Odette (2023)
Odette is a restaurant with 3 Michelin stars and is Singapore’s top restaurant in the list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants (#6). Dennis, Liner and I visited Odette right after the lockdown restrictions lifted in 2020, but the overall experience was not fantastic. It left something to be desired considering its accolades and 3 stars. I went again with my mother to see if it had improved.
The overall food experience was the same (if not slightly worse), but the attention to our food restrictions was much better.
We parked in the National Gallery, near Lift Lobby B. The walk wasn’t as far as last time! I guess we just needed to know where to park! We were a little early so we took a walk around and looked at some artwork displays before heading in.
Our table was right by the entrance. Not a great table but we only booked about a week in advance, and I thoroughly appreciated that the restaurant emailed me within 24 hours from the time I made the reservation to let me know the table we’d be assigned (photos included!) and to let them know if we still want to go. I went ahead with it.
I’m not gonna go so far into details which we were the same as in 2020, like the table set up etc.
A waiter came by and he seemed to be primarily responsible for our table, as he was clearly tasked with attending to our requests/concerns and clarifying our food restrictions. Mine were no vegetables (mushrooms & seaweed OK) and no spice; my mother’s included no meat tartare and no truffle. I really appreciate that he tried very hard to confirm my boundaries when it comes to ‘vegetables’. He practically checked with me for everything green, leafy, or onion-y including. He also checked with my mother to confirm her restrictions regarding tartare and whether truffle included mushrooms that aren’t truffle. However, despite all this checking, I feel like some still slipped through the cracks which is not what I’d expect from 3 Michelin stars.
As the meal started, we declined the champagne cart but enquired a bit about wines. Someone came by to talk to us about wines and recommend glasses for us. My mother had a white from the get go and I had a red, to be served whenever they felt was appropriate during the meal.
Starters
The starters began with 3 small bites. The first was Comte cheese sticks - warm cheese wrapped in soft waffley batter. I loved this the last time and I loved it still this time. The second was a Kurobuta pork mini taco. They kindly left out some vegetables/herbs but yet somehow included what tasted like horseradish (spicy!). This kind of overwhelmed the taste for me, but mother enjoyed it. The third was trout tartare tart (this was fine for mother). The fish was pretty good, but it also included what felt like crunchy root-veggie-like chopped ingredients. Fine overall.
The next starter was the good old mushrooms and bread. This was the same as in 2020. Mushroom tea poured into some mushroomy foam, served alongside mushroom brioche. I appreciated that the little chives(?) were omitted from mine. It was as delicious as it was last time. Main differences include a more polished adorable mushroom cup, and a teapot that looks less like a French press.
We also got a plate of breads. 2 types - mushroom brioche and sourdough. Seems they recycled the mushroom brioche from the mushroom course. I like that they gave me normal butter as opposed to my mum’s very green butter and herby butter. She said her butter was very light and airy. Mine was normal butter, I think unsalted.
First Course
Hokkaido Bafun uni with brown butter bread, and red Scicilian prawn with mussel cloud and Kristal caviar.
They scooped the caviar in front of us from this beautiful presentation. The prawn and mussel cloud were delicious. The uni was sweet and smooth and the sweet brown butter bread complemented the saltiness of the uni perfectly. This was an amazing course. Plus, it comprised 2 of my favourite things: uni and caviar.
The uni and brown butter bread might have been my favourite.
Second Course
Normandy brown crab with apple sorbet, Nashi pear, and ginger & celery jelly. The little bits on top are avocado.
No complaints here. It was good, it was refreshing, and the ginger and celery did not overpower. A pleasant mix of textures. The plating trolled me though, because it was on a transparent bulb-like plate and due to perception, I absent-mindedly thought it was flat and had edges? So I scooped one of my last bites towards the ‘sides’ to scoop it up and it fell off the curved side! That’s on me, I should’ve paid more attention to that in the moment.
Third Course
Their signature rosemary smoked organic egg. The presentation for this one is always incredible. Each soft boiled egg was plopped into our respective cups of smoked potato foam and chorizo iberico bits. This was also when they served the red wine.
