From chef Julien Royer of Odette fame comes a classic French brasserie, which he named after his mother. Those with a fondness for comforting French classics will find the roll call of favourites very appealing.

Inspired by the simple joy of feeding friends and family around the dinner table, Claudine Restaurant is a new concept by Julien Royer and The Lo & Behold Group to bring back the joy of communal eating. Julien Royer is descended from four generations of hardy French farmers and cooks. Which is why the Cantal-born, Singapore-based chef could not have picked a more perfect, bucolic spot to open Claudine.

Sitting atop the lush, green folds of Dempsey Hill, the Ebenezer Chapel was given new life with an open kitchen at one end and a bar at the other (after White Rabbit vacated the premises). Dempsey Hill is a decommissioned colonial military barracks cosseted by tropical jungle, and the chapel had, over the years, served as a school for children of the British military and a place of worship (first for the then colony’s Roman Catholics and later the Presbyterians) before it was converted in 2007 into a restaurant.

Carefully preserved from tile to windows, the Chapel walls dance with a Singapore Pastoral flair, a reminder of the French country and an ode to the lush greenery you’ll find around Dempsey Hill. The glass wall panels are designed by local florists This Humid House to encase locally harvested dried pressed grass.

Whether it’s for pre-drinks or a casual date, the bar area will definitely catch your eyes. It is the centrepiece of the room with a glorious backsplash from the original stained glass window; come in the day to enjoy the full glory of the original intent of the place. 

Lunch

This concern for the natural setting is reflected in the kitchen, where Royer and his executive chef Julien Mercier channel the nostalgic rustic flavour memories of Royer’s childhood in the countryside. 

Follow the 15m-long cylindrical paper lantern by Santa & Cole and find the heart of Claudine; the open kitchen is an intimate space that draws you closer to the constant hum of cooking. Here’s our lunch from their a la carte menu.

Details in every corner of Claudine shouts French; like these napkins, designed by Glynn (their general manager) and produced by Garnier Thiebaut, the oldest linen makers in France; custom and thoughtfully designed furnishings or the quintessential comfort and intimacy of home—regardless of occasion; custom made porcelain in pastel yellow complements the warm tone of the overall interior design.

The bread service for the day featured the sourdough with mother yeast from France, and a delicious Iberico pork butter. The bread was baked by BAO Bakery with the secret recipe of Chef Julien Royer.  You can ask for more bread throughout the meal just like in France.

Claudine Sharing Board

jambon persillé, pork rillettes, l’oreiller, jambon and Saucisson Duculty, lonzu Dume Cesari

Charcuterie is just a fancy word for cured meat. The word derives from French origins in the 15th century, when people used every last bit of the meat and left nothing to waste. The meat was then put through a preservation process of curing and often formed into some sort of sausage or dry-aged meat. The Claudine Sharing Board featured some of the best hams from Gaetan
Duculty and Dume Cesari, as well as rilettes, terrine and L’oreiller made in-house.

The Jambon Persillé is widely known to be the jewel of French cuisine. Claudine takes an ageless classic, elevates and tailors it for the modern palate. A beautiful terrine of Kurobuta pork shoulder, slow-cooked to perfection and set in a luscious, herbaceous parsley jelly.

Next to it, some specialty ham from Maison Duculty.

Saucisson Sec (L), the dry sausage similar to salami, is the speciality of Maison Duculty. This flagship product has been able to pass through the ages while preserving what has made it successful over the years. High quality meat, fresh and pure pork, recipe without colouring agents, natural gut and wild flower.

Claudine’s version of the L’Oreiller (French for “pillow”) is inspired by the classic Oreiller (home-made pâté en croûte). Just look at the ingredients – pork shoulder & belly, chicken breast, duck magret, duck foie gras, butter dough, beef gelatin, sweetbread, chicken and pork liver, onion, garlic, eggs, cognac & vermouth – this L’Oreiller is indulgent and comforting at the same time.

Dumè has a cheptel of Corsican “Nustrale” breed pigs, which are fed with chestnuts and acorn. Lonzu can be compared to Tenderloin, has a mild nutty & smokey taste with a long and delicate aftertaste.

Pork Rilettes, one of the great charcuterie classics, made of Kurobuta pork, very gently confit in pork fat and lifted with red Kampot pepper. 

What French meal can be without oysters? I remembered the first time in Paris, and I was blown away by the variety and freshness of the oysters in the brasseries. Two types of oysters were available and we had to order some.

L’antilope 1858 Huitres Navarre

L’Antilope 1858 is a special oyster produced by the Huitres Navarre based a romantic story of how a naval ship L’Antilope commissioned by Napoleon found these oysters accidentally. Story aside, the oyster is truly delicious, good brine liqueur and firm creamy flesh.

Majestic Oyster Jacques Cocollos

Situated on the remote North West Coast of Ireland in County Donegal, Majestic Oysters are grown in the tides of the wild fresh Atlantic Ocean. They are distinguished by their rounded shell, their large chest and their white and iridescent mother-of-pearl. Taste wise, it’s clean and briny, but in comparison, the 1858 was better.

Steak Tartare À La Parisienne

prepared tableside, Polmard blonde d’Aquitaine, toasts

It is said that the original meat in tartare was not beef but horse, though this is likely a myth. Steak tartare had begun to appear on a few menus in French bistros and restaurants in the late 19th century, but it became more common in the early 20th century and truly popular in the 1950s. 

