élan Restaurant Review – New Modern French Dining from Les Amis Group

élan restaurant Singapore is Les Amis Group’s latest concept in Shaw Centre. It serves “... approachable modern French cuisine sprinkled with Asian touches“. Slotted in between 3 Michelin star Les Amis restaurant and casual dining Bistro Du Vin, élan seems to be the smart casual French dining of the group. Somewhat like what Claudine is to Odette perhaps?

Approachable Modern French Restaurant

élan restaurant opened in September 2022 and takes over the space formerly occupied by La Strada, an Italian restaurant also by the Les Amis Group. Next door neighbour Bistro Du Vin is currently undergoing some renovations. By the way, we are writing “élan” in lower case to be consistent with the way it is presented on its website.

The restaurant has a calm, contemporary decor. It does not have the colourful playfulness of Claudine but certainly has a more approachable atmosphere as compared to the formal three-star sibling a few doors away. Consistent with its approachable cuisine, we found the service to be friendly and helpful. It is a restaurant that made us feel at home quite quickly.

élan Restaurant Wine List

The élan restaurant wine list has a range that is probably adequate for most diners. Predictably, French wines feature prominently on the list. There is a number of sub-$100 labels on the list. Also useful to have is a fair selection of half-bottle (375 ml) formats available. Here is a picture of a sample page from the wine list. We picked a bottle of 2020 Domaine de la Janasse Cotes du Rhone Rouge ($90) for our lunch.

élan Restaurant Menu and Set Lunch Menu

The élan restaurant menus are available online. Here are pictures for your quick reference. The items on the a la carte menu look luxurious. For example – roasted saddle and rack of Pyrenées Lamb ($68), Yamaguchi A4 Wagyu Striploin ($75) and blue lobster ($110). We guesstimate that dinner at élan restaurant will cost around $180 per pax (without drinks), bearing in mind the additional service charge and GST.

A more affordable way to dine at élan Restaurant is to try élan’s set lunch which costs $70++. This was what we did that day. At first glance, the set lunch looked rather expensive but on closer examination, it was not too bad. A mainstream set lunch in a good Singapore restaurant these days costs around $50 with extra surcharges for dishes with pricier ingredients. We like the fixed $70 style that élan has adopted with no surcharge or fine print on the menu to catch the unwary diner.

élan Restaurant Set Lunch

Here are the dishes that we had for lunch.

Starters

Our starters for lunch were foie gras and king prawn. Only one king prawn was served on our plate but it was huge. Perfectly cooked with charred edges but still tender, this was a tasty way to begin lunch. Some spinach and butter sauce enhanced the flavours of the prawn.

The pan-seared foie gras was served with smoked eel, granny smith apples, horseradish and poultry jus. All the ingredients harmonised like instruments in a symphony. Most importantly the foie gras had just enough of the liver taste and was not overpowering.

Main Courses

Our mains were roasted maple leaf duck breast and grilled australian wagyu m9+ flank steak. The duck was served with dragée, wild mushrooms, pickled cabbage, orange sauce. According to a quick internet search, “dragée” is sugared almond, these pieces of sweet chopped nuts and the orange sauce balanced out the rich duck flavours.

The steak was quite a decent portion. Around 250 to 300g is our guess. We enjoyed it with the bordelaise sauce, watercress & yuzu salad and hand cut chips. Our choices of main course influenced our choice of red wine.

The humble (being one of the most affordable on the list) Domaine de la Janasse Côtes du Rhône performed to expectations that day and complemented the food well.

Dessert and Cheese

For dessert we had the choux pastry and cheese. Choux pastry was light and delicious.

Cheese for dessert was a selection of two types from this tray of cheese. It was a good way to finish up the remaining red wine and to end our lunch at the new élan restaurant Singapore by Les Amis. Coffee was also served as part of the set lunch.

Ratings:
Food: 4
Service: 5
Value: 4
Atmosphere: 4
Overall Rating: 4 TOPs  

élan Restaurant
Shaw Centre
1 Scotts Road #01-13
Singapore 228088

Open: Monday to Saturday
Lunch: 12 pm to 2 pm (last walk-in)
Dinner: 6.30 pm to 10 pm (last walk-in)
(closed on Sunday)

Nearest MRT Station: Orchard

---

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