Along the bustling street of Capital Square is where you find Le Coq Restaurant. Just like the many establishments along Capital Square, Le Coq Restaurant is a frequent haunt for office-goers looking for a place to wind down after a long day.
The interior of Le Coq is modern and cosy. Furnished with dark wood accents, this is the perfect place to chill with work colleagues after particularly long days.
Le Coq serves a mixture of Japanese and French cuisine and if you know me, this is music to my ears. I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into what Le Coq had to offer.
To whet our appetites we began with a rather luxurious starter. These Uni Bombs (S$15 each) came beautifully plated complete with their uni shells on a bed of ice.
These babies were packed full of amaebi (sweet Japanese shrimp), Hokkaido uni before being topped with a delicate spoonful of caviar. You know, just your average Tuesday.
Any Japanese foodie knows that uni isan absolute delicacy and has to be savoured. Le Coq also tells me that they source their uni from Hokkaido at wholesale price. This allows Le Coq to keep the price of their Uni Bombs relatively affordable.
I dug into one of these uni bombs quite excitedly. The uni was fresh, creamy and rich. It didn’t have that ammonia tinge that poorer quality uni would usually have.
Coupled with the sweet amaebi and briny caviar bits, these little starts were truly a flavour bomb.
If those Uni Bombs are little heavy for you, then California Maki Dip With Rice Paper Crisp (S$12) would be perfect for you.
This was basically a deconstructed California maki with a little twist. You get your crisp cucumber and apples, the trademark crabmeat, avocado and a heaping spoonful of crunchy tobiko (flying fish roe). That’s not all — tucked away at the side are paper-thin rice crisps for you to load up.
I have to say the favourite part this item had to be the rice crisps. Unbelievably thin, they make a great companion to the creamy California maki dip. The apples and the cucumbers really help cut through the creaminess of the dip and kept the dip tasting fresh.
While this was nothing groundbreaking, it was definitely quite a pleasant start to the meal.
Le Coq continued to dish out little luxuries and presented their Cold Truffle Somen (S$15.90). This usually just comes with scallops, caviar but you can always top it up with extra uni if you need a little pick me up. Wink.
The icing on the cake was the fact that the somen was coated in truffle oil. I’m usually wary of the use of truffle oil but in this case, the aromatic oil really elevated the dish.
The truffle oil was strong but not overpowering, a little detail which I appreciated. This allowed the other elements such as the scallops to shine. The scallops tasted fresh and sweet, coupled with the truffle somen was a tasty mouthful indeed.
The addition of uni made this cold dish a little more indulgent for sure, but I reckon this truffle somen would be just as good without.
Aaah, we have come to everyone’s all-time favourite — the Premium Chirashi Don (S$28.90). Truly, this bowl is what dreams are made of.
Chunky cubes of marinated salmon and tuna cubes piled high till the point of overflowing, then adorned with glistening ikura and tobiko pearls. The crowning glory — a plump, succulent Botan ebi accompanied by a sliver of vibrant uni. Fit for the ‘gram and your tummy.
For those who are unfamiliar, Botan ebi is a Hokkaido speciality that is a much larger and sweeter variety of your average ebi. A quality shrimp for the calibre of ingredients in the bowl.
The cubes of fish were of a good size and thickness and seasoned well. I liked the ratio of fish to rice, as some places tend to pile on the rice to give an illusion of there being more fish than there is. Here, you won’t be left with an inordinate amount of rice at the end.
My only complaint was that the Botan ebi was not as fresh as they could have been. The texture was a little mushy and was quite a turnoff. An isolated case, perhaps. Otherwise, this chirashi checks all the boxes for me.
On Le Coq’s menu for Hot Mains, is where you’ll find the more French dishes. For our hot main, we were served the Duck Confit (S$17). A classic French dish, where the duck is seasoned with salt and herbs before being rendered in its own fat.
This not only guarantees a flavourful duck but also an extremely tender one. Another feature of duck confit to look out for — any duck confit worth their salt at least — is a Frenched bone.
This is where the fat and meat are cut from the bone end, mainly for aesthetic purposes, but what I consider emblematic of any duck confit.
The skin was crispy and had that satisfying crack as I cut into it. Already a promising sign. The meat was falling off the bone and surrendered to my knife pretty easily.
Tastewise, the duck was rich, slightly salty and utterly irresistible. A pretty good duck confit by my standards.
The mash was silky and buttery, a perfect companion to the duck.
If you do head down to Le Coq Restaurant with a group, I do highly recommend platters. We were served the Premium Tapas Platter (S$49), a real smorgasbord of items.
You get Oysters With Uni & Ikura, Foie Gras Mousseline, Parma Ham, Bone Marrow, Duck Rillette and Mixed Olives.
Oysters are always a good idea. What’s more, we had an extra dollop of that creamy uni. Really, there is no such thing as too much uni.
The oysters were plump and fresh, the briny ikura orbs and rich uni made each slurp downright satisfying.
Another highlight from this platter had to be the charred Bone Marrow. Bone marrow is pretty special, split open length-wise and sprinkled with a little salt before charred to perfection.
This was extremely flavourful and melted the moment I popped it in my mouth. If you like steak, this will be your new favourite thing to order whenever you see it on the menu.
If you’re still with me, the last item you have to try is Le Coq’s house-made Foie Gras Mousseline. This is just like butter but better. Light as air, but much fattier and richer.
This was just exquisite over toast; I would gladly eat this for the rest of my life if I could.
Le Coq Restaurant might present as a hodgepodge of French and Japanese cuisine and undoubtedly it kinda is.
But, that’s what we like right? If we can eat every kind of cuisine in one sitting, we surely would. That’s true for me, at least. Usually, I would be more of a purist when it comes to eating, but given the quality of food, it surely warrants a second visit.
Expected damage: S$15 – S$40 per pax
Price: $ $
Our Rating: 4 / 5
Le Coq Restaurant
25 Church Street, Capital Square 2, #01-04, Singapore 049482
Le Coq Restaurant
25 Church Street, Capital Square 2, #01-04, Singapore 049482