A rustic and traditional European experience at the Tavern Restaurant

My godpa wanted to meet us for dinner and told us he will pick me and my siblings up from Suntec City and take us to his favourite place. 

That place turned out to be the Tavern Restaurant, famous for their Swiss and continental cuisine. 

It is located at 227 River Valley Road, just round the corner from UE Square. 

From the outside, it looks like a rustic Swiss cottage built into the ground floor of a shop house. Weird? But this is Singapore, where multinational things blend into something unique.. like this place's location. 

Once you enter the restaurant, you will be greeted by 'butlers' all suit up. You would expect to see such a presentation in Lawry's, not in a shophouse. Interesting. Inside, it looked very homely, and you will half expect to see a fireplace burning with a dog sleeping in front of it. 

We were ushered to the private room. 

Main courses and appetisers (located behind) are written on an old school chalkboard.

We left it to our godpa to order for us. Our lime juices came and they served us warm bread before our appetizers came. 

The foie gras came first. It came with a slice of toasted bread cut into half and two slabs of foie gras on a puddle of cranberry sauce. I place the foie gras onto the bread and let the oil oozing out naturally from the meat seep into the toasted bread first before taking a bite. The foie gras literally melted into the toasted bread, giving it a sweet (from the cranberry sauce) creamy texture. Delicious.

Foie Gras

The oysters came next. After squeezing the lemon and putting a touch of vinegar to the oyster, I downed it like a shot. The oyster was really fresh, not a hint of fishiness. It still had the salty taste of the sea but the lemon and vinegar toned it down a bit. 

Fresh Oysters 

The escargot came next. I waited for the dish to cool down a bit first as I always had a habit of eating the escargot immediately and singing my tongue. The escargot was baked with cream cheese and garlic, I took a bite. The escargot was juicy and not at all rubbery to chew, soaked up the left over cheese, garlic and oil with bread. This was another favourite dish.

Half a dozen Escargot

After which we were served with some seasonal asparagus and Alaskan Crab salad (both I didn't manage to take a photo). The seasonal asparagus was something new to me as I have never tried 'yellow' asparagus before? I took a bite and it gave me this interesting nutty earthly flavour. This is something new to me as I'm a carnivore who avoids eating vegetables to the best of my ability. Haha. I had three of that because it was something really curious to me. The Alaskan Crab salad was really, really fresh. The crab meat did not taste frozen at all unlike some buffet places with Alaskan Crab legs that I have tried. It was really fresh and sweet. Thumbs up to that. We were served the Berry Sorbet before our main course to cleanse our taste buds. 

Berry Sorbet to cleanse the palate before the main course.
Very refreshing!

I ordered the cod fish and it came in a slab. I was taken aback as I was expecting a thin slice or something like other restaurants. Wow. I loved the taste of the cod, it was seared to perfection. The marination they rubbed onto the codfish gave it a peppery taste. I love this dish. 

Codfish

My sister had the lobster with mushroom sauce. I stole a bit from her. Very fresh and succulent. 

Lobster

I also took some of my brother's wagyu steak, cooked medium rare. Oh, the flesh melted into my mouth. This dish was also another winner. 

Wagyu Steak

We were almost bloated at this stage, but as the saying goes, there's always room for dessert! 

My godpa ordered the Crepes Suzette with Vanilla Ice-cream. The butler came in and cooked it fresh for us. He meticulously prepared the sugar, took a bit of the orange peel into the pan and squeezed each orange individually just to prepare the sauce for this dish. Afterwards, he poured in what I assumed was the rum, put in the crepe, sealed the pan, reopened it and voila! There's fire. Very theatrical. 

Finally, we were served the dish with a scoop of ice cream. I took a bit of ice cream, a bit of the crepe and a bit of the sauce, placed it into my mouth. And there it was, an explosion of flavours, sweet from the ice cream, sour from the orange, blended with the 'blandness' of the crepe that married both flavours together. I really like this dish, it looks simple but a lot of work went into making the sauce that makes this dish a success. A must try. 

Crepes Suzette with Vanilla Ice-cream. 

With the dessert, our delightful dinner at The Tavern ended. The price was not cheap, but the experience and the food made it worth it. No wonder this place has a lot of regular customers. Definitely a place to try at least once in your life.