Originally called “steak à l’Americaine” because French chefs considered Americans barbarians who may not even know how to cook meat, naming the raw dish “steak the American way”. By characterising it as American, French chefs were free to use otherwise unacceptable ingredients for Haute cuisine, like Worcestershire and tabasco sauce

The beef for the tartare was specially imported by Chef Royer from Alexandre
Polmard. The young farmer, breeder and butcher is the sixth generation to work in the eponymous family business, which was founded in 1846. The business truly distinguished itself in the 1990s when Polmard’s grandfather and father investigated and ultimately introduced a meat treatment called “hibernation.” Like any good French butcher he does sell beef strictly for tartare, which this is. 

The advantage of table side service for steak tartare is that you can customise the amount of each ingredients in the tartare, especially the spiciness (amount of tabasco) and sharpness (amount of Worcestershire sauce). And it allowed me to appreciate the proper way of making the dressing, which the waiter painstaking mashed the anchovies to incorporate them evenly in the egg yolk and oil.

For French beef it’s incredibly tender and flavourful considering the free-range Blonde Aquitaine cows that was used. It’s not as well marbled as Aussie or USDA grain fed, and definitely less so than Japanese wagyu, but the cryo-aging process is unique which tenderises and intensifies the beef. Overall a really wonderful tartare, and can be considered the best I have eaten this year.

Claudine ‘Bouillabaisse’

carabinero, scallop, octopus, coquillages, fennel, saffron rouille

Originally a humble dish enjoyed by the fishermen of Marseille, the bouillabaisse is traditionally a stew of leftover shellfish and rockfish. But of course, Claudine uses only the freshest catch of the day; Carabinero prawns, razor clams, mussels and scallops, served with sourdough croutons and a rich, decadent saffron rouille. The interesting addition to the otherwise traditional list of seafood was octopus.

We were told to assemble our own bouillabaisse. First, spread some saffron rouille on the sourdough croutons and placed them on the plate. Then take the seafood you like. Finally, pour the seafood stock over the plate.

The soup was very rich and too fishy for those that do not like seafood. But it hit the spot for me in many ways. The seafood stock in the teapot was a slightly more liquid version of the thicken gravy on the pan. I recommend that you get some of those lovely sourdough to mop those gravy.

I could not say what’s wrong with this bouillabaisse. Everything was lovely and I tried my best in plating. Perhaps I was hoping for more soup; perhaps I was expecting a lighter flavour. Nevertheless a must-order if you have enough people to share this rather generous portion.

Chou Farci

stuffed cabbage, Gascon bacon, foie gras, prune

The instant you place it down on the table, you start to hear the “oohs” and “ahhhs”. It looks extremely impressive with its beautiful cabbage leaf display on the top. It started out as peasant food made with leftover bits that were available and then transformed into something spectacular. Chou farci, pronounced as “shoo-far-see” which means “stuffed cabbage” in French, is exactly that kind of dish. 

Chou Farci is Claudine’s original recipe, reinvented by Chef Julien Royer based on a recipe close to heart, a reflection of his “simple joys”. Claudine’s Chou Farci is stuffed cabbage with pork, plums and foie gras, finished with pork jus and sourdough croutons. Served a savoury plum sauce.

Despite made of cabbage, it was very rich and fulfilling. I ordered it as a main course with two sides – ratatouille and vol-au-vent – but soon was overwhelmed by the richness of the fillings.

Ratatouille

Thanks to Pixar’s popular cartoon, the world came to know ratatouille and rustic French cuisine. While this did not invoke any memories of mother cooking this stewed vegetable in a pot, or looked anything like the haute cuisine style that was idealised in the animation, it was a very solid and delicious vegetable stew.

Vol-Au-Vent

sweetbread, morel, cockscomb, quenelle

Listen to the wind… it’s saying “nothing gets wasted in the kitchen”. Claudine’s Vol-au-Vent; a vol-au-vent is a small hollow case of puff pastry and filled with all the delicious parts that were usually thrown away.

While this was a main course, we ordered it and shared it as a side to the chou farce. Veal sweetbread, cockscomb, chicken quenelle and morel mushrooms encased in flakey, golden layers of puff pastry; lathered in a velvety mushroom sauce reduced with a gentle touch of cream and cognac.

‘Crêpe Sou-Zette’

prepared table side, Suzette sauce, Grand Mariner, organic orange

Finally we had to fight to find some room for dessert. And for the third time for the meal, we had table side service. The setup looks like Crêpes Suzette, and I misread the menu, so I was expecting some thin pancakes.

Happiness is a fluffy, light pillow of golden goodness—the classic Crepes Soufflées stuffed with organic orange cream, then flambéed tableside with Grand Marnier and caramel-laced Suzette sauce, a sauce of caramelised sugar and butter with orange juice.

I am not a big fan of soufflé but I had to say with the addition of the Suzette sauce, it became something I would order again. It was like eating a warm custard meet pancake. So sweet, I had to order a double espresso to round it up.

This was a really good lunch, the CP value was good, and the food was excellent. Reservation is a must on the weekend, and I recommend to come for lunch to admire at the architecture.

Claudine
39C Harding Road Singapore 249541
Tel : +65 6265 2966

Visited Dec 2023

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