It's nigh impossible to walk into Le Matin Patisserie (B2-49 ION Orchard, 2 Orchard Turn, tel : +65 8030 7303) and have low expectations because the chef Mohamed Al Matin has worked with big names and was previously from Restaurant André and Copenhagen's Noma. The previous limited availability of his pastries had also helped secure the aura of their exclusivity and well, hype speaks well of those.
My curiosity has been piqued. By pretty pictures and glowing comments the food has been receiving. I admit that even the nonsensical ravings by foodie wannabes who know next to nothing added to it.
Service can be spotty. We were waiting a while for our table and it was obvious that there were empty tables while we waited. I'm not sure what's happening. We also needed help from the wait staff about some of the sweet pastries we had put on hold during order to be served. The response I had expected was something along the lines of 'let me help you with that'. What I got was a head tilt towards the cashier followed by a 'tell that person'.
Flavour and texture layering can get...overwhelming here because they essentially need to show off what they can do. Nothing much was truly simple. I got reminded of the olde simple is good adage while eating. But to keep it simple 😂, I'm describing what the menu told me I had versus what I thought I had. We ordered a few savouries, a couple of sweets and a dessert.
That's the ox tongue and wagyu bresaola croque monsieur - menu also says garlic bechamel, pickled roses and butternut slices along with tomato relish and horseradish mayo. I know it was beef but I cannot identify any of it as ox tongue and wagyu bresaola - or even a regular bresaola for that matter. There's a pretty noticeable sour which I had initially thought to be some Dijon mustard. Not getting the pickled roses and I'm pretty sure I saw/felt sliced almonds.
Did not enjoy the texture. Too much crunch going on. Flavour on the whole was....so so. Will never get it again.
Fermented mushroom quiche fared much better. There's supposed to be dashi custard, fermented porcini and smoked celeriac. Did not notice that the custard had dashi. Couldn't tell that the fermented mushroom was porcini either. Celeriac where? But as a mushroom quiche, it was pretty delicious.
Seafood pot pie's pretty with the dill and trout roe. Menu described the fillings to contain snapper, salmon belly, tiger prawns, green mussels, clams and scallops. Pretty accurate. The crusty potato topping was nice and cheesy. Generous portions of dill definitely elevated the seafood-y creaminess.
This was called pistachio & rose escargot - ingredients included pistachio custard, cranberries, pistachio and dried rose petals. To get the last ingredient out of the way, I noted a rose after taste left in my mouth just after we had finished the pastry. That's all there was to it. The only other thing I could identify are the dried cranberries. For all the crushed pistachio one can see on it, all I could get was the texture and none of the flavour. So just pastry and cranberries. Just like an atas sultana danish.
Pain au chocolate had Valrhona dark chocolate inside and a buttery chocolate pastry. This was nice and probably the most simply described on menu. Also the most chocolate-y pain au chocolate I've ever had and I suspect I ever will have. I thought it was nicely done to the point that I could even imagine sipping the bitter black coffee that I never ordered after a couple of mouthful of the pastry.
The one thing I was most curious about and looking forward to was their Fromage de vos Reves. In short, cheesecake with Brillat Savarin, Reblochon and Comte. Respectively in mousse, crémeux and sponge. Definitely getting the hint of the Brillat Savarin and I think I can convince myself about the Reblochon. Not sure I could tell the Comte. That creme fraiche ice cream tasted...refreshingly yoghurt-y. Not bad.
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