Delicious, delicious, delicious! I do love this dish. I love the play of textures and flavours between the soft and runny egg, the foam, and the chewy chorizo (like jerky). The rosemary smell was much stronger than its taste, which works for me.
Supplement Course
I added on the Mozambique Langoustine supplement out of curiosity. You could add it in, or it can replace the egg (gasp!). It was basically a langoustine ravioli, with ‘leek fondue’ and brown butter and yellow wine.
The ravioli had within it a Shiso leaf. They checked with me whether this was okay, because it couldn’t be removed. You know what they could have removed though? The leek bits on top of the dish. I don’t expect them to sift the leek bits out of the ‘leek fondue’ for the plating but with the way the bits sat on top, I think that could’ve at least been avoided.
Anyway, the langoustine itself was great. Fresh, soft, well-cooked. The ravioli itself came apart from the langoustine very easily so it was kind of like eating separate pieces. The Shiso was practically melded to the pasta, and the pasta itself was a little sticky/stretchy in that it wasn’t very easy to cut through but the mouthfeel was fine. I wasn’t a fan of the flavour of what I assume was the ‘leek fondue’, i.e., the bed of foamy sauce. I could’ve happily eaten the langoustine alone.
Was it worth the supplemental price? Absolutely not. But I imagine the langoustine made up most of the price.
Fourth Course
Scottish blue lobster with miso, endive and sake beurre blanc. Mine came without the herby garnishes (thank you), and it was communicated earlier that the endive was a bit unavoidable. I guess if I really didn’t want it on my plate they would’ve removed it but I didn’t mind if I could just avoid it when eating.
It was like half a lobster tail. The sauce was good and the lobster was well cooked. I also liked the little orange pieces which went really well with the lobster and added a burst of sweetness to the bite. This dish was very good but not anything special. Maybe I missed something great with the endive?
Fifth Course
Steamed kinki from Hokkaido with some squid, Obsiblue prawn & prawn consomme with lemongrass, and Japanese turnip. I think the plating could’ve been better… The tail is a nice touch but the flesh of the fish didn’t add to to the look.
I did appreciate that they left out the lemongrass in mine, compared to mother’s. I liked the consomme and the little ball of what I think was the squid. I really liked the ball of squid and I’m not usually a squid person. I avoided the turnip. The fish itself was meh, and a little undercooked for me (and I usually love steamed fish). Plus, I found two small bones in my fish while chewing. That’s not pleasant.
Sixth Course
Pigeon! Another signature. A presentation version was shown to us in a pot full of flowers before the dish arrived. The pigeon that arrived was a breast piece with a leg encrusted with Cambodian black pepper.
The plating was reminiscent of the 2020 version but a little updated. I really enjoyed the perfectly done breast but not so much the leg (though notably not as slap-in-the-face spicy as last time). Mother, on the other hand, found the meaty part too gamy but enjoyed the leg. The pigeon messenger contained the same (or at least one of the same) messages from 2020. That’s not a problem, but just something I noticed.
I found the pigeon jus (poured into the oval of black garlic) very sour. Like, I didn’t like it at all. The maitake mushroom was good and the mushroom ‘ketchup’ was a bit weird but okay.
The pigeon also once again came with a fried offal ball (heart and liver). I didn’t get a photo of it but the insides of the ball were not as dark as they were in 2020. Interesting. Probably done differently. Nothing spectacular, though.
Pre-dessert
Prior to the palate cleanser, we declined the cheese cart. I was curious but mother didn’t want any. You would be able to choose a plate of cheeses from the cart, as a supplement.
The palate cleanser was mint and basil based. I can’t recall exactly what it comprised but included some kind of granita, apple, mint, and basil… The leaf was not a leaf! It was crispy and sweet. Overall it was good. Cold, minty but not too minty. I think it did its job of cleansing our palates. Mother didn’t want to finish hers.
Dessert
The dessert, per the menu, was a strawberry pavlova with pistachio and basil. It looked gorgeous! There were little bits of strawberry, too. Mother felt that the strawberry sauce was a little too thin, but it was strawberry + olive oil after all.
