Angelina Tea Room And Patisserie

The entrance of the famed Parisan pâtisserie, Angelina, into Singapore sparked rave media (both conventional and unconventional) reviews as well as long queues in the initial stages. Fast forward almost a year later and the queues seem to have vanished (at least on a Friday afternoon during the lunch period) and only a handful of tables were occupied.We were ushered to a table in a corner with an adjourning extension, presumably for us to place our drinks/side orders as our main table was rather tiny. It was so small that we had problems trying to sit around it comfortably as our knees were hitting the legs. Talk about impracticality! To be fair, only a few tables (rounded ones) had this issue.

Old Fashioned Ice Chocolate “L'Africain - Touted as one of the definite must tries in Angelina (albeit the hot version, not the cold one), the ice chocolate is apparently made from blending cocoa beans from Niger, Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire and Papua New Guinea and served with unsweetened whipped cream. My humble take on this? Rich and satisfying but the whipped cream didn't quite do it for me especially since the drink was cold and the cream remained in clumps for quite a fair bit of time (stirring didn't actually help much). And personally, 15 bucks a pop (after tax) is a rather ludicrous amount to pay for a glass of chocolate.

Complimentary Bread - Crusty on the outside yet compact on the inside with a tinge of sour dough-ness, the mini baguette wasn't really warm and came served with chilled butter. Which presented a small problem. The bread was warm enough to melt the butter and we ended up having to exert quite a fair bit of pressure to apply a smooth layer of butter onto the bread.

Seafood Risotto - What a feast for the eyes the Seafood Risotto was; boasting a variety of colours from the prawns, squid, scallop, clams and cheese shavings. Unfortunately it really did look much better than it tasted. The risotto was al dente (I'll give it that!) but lacked creaminess whilst the seafood just didn't quite make the cut. The huge singular scallop, for example, was a little too soft througout and lacked any discernible sweetness. Ditto the prawns, which didn't come across as very fresh. Overall palatable but no great shakes.

Truffle Croque Monsieur - I was enticed by the truffle quotient in this particular rendition of Croque Monsieur and on hindsight it probably wasn't the wisest equation to select. Two crisp slices of toast bearing onto a slices of ham and cheese and topped with a layer of gooey melted cheese, followed by a generous drizzle of truffle oil and finished off with two thin slices of black truffle (more for that visual effect honestly). The wonderful aroma (from the truffle oil) aside, it was nothing much than a decent ham and cheese sandwich with truffle oil; nothing more, nothing less.

Mont Blanc - Another of Angelina's signature dishes, the famed Mont Blanc pureed chestnut dessert. Maybe the issue lies with me but I really didn't quite fancy it. The chestnut puree came across as a little too heavy and stodgy which made this small dessert rather nauseating to consume after a few bites. So much so that I left half of it untouched. So much for the high expectations.

Lunch for 2 came up to about $60 after a 50% discount only on the food (~ $105 without discount) which was still acceptable for the rather pedestrian quality of food. However, take away that discount and Angelina would be seriously overpriced in my humble opinion. Service was reasonably competent but stiff.

See all my pictures here.