Restaurant Reviews: La Fourchette

What: Neighbourhood French brasserie

Where: 1 Xiangyang Bei Lu, near Julu Lu. Tel: 6418-6389

Why: From coffee to dinner, it caters to your every dining whim

Taking up residence in the first floor of the XY One complex, La Fourchette is the latest restaurant attempting to find F&B success at this high turnover locale. Parisian in inspiration, but international in execution, La Fourchette adeptly combines four dining destinations into one restaurant – somehow without confusing or scaring off potential customers. 

The Parisian café that welcomes diners to a cup of coffee (and soon breakfast) is a people-watching destination, while the partitioned-off chef’s table complete with wine cellar and AV hook-ups works for business lunches or private dinner parties. Patrons in the mood for a drink can sidle up to the long wood bar for a glass of Bordeaux and a Croque Madame, but the main attraction is the small dining room.

Friendly without being fancy, the kitchen is helmed by Peter Gong, the French-trained, Shanghainese chef from Kathleen’s 5, while Franck Krynen, resident manager and Shanghai dining industry veteran, runs the floor. Total pros, they make sure everything runs smoothly from kitchen to table.

We started with a round of recommendations. The first bite of the beef in the tartare (RMB 60) proved slightly underseasoned, but it is perfection once mashed up with its crowning ingredients – a generous spoonful of truffle and a soft-boiled quail egg. Surprise additions took run-of-the mill dishes to new places, most prominently with the caperberries in the house-cured salmon (RMB 65). 

In true brasserie style, blackboards of specials are available nightly and we sampled the pan-fried snapper filet (RMB 160). Suckers for anything with pesto, we were delighted by the spread of chunky pinenut and basil on the fish. The roasted lamb loin (RMB 170) fell short – a green olive crust tasted almost medicinal and detracted from the meat so much it was soon scraped aside in a neglected pile. The same cannot be said of the fork-licking good potato-carrot gratin that sat beside the lamb. And don’t even think of leaving without ordering the can’t-miss combination of mushroom and spinach in a gruyere-rich gratin (RMB 30).

From the look and taste of the menus and dining options available, the restaurant is trying to please everyone. While local dining history has shown this usually ends in confusion, La Fourchette looks like it might just be the concept to break the mould.