I had the standard yuzu tart instead. The waiter mentioned it when he was enquiring about the basil part of the strawberry dessert and I remembered that I enjoyed it a lot last time.
The yuzu tart this time wasn’t covered in leaves, thankfully. Yes, it affects how plain it looks but at least my bites are not interrupted. Delicious as I remembered, but I believe the construction was a bit poor. It was lopsided and didn’t sit nicely on top of the yuzu cream and sable, it had a rough finish that didn’t do it any favours (in 2020 it was a smooth and glossy finish - much better). I also think the proportion of ice cream to fluffy meringue(?) could be better. Overall still yummy, but the standard for this dish certainly dropped.
Now, between our desserts and the petit fours, they surprised us with a birthday dessert! For information, no birthday song was sung (which is completely fine). The dish was “SNIX” - a combination of Snickers and Twix which apparently Chef Julien loves. The dish comprised a chocolate cream rose on some crunchy cocoa bits/nibs, chocolate sauce, and thin chocolate sticks/bark on a bed of peanut caramel.
The chocolate cream rose was very bland, so we didn’t eat much of that. The chocolate sauce was very, very rich and dark. Much too dark for me - very bitter. The chocolate sticks were essentially like, airy rolls of chocolate crisp. It was a little crispy and quickly became soft. This was a very interesting element and I found it fun to eat. The peanut caramel mixture beneath was presumably meant to resemble Snickers. I found it a bit bitter from the peanuts but mother thoroughly enjoyed it and finished all of it herself. Works for me because she wasn’t a fan of the chocolate sticks/rolls which I finished.
Soon after came the petit fours. We started with rosemary ice cream pops. The rosemary was so strong… Too strong. Rather overwhelming and felt a bit suffocating.
The others were the usual Japanese fruits, canele, and matcha ball. The Japanese fruits were fresh, sweet, and juicy. Delicious. The canele was generally good. I found it curious that the outside tasted burnt but the inside felt (and looked) undercooked? Not sure what to make of that. The matcha ball was okay - I’m not a fan of matcha but it wasn’t worth it to ask them to change it. I do appreciate that the Waiter also checked if I was okay with matcha, seeing as it is green.
Overall, Odette maintains its impressive plating and presentation for the most part. The service was excellent with staff who seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the food and experience. One petite man in particular just brought a whole lot of life to the experience with how he explained the food and shared with us certain back stories, etc. He energised us!
However, once again the attention to detail regarding dietary preferences was lacking. This is not what I expect from a 3 Michelin star restaurant. I’ve had better attention to these things from 1 Michelin and no Michelin star restaurants. I will say that Odette has greatly improved in this particular area, as I was sorely disappointed last time whereas this time they made the effort and cared to omit things like tiny leaves from the yuzu tart.
A new thing I didn’t expect was the presentation aspect. I am quite sad that this restaurant which wow-ed me with its presentation the last time dropped the ball this time. The overall ‘story’ of the progression of dishes was better, but the issue of relying on heavy hitters and the other dishes being just good (not great) remains.
From my personal experience, I’m comparing Odette with fellow 3 Michelin starred restaurant Atelier Crenn in 2022 (San Francisco). Atelier Crenn not only nailed every single dish, but they also perfectly crafted their dishes to avoid infringing on our dietary restrictions.
For a restaurant with all their accolades and 3 Michelin stars, it was underwhelming. The service was excellent and engaging and the ambience is good, but the food and presentation was below expectations.
If I didn’t know about Odette, I wouldn’t have expected them to have even 1 Michelin star. I would’ve thought they were just a very fancy and absurdly expensive restaurant.
The total bill came up to about S$1.3k for 2 pax, 1 supplement, and 2 glasses of wine. The set menu was $488++ each. The langoustine supplement was $98++.
Food: 3/5
Ambience: 5/5
Service: 5/5
My experience: 3.5/5
(Also apologies for the photos - I haven’t mastered the iPhone 13 mini yet)