PAUL’s Fall/Winter 2014 menu sees rich, hearty entrées complemented with refreshing appetisers with citrus notes. I’ve always wanted to try PAUL ever since walking past one of their boulangeries at Collyer Quay, so I was very excited to receive an invitation to try out their new menu.
At a bloggers’ tasting session at PAUL’s newest outlet at Marina Bay Link Mall last Saturday, we were served six out of 26 items on the new menu.
Tartine Boeuf (S$19.90). Sliced sirloin steak and caramelised onions served on rustic country bread with a smidgen of herb cheese. I would have very much preferred the meat to be exactly medium rare and less well-done. The country bread, which is baked in-house, is very good though.
Salad de la mer (S$20.90). A crisp seafood salad with octopus, prawns, mussels, avocado, grapefruit and slices of red radish. This has got to be my favourite dish out of the six. The seafood items are not overcooked and the tartness of the grapefruit complements the saltiness of the seafood so well.
Confit de Canard (S$28.90), classic French dish. Slow roasted duck leg confit on a bed of grilled veg, drizzled with cranberry sauce. Very fragrant and herby, but I have had better duck confit. Mine tasted a tad too salty and a tad tough. But that may be just me; many of my fellow diners loved the dish.
Longe de thon (S$29.90). Grilled tuna loin on a bed of grilled veg and drizzled with cranberry sauce. Between this and the duck confit, I would choose the duck confit.
Ah, desserts. How to better end a meal than on a sweet note? First we were served Eclair Paris-Brest (S$7.50) which is choux pastry with hazelnut cream. Both the pastry shell and the cream filling could be lighter, but hey, I love hazelnuts.
Then, we were served gaufre avec glacé (S$13.90), which is crispy waffle with vanilla ice-cream, chocolate syrup and a dusting of icing sugar. I don’t know how they make the waffles so crispy! There is not an ounce of fluffiness to it at all, but one look at the honeycomb mid-section and you know that it’s definitely waffle and not wafer. My guess is that it may contain finely milled cornmeal? It doesn’t taste starchily sweet like the usual waffles at the ice cream shop. They stay crispy even after the ice cream has melted.
PAUL is a family-owned business which originated from France and it has more than 500 outlets worldwide. Six outlets have opened in Singapore, with the flagship branch in Takashimaya. Come December, PAUL will also open in Changi Airport. The boulangerie’s (French for “bakery”) signature offering is its bread and it churns out 43 kinds of fancy and rustic bread. Most of the ingredients used at PAUL e.g. butter, from are sourced from France.
To whet the appetites of some 4 million customers who pass through their doors every month, the 125-year-old French boulangerie changes its menu every six months. They have some really fancy beverages which I have regretfully forgotten to take pictures of! They have a selection of novelty iced teas which are very popular in our weather: passionfruit iced tea, rosemary lime iced tea, lemongrass iced tea ($7.50 each) – just to name a few. And for those who like novelty coffees, they have café medici ($7.50), which is hot coffee with chocolate and milk froth topped with orange zest, and café miel ($7.50), which is hot coffee with honey and milk froth topped with cinnamon. Shakerato ($7.50), is a double espresso shot shaken with ice and strained. There’s also a marcaron-blended milkshake!! Enquire with the server.
Personally, I envision myself dropping by PAUL to grab an artisanal loaf of bread, a sandwich to go, or meeting someone for a business lunch or talk shop over a cuppa. The ambience is so polished, I can imagine that this would be the perfect setting for an informal business get-together. I love the fact that you can hear what the person sitting across the table is saying and the place is so well-lit, you could read and write documents without squinting.
The latest menu was launched on Oct 8 and you can find it in all six of PAUL’s outlets.
Takashimaya Shopping Centre, #03-16/17
Bakery tel: 68361914
Restaurant tel: 68365932
Tanglin Mall, #01-16/17
Bakery tel: 67363205
Restaurant tel: 67363257
Ocean Financial Centre Basement 1, #B1-01
Bakery tel: 66348580
Ocean Financial Centre Level 01
Bakery tel: 63349068
Restaurant tel: 66347686
Westgate, #01-05
Bakery tel: 63699082
Restaurant tel: 63699080
Marina Bay Link Mall, #B2-07
Bakery tel: 65098339
Restaurant tel: 65098329
Changi Airport Terminal 3, Departure Transite Lounge Central #02-36
(Opening in December 2014)
