making my way down Club Street

The Ann Siang/Club Street area seems to have a French bistro every corner you turn.

But today, I was there for one specific one - Chez La Mamy, which sits right opposite, you guessed it - another bistro, I think owned by the same people who own L'Angelus a bit further down.

To work up an appetite, I decided to do some window shopping at those stores in the neighbourhood where things look great and prices will break my bank account. So I saved the money for my stomach, as usual.

The bistro is a cosy, and rather tiny little space - it probably can seat only about 14 to 16 people indoors. The walls are lined with picture frames of well, rather odd things like menus, magazine articles, ads - stuff I suppose the owner likes. It gives a rather homely feel to it. The chairs though could use some improvement - I felt that the backs curved in a lot and just weren't something to be relaxed in. It felt like it was meant for a cafe - the kind of place you have a quick bite at and leave, where you wouldn't stay until the chairs start feeling odd.

It was a quiet Wednesday night, besides our table of three, there was another table of four, who had a rather early dinner while J and I waited for eps to finally leave the office - she eventually reached at about 820 and we'd gone ahead with the starters as the stomachs were just grumbling.

The waitstaff served as a basket of warm toasted dinner rolls and a couple of pats of butter first - a very welcome sight. Then about 1/2 hour in, as we were still waiting for eps, along came a fresh basketful of rolls and another plateful of butter. How nice. And when eps arrived, along came yet another basket of hot toasty rolls and butter - just for her. So I must say, excellent service. Very attentive.

All of us went with the three course set dinners at $39.

A complimentary starter of grilled leeks served satay-style on a bed of greens began the meal. It was only recently, at my aunt's tuanyuanfan nazi steamboat that I discovered how sweet leeks can be. So I quite enjoyed this.

I decided on the warm goat's cheese that came with a salad with walnut oil dressing. Not bad although the salad had a touch too much oil for me.

The others went with the chicken and foie gras terrine that came with an artichoke salad.

The main courses offered were a duck confit served with potato gratin or a tuna steak, which I didn't really er, bother reading about when I saw the duck confit.

It is served on a plate by itself, and is a small portion when compared to the one at Sebastien's (although it's been a while since I've had it there, so maybe they've shrunk it) but has that crispy skin and tender meat that a duck confit should have. The potato gratin that came alongside was creamy and very tasty.

I had a bite of eps tuna but didn't like it. I suppose mainly because the sauce that was served with it tasted strongly of spring onions - which I despise, but which the other two seem to like. !

Onto dessert - they had run out of the third choice available which was a baked pear (everyone on the other table had ordered it, strangely and rather boringly) so I had the creme brulee and the other two had the flourless chocolate cake.

The creme brulee was not served in a bowl or a cup like some places do it, but on a very flat flan dish. So there was a larger surface area for the caramelised sugar - which is after all, the best part. The flourless chocolate cake was served warm and accompanied with a vanilla sauce and cold raspberries. Very nice.

It was a satisfying dinner. The wine we picked was unfortunately not that fantastic - something from the Rhone Valley. Although it was a few years old, it somehow tasted like it was from last year - a very young wine. And kinda tannic as well. So that kinda brought the dinner down a little.

I'm not entirely sure if I will go back as there are so many other bistros in the area I will have to try out first. But it was a good meal, with excellent service.


Chez La Mamy
14 Ann Siang Road,
#01-01.
Tel: 6438-1998