Little French Fusion

Although the lamb burgundy pasta in @littlefrench_sg lunch set sounded mighty appealing, I chose the Filet of Barramundi Grenobloise instead. I’ve never had a grenobloise before, so curiosity won out and I had to see what it is. Grenobloise is something (usually fish) served with a sauce of browned butter, capers, parsley & lemon, resulting in a luxurious yet restrained dish.⠀
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The butter sauce was the perfect pairing with a drier fish like barramundi, as the rich butteriness of the sauce lubed the fish up real good. It’s my first ever grenobloise so I got nothing to compare it to, but I thoroughly relished Little French’s rendition. The sauce is a little sweet from the brown butter, exquisitely tangy from all the citrus added to the sauce, and sublimely savoury. The capers added little pops of salty umami to every bite, and the velvety butter sauce was an impeccable medley to the barramundi. The fish was just a tad mushy, but the grenobloise was so good it compensated for the shortcoming of the fish fillet.⠀
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Of course, the barramundi ain’t swimming solo, it comes with a side of cassoulet & rice. Cassoulet is normally a white bean stew and meat, so when I saw that it was a decidedly non stew like dish with rice in it, I was perplexed. However, my perplexity gave way to pleasure as I tucked into the rice cassoulet. It would appear that the rice has hoovered up all the stew while cooking, absorbing all of its savouriness in the process. Each fluffy grain of rice is fabulously flavourful and buttery, as if butter had had been mixed in with the rice. The white beans were supple and adequately flavoured, and presented a pleasant textural contrast to the soft, fluffy rice. ⠀
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Both the barramundi & rice cassoulet were the ideal modes to mop up that glorious grenobloise, and you should get down to Little French Fusion to mop up their lush lunch specials.

When @littlefrench_sg first opened its doors, it was a dinner only French bistro, but they’ve since expanded to lunch with their reasonably priced lunch sets. For $24.80++, you get a choice of a tuna tataki salad or a French onion soup for the starter, and a choice between a roasted leg of poulet (chicken), lamb burgundy linguine, or barramundi grenobloise, all washed down by either coffee or tea.⠀
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While Little French Bistro’s set lunch certainly isn’t the most bang for your buck on the market, the dishes served are all full portions so your hunger will definitely be satisfied. I needed to eat healthier that week, so the tuna tataki salad fit the bill nicely. A trio of sesame encrusted seared tuna slices are complemented by crumbled blue cheese, compressed watermelon, artfully twirled ribbons of zucchini, razor thin slices of red radish, cherry tomatoes and a few wedges of dehydrated mandarins, all dressed with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.⠀
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It’s really more of a fruit salad than an actual salad due to the ratio of fruit to veg. The radish & zucchini were sharp & sour due to the balsamic, which was offset by the sweetness of the compressed watermelon & mandarin orange wedges. The finely seared tuna slices possessed an alluringly meaty texture, broken up by the crunch of the sesame seeds, and complemented by the creamy, funky & salty flavours of the blue cheese. ⠀
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They were a bit too heavy handed on the balsamic though, as the salad was definitely firmly on the acidic side, and I found myself relying on the sweetness of the fruit to chase down the sourness of the balsamic vinegar. Still a decent salad though, and a solid opener for Little French Bistro’s lunch set.

I have personally disrespected chicken on restaurant menus for far too long, snubbing chicken in favour of beef, lamb, pork or fish. However, due to Little French Bistro being in soft launch and most of their entrées being unavailable, I settled upon the Coq au Vin ($22.40 before additional 10% service charge). Yes, I was humbled by this humble protein, and I now rep Birb Gang.⠀
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A whole chicken leg is braised in a cognac & wine concoction, resulting in chicken that’s marvellously moist and tender. The alcohol in the cognac & wine has cooked off, leaving behind an incredibly aromatic reduction that’s been fortified with garlic, onions and mushrooms. The sauce is incredibly delicious thanks to it being slowly reduced over several hours, interspersed with the spice of the black peppers.⠀
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I kid you not, Little French Fusion’s Coq au Vin is the first chicken I’ve ever had that separated clean from the bone while retaining a good texture. The delicious reduction flavours the chicken amazingly, turning the pedestrian protein into a fabulously flavourful affair. The baby carrots & mushrooms provide a nice interlude between the savoury, peppery unctuousness of the chicken. The breadcrumbed & cheesy mashed pommes purée was quite pleasant, but it really didn’t need to be separated from the chicken & veg. Instead, it would’ve benefited greatly from being muddled with that stellar sauce, but it’s a minor issue that didn’t really spoil the dish.⠀
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Little French Fusion may be just a two day old (at time of writing) little French restaurant, but it’s destined to be a humongous hit if they can maintain the standards they set with this Coq au Vin.

On average, I make only one good decision every quarter (of the year). If that is true, then I made my only good decision for the first three months of 2023 when I decided to drop by Little French Fusion. At time of writing, this little French restaurant has only been open for three days, and they’re still in their soft launch phase.⠀
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As you might expect of a restaurant in soft launch, more than half of their menu was unavailable. Fortunately, their Escargot Bourguignon ($16.50 + 10% service charge) was available, and I that was my appetiser by default. After all, when in a French restaurant, do as lé Parisiens do, non? Half a dozen snails are baked in garlic butter till they’re just cooked through, and at Little French Fusion, they are poshly plated before arriving at your table. For the more astute amongst you, you may be wondering: ‘it’s called Little French Fusion, but where’s the fusion twist?’⠀
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Mon ami, that is where the shichimi garlic butter & shiro miso (white miso) come in. Ye olde garlic butter is fortified with white miso and shichimi (Japanese seven spice mix), achieving the successful fusion of French cuisine with Japanese ingredients by turbocharging the garlic butter with a delectable umami that no ordinary garlic butter could ever hope to achieve. Admittedly, the shichimi was absent from my tasting, so it fell solely to the shiro miso powered garlic butter to flavour the snails.⠀
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The shiro miso, which is a milder, less salty form of miso, fused with the garlic butter to produce an absolutely mesmerising mashup of flavours that fully flavour the escargot. The already attractive attributes of garlic butter are enhanced by the umami savouriness of the white miso, and that concoction of luscious liquid gold has nestled into the snail shells. The snail meat was perfectly cooked, possessing a cheerful chew while still maintaining a decent tenderness. Unfortunately, some snails were decidedly bitter, although that’s more of a farmer-side issue than it is a kitchen side one.⠀
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Still, for a 3 day old restaurant, Little French Fusion serves up real big flavours, and I’m excited for the full menu. Hon hon hon!