Jules Verne

After 2 sad weeks of ban mian from the canteen (sadness indeed, and that's only when time permits), I'm so happy to have eaten a good dinner at a nice restaurant!

Everyone associates Jules Verne as the author, but in Sunset way, Jules Verne is the start of your culinary journay across Europe. It's helmed by a German Chef (yikes didn't find out his name) and serves European food. I can't pronounce nearly 70% of the dishes in the menu.

Initially wanted to try the Bouillabaisse ala Marseille, which has saffron in it, but they didn't have it that day. So we ended up ordering the Home made fish stew ($16?) which was my favourite soup that night. It's from the daily special menu. The soup looks really creamy, but is not that heavy. There's lots of carrots, celery and other vegetables, and pieces of fish as well as scallops, prawns and mussels. It's a good sized portion and can be a meal by itself.
Hungarian Beef Goulash Soup ($12)
I didn't eat it but I think everyone that did said that it was pretty nice. There's potato dumplings inside too. So it's really very filling.

Soljanka 'Bucaresti' - European hot and sour soup ($12)

I found the soups here too salty, and this was no exception. This reminded me vaguely of minestrone soup, and the soup wasn't that spicy but mildly peppery. The stewed garlics were pretty interesting though. We also had the 5 course Balkan Set (specialities from Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Ex-Yugoslavia) for $39++

1. Starter was Grilled capsicum with herbs and garlic, marinated in olive oil and served with bread ($10 ala carte, portion is bigger I suppose?). I didn't really like this dish, cos everything was so mushy and oily, but I did like the way the capsicums tasted.

2. Soljanka 'Bucaresti' - European hot and sour soup ($12 for ala carte)

3. Stew of Beans, onion, bacon and chillies served in mini bread bowl ($12 alacarte)
The beans were great cos they tasted really nice and fresh. Totally different from the usual canned baked beans.

I didn't get a photo of the main course, which is 4. Cevapcici, a traditional spicy herbal dish made from minced beef and lamb, served with french fries, salad and mustard. It looks a bit like Shish kebab to me tho I didn't try it.

Dessert was 5. Baklava (see below for the picture)

My main, which was the Pollo Forno di Venecia ($22)

Pan fried skin and boneless chicken breast layered with ham peach and melted chesse. The pilaf rice was deliciously fluffy, though I would have preferred the herb rice. I found my dish too salty, but my salt treshold is rather low.

My favourite dish for the night was the Pike - Perch fillet 'Balatoni' ($29)

The deliciously flaky fish fillet is baked with cheese, and topped with capsicum-tomato salsa. The herbal pilaf rice is incredibly aromatic, fluffy and goes extremely well with the fish.

I don't know what dish this is, but I think it's one of their daily specials, which is a grilled seafood platter. It's a generous portion of mussels, prawns, shrimps, fish and scallops, with two bread buns. The seafood has a nice smokey taste.

Kassier Smoked Pork Loin ($19++) with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut
I didn't like this dish cos the pork was really very hard. The best part of this was the mashed potatoes, which were extremely fluffy, buttery and creamy.

I forgot to take a picture of the Berliner Currywurst ($15++) but it's a pork sausage topped with sweetish curry sauce (which reminds me of Jap curry/reminds other ppl of the macdonald's curry sauce) serve with a mountain of thick cut fries. I think the next time I come here, I'll have the currywurst with fries changed to mashed potatoes. I think it'll be even nicer if they sprinkled curry poweder on top.

Onto desserts (even though we were really full!)

Wiener 'Kaiserschmarr'n' with Plum Compote ($18)

This is the favourite dish of the last Austrian emperor, and requires a preparation time of 20-30minutes. The dessert is really huge - I think 3-4 people should share it! Do not attempt this alone. It doesn't look that huge in my photo cos there's no comparison. Should have placed a fork there before snapping the shot.

The pancake is pretty starchy, quite stiff and goes well with the slightly sweetish plum compote (though I thought the fruit looked more like a cherry). I liked the baked golden raisins too.

The Mohr im Hemd ($10) is rather small, and is described as a juicy homemade chocolate-nut cake tossed with chocolate sauce and garnished with cream. I was quite dissappointed to find that the cream was just like normal bottled whipped cream. The cake was rather dry and crumbly.

Baklava (from the 5 course set) ($12 ala carte)

This is a Turkish/Balkan dessert which has layers of filo pastry stuffed with nuts and served with honey. Extremely nutty, and drizzled with real bee honey, this dessert is a delicious way to end an extremely satisfying meal.

The next time I'm back, I'll try the baked apple slices on Cinnamon Honey ($9) which looks really nice and golden brown in the picture.

I'm definitely coming back to try their famous Flammkuchen. Flammkuchen is an Alsatian dish, which looks like a pizza. According to our waiter, the leek and smoked salmon as well as the onion and bacon is their best sellers. Can't wait to try it! Hope it'll be soon... It's $15 for a small and $23 for a large Flammkuchen.

Service is quick, friendly and efficient, and the chef came to check on us a few times. Iced water is served here, and my glass was always filled (even though I was thirsty and drank quite alot of water). It's al fresco dining only, but it's pretty breezy in the evenings, and dining on the patio is really relaxing after a hectic 2 weeks (for me at least).

Foods v salty - do inform your server if you want your food less salty.

According to the reviews on hungrygowhere, there's also affordable lunch sets at $14.50, which are supposedly very good.

Jules Verne

Blk 106 Clementi St 12 (Sunset Way)

#01-38D

Tel: +65 6777 2275