French Food Find: Saveur at East Coast Rd, Singapore

October 25, 2011

In the spirit of hunting down the next french kopitiam stall after Le Cuisson, my foodie friend tipped me off to another one in the East called Saveur (meaning 'flavor' in french). It is on the corner of East Coast Road and Joo Chiat, and resides in the very bohemian stretch of eateries. The stall sits within a coffeeshop named Ali Baba Eating House - I am intrigued already.

It is a very small stall for that much pots, pans and 2 cooks. The chefs 'suffer' to lower the costs so we can enjoy bourgeoisie food at proletarian prices. As you can see, all the print media has already gotten to this stall with their reviews so I am not the first. Sad. But I am performing consistency review :P

We were however told to wait AN HOUR before we can get our food. Judging by the Friday night crowd they did seem pretty overwhelmed. At least the waitress informed me beforehand to check if we still want to order, which was nice. Since we already travelled all the way there, we accepted the 1hr waiting time and ordered an angel hair pasta starter and duck confit main.

However we had to order some appetisers to start! We got some rojak (with green and red apples inside no less) and also 3 of the famous "tau kwa pau" which is actually stuffed fried beancurd. It was savoury and filled with bits of egg, shallots? cucumber and other things. The beancurd was really fresh and tasty though. A beancurd per person makes for a very good meal starter indeed.

After 1 hour and 10 mins, we finally heard that our pasta/duck confit is almost ready! By then the rojak/beancurd had been nicely half digested so we are ready. The angel hair pasta with caviar and tiger prawns (seafood special) were served first in a smallish bowl. Can't remember the price but it should be inexpensive at around 4-6 bucks. It was a starter so not too big!

The pasta itself is really nice and al dente. Makes for a surprisingly good starter because it whets your appetite without being too overpowering with the smooth olive oil dressing. I do feel that the tiger prawns could have been more generous and the caviar actually tasted quite fishy, though the smattering of it probably gave the dish its seafood flavour. A pleasant dish.

Next up, duck confit! One of the things that non-French people think about immediately when you say french food is this dish. If I am not wrong, the word confit actually comes from the french word confiture, which actually means jam. The traditional way of making duck confit actually involved soaking the leg of duck in its own fat until it becomes really soft so maybe that's the part that's similar to jam making?

The duck confit was really satisfying because it did melt off the bone. The duck was not dry, and sits on top a bed of watery mashed potatoes which complements the meat really nicely. Add some sauteed mushrooms and a few slices of orange and you have yourself a duck confit. Le confit de canard est très bon!

It also only costs $8.90. The skin was crispy and well flavored.

125 East Coast Road (just before turning into Joo Chiat Rd), Stall #3, Ali Baba Eating House, Singapore
Tel: +65 6100 1688
Mon–Sat: 11am – 9.30pm, Sun: 6pm – 9.30pm

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  1. Nice review but is the food French? Looks like a rojak to me. Joel

  2. @joel: the rojak and beancurd was from another stall! the pasta and duck confit well.... i wouldn't exactly say they are french either haha.