Olduvai and I decided to go for a girls’ power lunch yesterday at Aioli, a much raved about French restaurant tucked in a nice, quiet corner of Boon Tat Street. But we were to be very disappointed with the food.


We liked the interior with its little water corner and warm, bright colours. It’s just a pity that a table at the right corner of the picture was like an extra storage space for cutlery and a place for slicing butter! We saw the lone waitress slicing butter there. Erm, I think such things should be done in the kitchen and not in full view of the customers.


The wrapping of gray organza around the lights topped with dried baby’s breath was a nice attention to detail.


We opted for the $19+++ set lunch menu instead of having a la carte.


For starters, Olduvai went for the seafood soup. The other choice of soup was French onion soup. The soup was served in a lovely white bowl and the little sprig of dill made it look very pretty. Taste-wise, it was ok. Not mind-blowing.


My starter was a baked tomato stuffed with goat’s cheese and served with couscous and raisins. The waitress should have advised me that this came with couscous (it didn’t say in the menu) because the main course I ordered also came with couscous. So it was a bit of a double dose. Nonetheless, the tomato and goat’s cheese was pretty good with the balsamic and pesto flavourings at the side.
While waiting for our next course, a stench came whiffing from the next table. It smelt SO bad. Like a whole week’s laundry filled with dirty socks. The culprit–mussels! The smell was so strong and after eating a few mussels (we can’t believe they actually ate it ‘cos given us, we would have sent it back straight away!), the customers on the next table had it sent back to the kitchen. One of them ordered the seafood pasta for a main, and she also eschewed the mussels. Thank god we didn’t order it!


My main course tasted like a watered down version of Soup Kambing. It had spices in it and a whole lot of couscous with stewed vegetables and a miserable piece of lamb. The lamb was rather tasteless, and it didn’t seem to gel with the soup. Bad marinate I say. To me, this dish seemed more Moroccan than French!


Olduvai’s main course was pathetic. This looks more like a starter! Just slices of pickles, sausage, TWO slices of cheese and TWO slices of Parma ham. C’est tragic.


The dessert of the day was a boring fruit platter! To me, it’s an absolute cop-out! What could be more unimaginative???!!!??? Like come on, it’s a French restaurant for heaven’s sake! The French are known for their desserts. I mean at least give me a tarte aux pomme or something! Like if you’re so lazy, maybe hopping over to a Delifrance nearby for some B-grade French pastries would have made it a bit more exciting. Anyway, I found this cop-out totally unforgivable!
Service was pretty good despite only one waitress working the tables. She refilled our glasses of water promptly and was quick on serving bread and the dishes.
Verdict: Olduvai and I have decided we won’t be going back there again. Not with the disappointing food. The bill came up to $45.20 ($3 of which goes to bread). If the food had been better, I wouldn’t have minded so much, but I felt that my money had been wasted. Go here to read Olduvai’s take on it.