French classics with a Japanese twist at Pulsii
Never mind the unusual name – this new Tras Street eatery serves subtle and refined bistro fare
NEW RESTAURANT
Pulsii French Bistro 55 Tras Street Singapore 078994 Tel: 9689-8407 Open for lunch and dinner from Mon to Sat: 12 pm to 2.15 pm; 6 pm to 11 pm. Closed on Sun.
[SINGAPORE] As far as we can tell, Daisuke Yoshikawa is pretty good as a chef. But when it comes to naming a restaurant? Not so much. His new place is called Pulsii. You won’t find that in any dictionary. Spell check doesn’t recognise it, either. If anything, it sounds like “pastille” and “pustule” got together and made a word baby.
Yoshikawa has the right intentions, though. The name is meant to be a portmanteau of “pulse” and “ii” – the Japanese word for “good”. But as anyone who has dabbled unsuccessfully with the Japanese language can tell you, we’re too stupid to figure out the logic behind it. So here we are, at the junction of “pool-sie” and “puhl-sie”, wondering which direction our tongue should curl.
But don’t take too long. There are other things to discover at Yoshikawa’s self-styled French bistro in Tras Street, which is tailored for the current culinary psyche – the one that wants decent pricing, semi-fine dining, and a la carte options.
Yes, Yoshikawa seems to have tapped into the pulse of the Singapore diner, but now he just has to make it race. Pulsii is attractive – not in the way of a va-va-voom attention-seeker, but more like a quietly stylish enigma that you want to get to know better.
A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU
Friday, 2 pm
Lifestyle
Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself.
The French bistro suffix to its name is new, by the way. When it opened late last year, it was known as Pulsii Woodfire & Bar, but we assume the smoke went out on that moniker. But it does describe Yoshikawa’s cooking aesthetic better – French with a strong Japanese accent.
And you can see the influence from the ambience of the place and the menu. It’s understated, with judicious use of backlighting, textured walls and warm colours to give character to the long dining room. The Japanese consideration for others is clear from the tables – set for two diners but big enough for four.
That leaves little space for the open kitchen, which is so small there’s just enough space for three chefs to manoeuvre. They work so quietly and efficiently that you don’t even know which of them is Yoshikawa until our server points him out, and he responds with a smile and bashful half-bow.
Like him, the food aims to please, but in a self-effacing manner. Japanese oysters (S$6), for example, are served almost bare, so you get to taste the fleshy, briny mollusc before the tart yuzu-onion garnish kicks in.
Brandade croquettes (S$4 a piece), in turn, are like the introverts of the tapas world. Though they are sturdily packed with mashed potato and cod, you can barely coax any impact from these reticent balls that are too lightly fried to offer any crunch or contrast. A little bit of pickle on top helps, but not enough.
No wonder our server, Sham, demurred on the croquettes in favour of chicken liver mousse (S$8 a piece) – a lively canape of crispy, toasted brioche topped with whipped faux foie gras cream and a sweet apple-raisin mixture spiked with whisky.
In a nod to its previous woodfire identity, the grilled yellowtail (S$26) features fleshy slices of almost raw fish lightly torched for a whiff of smokiness, piled on top of green vegetable puree with pickled radish and charred orange segments that pull it all together.
There are also shavings of warm, slow-cooked ox tongue (S$28), piled on top of sauce gribiche – a classic dressing of chopped boiled eggs and mustard given a crunchy twist with diced potato and radish.
We’re usually weighed down by the time the main course arrives, but the grilled rack of Iberico pork (S$48) surprises for its lightness. The dish eschews the usual cloying, sticky glaze of meat jus for a simple gravy over creamy mashed potatoes, with the pork pink and juicy, and the sweetcorn on the side a welcome, old-fashioned finish.
For dessert, order the mille-feuille with ice cream (S$15), even if you’re a card-carrying hater of flaky layers of collapsible pastry. Here, you get individual sheets of crunchy pastry stacked on top of each other with sabayon sauce in between that tastes like the filling of Beard Papa cream puffs. Destroy this with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and you’ll have a happy ending for the evening.
In fact, the meal is such an easy-going affair that you don’t even realise you’re enjoying it until you’ve made it through the main course and dessert without feeling like someone suddenly dropped an anchor on you.
So subtle is Pulsii’s food that it may not make an immediate impact, but it does grow on you. We can’t say the same about the name, but it’s what’s behind it that counts.
Rating: 7
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
