Easy-pleasing French fare at Elan

NEW RESTAURANT

Elan #01-13 Shaw Centre 1 Scotts Road Singapore 228208 Tel: 6735 6656 Open for lunch and dinner Mon to Sat: 12pm to 2pm; 6.30pm to 10pm

IF you went up to a restaurant and said it doesn’t have much of a personality but you like it anyway, would that hurt its feelings? It’s a bit like a girl being told by a guy that she’s really nice but he’s just not that into her.

That kind of describes how we feel about Elan, which would not win any prizes in an “innovative restaurant concept of the year” competition but could come in runner up in a “has decent food anyway” sweepstakes.

At a time when every other new restaurant keeps spewing storylines or crafting philosophies, Elan’s lack of one is refreshing. There’s no pressure to intellectualise your food, and the most complicated task here is just scanning the a la carte menu. In case you don’t know what that is anymore ever since you learned the word “omakase”, it means that you get to choose how much or how little you want to spend.

Elan has quietly taken over from the former La Strada – itself an enjoyable Italian eatery that sadly didn’t make it. It looks the same too, unless they changed the artwork and added a cute little bulldog motif to the menu for good measure. Any playfulness ends there because the servers aren’t the sort to engage, but do fetch and carry with polite efficiency.

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The food is French-ish, semi-fine but not elegant, yet not rustic in the way that its sister Bistro du Vin is. It is cooked by a kitchen schooled in Western kitchen techniques, so the food leans that way – with the French connection more as a reminder not to cook pasta by accident.

As the basic cooking standard is already there, whatever comes out of the kitchen passes muster and then some. It’s a hardworking kitchen too, because if you go there for lunch, Elan offers you both a set and a la carte choices. It’s a far cry from everyone else that insists on an abridged menu, as if the chef only remembers dinner recipes after 6pm.

Even so, we’d go with the S$70 set lunch because the food is pared down and executed with practised ease, unlike the fancier a la carte which is higher priced with more bells and whistles but not necessarily the same deliciousness.

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A case in point is a very simple grilled giant prawn from the set that is really big, charred really well till it’s succulent and bouncy, with no trace of mush. It’s as basic as you can get, embellished with a lemony, buttery sauce laced with vin jaune, and spinach on the side.

On the other hand, frog legs tempura (S$34) are odd little fried patties that taste more like chicken, shrimp and batter conspiring in an elaborate identity theft scheme, tucked into a bed of scrambled eggs given more glamour with a Japanese name (specifically Mangetsu eggs, likely from Isetan supermarket). But that gives them a deep orange hue and extra richness, especially with creme fraiche. Overall acceptable, but the prawn requires less effort for more enjoyment.

Wagyu flank steak (also from the set lunch) does not look promising from its dull brown seared surface that hints at powdery dryness within. But a couple of easy slices with a knife reveals medium-rare tender juiciness worth polishing off, along with the thick cut potato chips and peppery watercress salad on the side.

It’s almost too simple compared to the suckling pig (S$62) that’s paired with batons of pan-fried pork head terrine and sweet-sour chopped apples in a crisp tart shell. It’s an elaborate take on the pork and apple combo, but while the pork has the right balance of tender meat and fat, the skin has lost what crispness it had when it left the kitchen, and the apple tart comes off too strong for the gentle baby pig. 

For dessert, the set lunch aims straight for the heart with warm fluffy madeleines and ice cream. But if you favour fanciful creations with mousse, the chocolate entremet (S$20) is pretty enough with chocolate mousse entwined around passion fruit jelly, both getting all twirly atop a cookie base. It’s your textbook dessert with a passing grade to match.

What warms us to Elan is its unpretentious ambience, the kind of place to meet friends for a meal where the food doesn’t try to join in the conversation. It’s dependable, and doesn’t try to be what it’s not. And that in itself is not a bad thing to be.

Rating: 6.5