparable to some restaurants charging more than twice the price here. We were glad that it was not too salty as many a times duck confit tends to be. The portions were quite large and we did not have room for desserts after this.

Overall we believe that Saveur had met our expectations of an affordable French meal. There are of course many areas where you can point to that needs improvement. The youthful staff were quite inexperienced, the presentation of the dishes and the crockery used were not top notch. The wine list had only two items – a house red and a white. But considering the objective of the restaurant, that they are serving a reasonable duck confit at $12.90 in the Scotts/Orchard area and that most of their clientele are below the legal drinking age anyway, we prefer to look at the positive i.e. it brings another type of dining option to the market. At a time when restaurants try to out-do each other at the top end, we are glad, some action is taking place at the lower end for ordinary patrons.

Quack!

Ratings:
Food : 3
Service: 3
Value : 3
Atmosphere: 3
Overall Rating: 3 TOPs

Saveur
#01-07B Far East Plaza
14 Scotts Road Singapore 228213

Tel : +65 6736 1121

Nearby MRT Station: Orchard

The Ordinary Patrons | Real Dining Experience of Ordinary People
an independent Singapore food blog