The Place Chef Bruno Menard’s &Made should be familiar to many people, La Cantine is the fine dining attempt by the chef focusing on French food in Asia Square. The most unfortunate part is that the restaurant is not opened to the public on weekends, which makes Friday night dinner for me the best time of the week.

The interior of La Cantine is quite poshly done, with nice ceiling inverted candle-like lights which adds to the ambience of the restaurant. I would say that the posh setting did not make me feel uneasy or the need to be pretentious, as the crowd is mostly working folks from the nearby office buildings who just wanted to relax after a hard day at work (speaking about myself).

The Food There is a bar menu here as well, and happy hour starts from 6-8pm where some of the bar snacks like truffle fries ($15) goes 1-for-1 (hooray!). We all dig truffle fries but it is so difficult to find good ones around. The food menu prices are generally on the high end, from the classic french Escargots ($22) to French Onion Soup ($28) to Duck Leg Confit ($38), it is hard not to tell why La Cantine is not your usual Friday night dinner venue.

The Escargot was whipped with garlic and butter, always one of my favourite french starters.For mains, the Pan Roasted Pacific Cod Fish ($32) came in a small serving as expected. The cod fish was fresh though the taste was a little bland for my liking. The Sirloin Steak Frites ($39) is another must order in any french cuisine. We had the steak medium done, which comes with La Cantine special butter as well. The quality of the steak was not the best I have had, and I expected much more from La Cantine. As for the frites, it could definitely be better as well.The last saving grace of the night was our dessert, the Nespresso Sundae with caramel ($12). Sad to procliam that this was the best dish I had that day, love the caramel drenched in the vanilla ice-cream with nespresso. I thought it was a creative dessert and probably the only dish that surprised me that night.Rants The food definitely fell short of my expectations of a michelin chef when it did not help that the prices ain’t cheap.

Will I return again? To be honest, this is a no for me. With so many restaurants opening every month in Singapore, it would be difficult to tempt me back for a second time unless it is damn good.

TheRantingPanda says:
Taste bud: 2.5/5
Hole in the pocket: 4.5/5
Ambience: 4/5
Overall Experience: 2/5

La Cantine 
8 Marina View, Asia Square Tower 1, #01-01
Tel: +65 6690 7567

Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday 12pm-2.30pm, 6pm to 9.30pm
Saturdays: For private bookings only
Sundays: Closed