Lunch at Les Amis Singapore review: 14th best in Asia, 86th best in the world

As the second part of Louise's birthday I wanted to take her somewhere special and after looking at Iggy's,  Jaan and Les Amis I decided on the latter. All three are amongst the best in Asia and Singapore without being beyond my means like Waku Ghin and Restaurant Andre by offering reasonable lunch menus.

Les Amis is a mainstay on the Singapore fine dining scene and has been popular for some years and I personally feel that although not quite as useful as an evening degustation meal, a lunch option can show a lot about a restaurant. Although the head chef may not be there overseeing, particularly on a weekday, their standards and expectations of the staff should continue to every guest, no matter their budget, even more so when you are in the top 100 restaurants in the world.

The restaurant is just off Orchard Road so has a very convenient location for locals or tourists and practically runs the small street with various different off shoot restaurants. Inside does seem a little dated and as soon as you enter the door you are practically at your table (though you may be also be seated upstairs) but despite this the room is bright with full length windows and quiet.

We were given our lunch menus and you can choose from three options at $55, $70 and $125 but I had already decided on the middle "Decouverte" option with the supplement dish bringing the meal to $95pp. Looking at the menus beforehand I was happy to see that some of the dishes also feature on the evening degustation menus so I knew we would not be shortchanged and in fact the cheaper two menus seem better value as the $125 option seems more about classic French cuisine, i.e. as many expensive items as you can use rather than doing more with less so to speak.

2am:Dessert Bar Singapore review: Asia's best pastry chef?

With it being Louise’s birthday, and both of us dessert lovers, I had no choice but to treat her to the 2am:Dessert Bar in Holland Village run by Janice Wong. Janice has been voted Asia's best pastry chef two years previously and has also worked at some of the biggest restaurants including Per Se, L20 and Alinea, so I was expecting good things from my surprise.