Tucked away in a narrow shophouse at Keong Saik Road, French chef Nicolas Joanny has kept a relatively low profile since his move back to Singapore from Bangkok.

Eschewing flashy kitchen brand endorsements and glitzy affairs, the chef seems to have settled nicely in his own venture in Chinatown. The small, cosy restaurant has an open kitchen where the chefs prepare your dishes. Solo diners can even sit at the counter to watch their meals being rustled up.

Before going to Thailand, the chef made a name for himself in various top restaurants in Singapore including L'aigle d'Or, Intermezzo and Les Saisons (sadly all defunct). He spent four years as Executive Chef and partner at Le Vendome Restaurant in Bangkok before coming back to our shores to set up Nicolas Le Restaurant in 2007.

Joanny's style of cuisine is traditionally French with plenty of products from Provence. There's nothing superfluous here. Dishes are not laden with gels, foams and dust. Instead, they feature jus and emulsions (sans cream), and are dependent on the natural flavours of seasonal ingredients.

His menu constantly changes too; the lunch set every week and dinner one every two weeks - on this trip we sampled the five-course $64 lunch degustation. While waiting for our starter, we couldn't get enough of the platter of homemade duck rilette. Served with thin crispy croutons, the duck meat was rich, creamy and salty with hints of pepper.

Though not a classic French dish, the carpaccio of scallop was a simple and pleasant start to our meal. Its ponzu marinade married wonderfully with the sweetness of the seafood and the scatter of orange-hued ikura lent a burst of flavour.

Next was the organic egg a la coque. We scooped up the soft wobbly fresh egg with a hint of balsamic vinegar and truffle oil glaze and enjoyed every bit. The egg also paired well with delicate white asparagus wrapped with mildly salty ham and streaks of port wine reduction.

We were then served a slice of wild catch Atlantic cod crusted with crunchy masago. The fish was uplifted with thin slivers of Spanish chorizo and airy saffron emulsion; another light dish that was well thought-out in flavour and texture.

For mains, there was a choice of pigeon, fish or lamb. The Mediterranean sea bream portion was tiny, but perfectly pan-fried till crispy and laced with a light taggiasche olive ‘beurre blanc'. The roasted Tasmanian rack of lamb was more substantial and paired with ratte potato and wholesome quinoa salad which lent a nice bite overall.  

To end, diners can opt to sample a good selection of French cheeses from the trolley for an extra $18, or simply dessert. Ours included a quenelle of chocolate sorbet and poached pear - they were rather unimaginative and unfortunately looked as if they were thrown together at the last minute.

Dessert aside, we recommend this restaurant for those who want simple, good French dishes - light interpretations of the classics. The menu doesn't try too hard but instead pleases the palate with fine, natural ingredients.

Nicolas Le Restaurant, 31 Keong Saik Road, 6224 2404

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