Privé restaurant

This restaurant was one of the 4 recommended as Singapore's best steak places on CNNgo website. Out of the four, Morton's was tops. Since CNNgo seems to agree with our verdict, we thought we could try the others. Bedrock had already been tried, and didn't impress us. So out of the remaining two, we chose to try Privé for Lynn's birthday dinner. While googling for Privé's menu (to make sure my pockets won't be injured too much), I came across a blog that talked about the restaurant. 


Excerpt from ladyironchef:

“Our steak is better than CUT Steakhouse”. Yuan told us at the start of dinner.

Having heard raved reviews about the steaks at CUT Marina Bay Sands (my foodie friends boldly proclaimed that they have the best steaks in Singapore), I was a little sceptical initially.

My partner and I were left speechless when we had our first bite of the steak. It was SO GOOD – definitely one of the best steaks I’ve had. And you know what? I wouldn’t exchange this steak for any kurobuta pork.

I sent a snapshot of this to Lynn, and got her super excited. You see, we had always wanted to try out CUT. BUT, from what we gathered online, CUT's prices were known to cost patrons some $1000 for 2 pax. Sounds too scary for us to check out. So seeing this post was making us feel that hey, we have a chance to try that standard of meat for a fraction the price! Privé puts up their entire menu on their website, so I had no problem finding out the prices.

We ordered the eye of Ribeye off their Josper Grill menu. Quoting the menu:"The Josper Grill is the latest professional tool that has taken the international culinary world by storm, with lauded chefs such as Heston Blumenthal, Gordon Ramsay and Jason Atherton creating Josper-centric menus in their current establishments. The Spanish hybrid indoor barbeque grill/oven powered by Bincho-tan ‘white’ hardwood oak charcoal is well-known for being able to grill meat, fish and vegetables swiftly, and more importantly, perfectly." We also ordered a duck confit, partly because we remembered Ember's fabulous one, and partly because theirs comes with foie gras mashed potatoes. How tempting is that? Of course there were our regular appetizers of pan-fried foie gras, cream of mushroom with white truffle oil and cheese. Subsequently added a creamed spinach side because the small serving of spinach that came with the foie gras was so good. We also had Pinor Noir - a glass each. We ended the meal with a dessert platter, in which we substituted their sticky date pudding for an additional profiterole.

Before our orders were served, we were served three variety of breads with butter, and some cheese something that I couldn't catch the waitress mumbling. Out of the three breads, I liked the hard roll and and foccacia. The last raisin roll I didn't like since I don't care for raisins too much, although Lynn did de-raisin half a roll for me. We had seconds for the foccacia and hard roll, which came hot. Love hot bread with butter!!

The soup came just when we were starting round two of the breads. The server had thoughtfully split our soup into two bowls for us. The mushroom soup was rich, full of mushroom bits, with a mascarpone and parmesan crisp. The fragrance of the truffle oil floated up to our noses the moment the soup was set down. Sadly, we could smell it but couldn't quite taste it. The crisp was so cheesy and good with the soup. Subsequently found out that if we let the soup sit for a while and the temperature drops a little, we could taste the truffle oil better. Yum!

The foie gras was a little of a disappointment. Wasn't quite as soft and melty as we liked. In fact it was quite similar to that of Bedrock's, in that I wasn't seduced to want to have it again. (Bedrock was my first time having foie gras, and I didn't get hooked. Only got hooked when we went to Brawn). I think it's not quite as fatty, which will explain the less-than-ideal aroma, and the harder than preferred consistency. Oh well, means that this was a slightly less cruel meal right?

Then came the steak. It wasn't wagyu, so did not have the rich fatty aroma that I so love. However, the meat was lean yet tender, with a very good chew. I agree with ladyironchef - this was a very very good piece of meat. The eye of the ribeye is supposed to be the best part of the ribeye. Our 340g shared between the two of us was a very nice portion. There were occasional fats at the edges that tasted more aromatic. There were some parts that was a little too charred - doesn't bother me but Lynn didn't seem to like it.

The duck was a let down again. It didn't match up to Ember's, and there was no foie gras taste at all in the mashed potatoes! The fats weren't quite melty enough, and by the end of the meal, I was quite sick in the stomach of the fats. The creamed spinach was very nice on the first mouthful - creamy and smooth. Towards the end, it started tasting a little like curry vegetable. Not sure why, must be a full stomach warping my senses.

Our dessert platter was selected because we couldn't decide what to eat. We were told to eat them in a specific order - Lychee Granité and lemon meringue tart first because the sourness helps clear our palate. Then the apple strudel, then the profiterole, and finally the Valrhona Chocolate Mille Feuille. We ended up sampling the Chocolate Mille Feuille first because we love Valrhona chocolate. Then we did everything in our own time and sequence. Lol. I mentioned a birthday celebration during my reservation and Privé gave us a complimentary, nicely decorated slice of birthday cake. Unfortunately they didn't inform us earlier, so with that entire dessert platter, we had to forego half the cake. 

Cream cheese something

Bread and butter

Mushroom soup with white truffle oil and mascarpone and parmesan crisp

Pan-fried foie gras

Eye of ribeye - half portion

Duck confit

Foie gras mashed potatoes

Dessert platter

Profiteroles

Apple strudel and vanilla bean ice cream

Valrhona chocolate mille fueille

Lychee Granite

Lemon meringue tart

Prettily decorated cake plate

Like the rainbow and the hearts!

We really enjoyed the steak here, tasty to the very last bite. Next time we probably will skip the foie gras, stick to the soup, and see if we can't order something else. I did remember that the other stuff on the appetizers list didn't tempt us too much. The seafood platter on the Josper menu looked pretty good though, may try it next time in substitution of the duck confit. Steakwise, this place scores. Saw a few vegetarian options on their menu too, may bring my hubby back for some special dinner some day.