Casual French cooking in a garden setting at La Terrace

Business Times

a day ago

NEW RESTAURANT
La Terrace by Claudine
39C Harding Road
Singapore 249451
Tel: [phone]
Open daily: 5 pm to 12 am
MAYBE we've been binge-watching TV, but we can't help thinking that if there were a restaurant version of a chaebol, Odette could well be the patriarch of one.
Firstly, it's the all-powerful flagship – a three Michelin-starred name ceaselessly uttered with a sense of awe and worship. Then you have its firstborn, Claudine, complete with eldest child syndrome – working hard to continue the legacy while asserting its own identity.
And now there's the youngest, La Terrace – playful, maybe a little lazy, riding on the family name because, really, it doesn't have anything to prove.
As its name suggests, La Terrace literally sits in the backyard of Claudine – which already occupies a sweet spot amid the lush greenery of Dempsey Hill. A bright-red Claudine food truck is parked on the grass like it took a wrong turn after a hotdog delivery. Outdoor seating makes this great for dogs – just remember it's not your garden, so don't yell at any owners to scoop if their pets poop.
It feels like a great place for breakfast or brunch but La Terrace only opens in the evenings, when you can enjoy the transition to dusk from the comfort of a conservatory dining room dressed in French country chic.
The food plays second fiddle to the view – a window to nature with no man-made distractions. It's entry-level casual French fare, a practice run before you graduate to the 'real' food next door in Claudine's main dining room, and then – maybe – the hallowed halls of Odette.
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Don't expect anything exciting. It's properly executed if pedestrian, and there isn't a lot of choice beyond a handful of hot and cold starters and just one main dish: French-style chicken rice.
There's sourdough bread (S$8) but it's the butter, flavoured with iberico ham and topped with crispy salty sprinkles, that elevates it. If you're in the mood for oysters, they offer Normandy ones at S$8 a pop, topped with a sharp and salty shio kombu dressing.
Service is slow or leisurely, depending on your interpretation. Just when we decide on 'slow', everything suddenly comes at once, like latecomers to a party who arrive all at the same time. We only have so much time before the fried stuff starts to soften, so we have to eat fast.
Deep-fried zucchini flowers with cottage cheese dip. PHOTO: LA TERRACE
Battered and deep-fried zucchini flowers (S$24) are heavy, but the crunch is worth it. They're fine on their own, or with a tangy cottage cheese dip. We'll pass on the shrimp toast (S$24) next time – chopped shrimp smothered in a 'curry' mayonnaise that's such a garish yellow, it must have a serial number rather than real turmeric. It doesn't help that the bun that it's stuffed into is toasted hard and dry.
Shrimp in curry mayo dressing on toast. PHOTO: LA TERRACE
A curl of octopus leg (S$32) is dependably resilient to cut, and comes in a romesco sauce that's pretty garden variety. And S$18 is what it costs for them to hand cut potatoes into thick sticks and deep-fry them – best if you can polish them off within five to 10 minutes, tops.
Grilled octopus in romesco sauce. PHOTO: LA TERRACE
Hand-cut French fries. PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT
Most of the kitchen's effort goes into the solitary main course – half a roasted chicken (S$58), beautifully browned and tender on a bed of Japanese rice cooked in broth, served in a cast iron pot with some decent socarrat at the bottom. A rich chicken jus is poured over the rice, which is garnished with crispy bits of skin and soft roasted cloves of garlic. Squeeze out the garlic, mix with the rice and chicken, add a touch of extra sauce and you've justified your visit.
Half a roasted chicken served with rice. PHOTO: LA TERRACE
Stay for dessert, too. Its self-named 'pariterole' (S$14) is said to be a marriage of profiterole and Paris-Brest. It's like eating a giant Ferrero Rocher, with its crumbly nutty praline, filled with vanilla ice cream and studded with candied pecans. Madeleines (S$16) are fluffy little cake nuggets, served warm and dusted with powdered sugar.
Pariteroles are a hybrid of profiterole and paris brest. PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT
Baby madeleines dusted with powdered sugar. PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT
If you want serious food, go next door. La Terrace isn't the most satisfying, but it serves its purpose well. It makes good use of a very nice space, and caters to a crowd that wants a bit of the Odette shine without a major investment. Call it a nepo baby if you like, but La Terrace succeeds without really trying.
Rating: 6.5