Friends@Jelita

Tried Friends @ Jelita on a nice Thursday afternoon (when there wasn't any lectures). The set menu I had was for August - so they're going to have a new one tomorrow! Which is also why I'm trying to churn out this post ASAP.
Friends@Jelita had a 1 for 1 set meal promo. Actually, they were having a promo with nearly every credit card (uob, citibank, amex). For DBS 1 for 1, the 1 for 1 set menu ($29.90++) included a starter, main, dessert of the day as well as coffee and tea.
Bread basket - the waitress so kindly asked if we wanted refills - and she offered us more butter (even though the butter trays had some left). I must say that the second lot of butter was absolutely delicious (it was different from the first). It's some kind of French butter, which the waitress says can be procured from the Jelita Cold Storage, and the brand name has L and V inside (though I can't remember what the name is). Makes me think about the splurge article in Life! some time back, with their few thousand dollar toilet bowls and showers, as well as organic jam vs NTUC jam. The butter here and left a lingering floral after taste (though there isn't any flowers in it). Super nice!

There was a choice of either a soup or salad for the starter. I went with the Cream of Artichoke Soup - there was enough artichoke inside the soup to give it a distinct taste, and it was creamy, but not overly so. I was glad that I had this instead of the salad.
Salad with Golden Mushrooms - I thought that it was a rather measly salad cos it was very small - imagine a few leaves, half a cherry tomato and a bit of dressing. The saving grace came from the deep fried battered golden mushrooms, which were warm and crispy, lightly salted to bring out the flavour.
I tried the "Kami Sakura" Chicken Breast stuffed with pistachios, served with mashed potatoes and plum sauce. Usually, I try to stay as far away as possible from chicken breast - lots of unhappy experiences, plus I don't really like chicken breast (the thigh is the best part - to me at least). But the other choices didn't seem very palatable to me - one was beef spaghetti, and the other was poached fish (which I don't like either). At the time that I was eating this, I didn't know what the heck kami sakura was. Now that I've done my research, I've found that it's actually chicken from Malaysia reared according to a Japanese farming method which doesn't use any antibiotics. You can read more about it from here, it also mentions that Friends @ Jelita well as Space@ My Humble House use this chicken.
I found the chicken breast very tender and juicy, and it was much softer than the usual chicken breast that I've eaten. Not to say that I really liked the taste - I like the thigh too much for that. But for someone who wouldn't touch chicken breast, the Kami Sakura chicken was pretty agreeable with me. Plus, the clean tasting dish was paired with a tangy, refreshing plum sauce, which made the dish aesthetically pleasing with it's golden brown hues. Eaten with the fluffy mashed potato, and some roasted vegetables, the main left me feeling satisfied.

The Poached white sea bream in clear ginger leek broth served with white radish and steamed potatoes was quite bad. I tried a bit and I was very put off. This is the reason why people squeeze copious amounts of lemon over the fish - because it smells fishy. Lemon in my fish never agrees with me - I'll hate eating fishy fish - it means that the fish is stale and it's not worth eating. I thought that if their fish was so stale, they could at least try another method of cooking it - steamed fish isn't exactly the smartest way to go if your fish isn't fresh.

The dessert of the day was a Fresh Fruit Salad with sago basil and mint syrup. I didn't eat this cos I don't like oranges, which the salad had. For an upgrade to the signature Ala Carte dessert, I had to pay a whopping $8 to top it up to an apple crumble (it's the cheapeset top up - it's $12 for the warm chocolate larva cake :/). I didn't regret my choice, just that I thought that $8 top up was really pushing the limit. I was not dissappointed with my apple crumble - it can rival marmalade pantry's in taste, just that the portion was smaller than Marmalade Pantrys, and the crumble layer was more scanty. Of course, a warm apple crumble (with rhubarb too!) topped with scoop of vanilla ice cream can never go wrong. Pity about the top up price though. The service here is exceptionally good - the waitress were knowledgable and friendly, even though they were so busy (they were were pretty short of staff and the restaurant was 80% full).

I thought that the ambience here was perfect for a lunch appointment, just that the food is on the pricy side - I defninitely won't pay $29.90++ for each set meal cos I'll go to Au Petit when I feel like spending that kind of money. But with the 1for1, you'll should make a lunch appointment with your friends at Friends @ Jelita. Of course, one must keep in mind that Friends is a 'casual fine dining' restaurant. Well, I think that $17 something per person (we had 6 people that day) is good enough for me - especially since it's so near my house.

Friends @ Jelita
293 Holland Road
#02-04
Singapore 278628
Tel: +65 6463 1011