Immanuel French Kitchen: Fine, affordable French hawker cuisine
PUBLISHED June 18th, 2014 01:23 am | UPDATED January 20th, 2016 05:03 am
Last week I received an email that excited me very much. Sent from the very humble (and very talented!) Chef Immanuel Tee, letting me know that he’d left his former residence at Keystone Restaurant and….drum roll….started his own fine french cuisine hawker stall in the logic-defying hawker centre that is 119 Jalan Bukit Merah Avenue 1. How excited was I? Well, I received the email at 10am, and by 1pm I was merrily having lunch at ‘Immanuel French Kitchen’.
Why was I this excited? Well, when I first met Chef Immanuel, he was in his early 20s. This guy is a foodie to the core, and in my opinion is one of the rising stars of the Singapore food scene. The idea of him leaving his former venue and starting his own venture was superb news, and not just because I remember how great his cooking skills are.
As you’d expect, the Immanuel French Stall serves… French food! The menu is very simple and of course incredibly easy on the bank balance. We ordered the following and it came out to a grand total of $55.50: Duck Rillete, Chicken Liver Mousse Pâté, Frogs Legs, Sous-Vide Chicken Breast and Duck Leg Confit.
So was the food? Well… to put it simply, Immanuel French Kitchen probably offers the best value high quality French cuisine in Singapore.
The Duck Rillete is superb – buttery, moist and incredibly more-ish, and at $7.90 it’s phenomenally good value! The Chicken Liver Mousse Pâté ($7.50) was certainly decent as well however it was totally outshone by the rillete in my opinion.
The Frog Legs ($12.60) were tender, expertly cooked and the simple sauce of garlic, butter and parsley was all that was needed. This is a must-order!
Moving on to the mains, both the Sous-Vide Chicken Breast ($12.60) and the Duck Leg Confit ($14.90) were delicious. Chicken is not something I usually order at a restaurant as it’s usually a little boring and uninspired. This is certainly not the case at Immanuel. The chicken is tender and packed with flavour, and the cheesy macaroni and mushrooms it’s served with give a real comfort-food feel.
As for the duck, no surprise that it was excellent. Sitting on a bed of creamy mashed potatoes and shredded in cabbage, the duck leg was deliciously plump. At this point in the meal we were finding it very difficult to finish everything as much as we tried with the mind willing but the body full.
It’s rare to go an eatery with high expectations and not only have those exceptions met, but totally exceeded. My advice: Get down there and makan away before the secret is out. At only 2 weeks old, this place is about to get very, very popular…and rightly so!
What did you think of Immanuel French Kitchen?
