Saveur Art

A Brunch with a difference.
Based on my last review a of Saveur, many people may know that I have a love hate relationship with the restaurant.
While I don’t deny that it’s definitely a source for decent, affordable French food, there have been many incidences where either the service or food fell short.
Thus, the initial apprehension about trying their brunch buffet. However, at $ 79++ for 2, it was something we couldn’t pass off. That and the fact I was curious about how they were going to pull this off.
With only Saveur Art at ION having the brunch option, we made our reservations early.
One glance and you knew that the restaurant was slightly different, with the waiting team dressed more formal.
While I haven’t been here for their ala carte, I will review on their Sunday Brunch.
How it works? You have a seat and the servers will come by with trays of taster size dishes ranging from Scallops to eggs to beef and lamb. We were very pleased with the selection as gone of saveur’ signature dishes were on the menu.
While I’m not going to name all the dishes, I will highlight some of those that stood out and some that fell flat for us.
Do note that some of these dishes will change, subjecting to the availability of the ingredient.
THUMBS UP
Foie Gras on Lentils
One of their main starters on the ala carte menu, this was certainly by far our favourite must have dish. A decently sized Foie gras served with delicious lentils. Gf didn’t like the lentils here as she prefers the softer versions while it like that bit of but it gave.
Scrambled Eggs with Ikura
This was by far our favourite dish. The scrambled eggs were perfectly cooked and very very creamy while the Ikura added that additional layer of salt. A simple but very well executed dish.
Foie Gras Crème Brûlée
This was so so so good. Unfortunately, it’s a special of the day and no guarantee that it’ll be available every week but the Foie gras added to the richness of the crème brûlée perfectly and we enjoyed this a lot.
Grilled beef with béarnais sauce
Another standout dish for us. The beef was very tender and very succulent while the sauce help elevate the dish perfectly. A simple and wonderful dish.
Pumpkin Valouté
This is a soup I loved! It was rich, it was creamy and bursting with flavour.
Mango and Coconut dessert
According to the server, this is their most popular dessert and I can see why!
The mango was fresh, crisp and bursting wih flavour while the coconut foam added a wonderful light creaminess to the dessert
LET DOWNS
Confit Lamb Leg
Very blend. Unfortunately, the confit made it taste like boiled lamb, which wasn’t very pleasant.
Escargot bourguignon garniture
Another dish that had so much potential.
It sounded great, looked great but didn’t offer much in terms of flavour of depth.
Macarons
Great if you’re planning to have diabetes.
It was waaaay too sweet.
Marinated octopus with paprika oil.
Salt seems to be an issue when it comes to the food that were a let down and this was no accept ion. Could have done with a bit of salt and a bit of acidity. As it was… Blend.
While we love the selection and generally enjoyed the brunch, we’re on the fence as to whether we will be back.
While it isn’t the most expensive of buffet, I would say that the food was average with some highs and lows.
A solid 3.5* but no more than that unfortunately.

Our favorite restaurant to go in Ion, when we’re craving decent French food without having to go all out! We’ve tried all of their Saveur, Concetto and Saveur Art branches, and Saveur Art seems to be the better one out of the two. The portions are small so it’s good to order five to six plates to share between the two, but no sweats bc this place is totally affordable for its kind! Our dinner paired with a cup of wine each usually comes out ard $ 100~150.
What we usually get:
appetizer:
–EGG CONFIT, truffled potato mousseline, macadamia nuts, brown butter $ 10
–GRILLED FOIE GRAS, honey lemongrass glaze, seasonal berries & stone fruits, homemade butter brioche $ 18
(only available for dinner)
–SAVEUR’S PASTA, chorizo, grilled prawn, chopped kombu, chilli oil $ 8
main:
–AUSTRALIAN BEEF STEAK, garlic & herbs potato mousseline, shallot compote, burgundy jus
Angus Bavette $ 28 /​Wagyu Striploin $ 58
–GRILLED PORK BELLY, provençal artichoke barigoule $ 26
–CRISPY DUCK LEG CONFIT, roasted potatoes, cabbage, onion, smoked bacon $ 20
The egg confit is just delicious. it tastes similar in taste and quality to the fine dining ones served at Blue Hill Stone Barns in New York, and Jaan in Singapore. It’s just without the cool smoke that the dish usually comes with, but hey, i could do without it for ¹⁄₃ of the price! The foie gras here is delicious as well, no complaints! This place is a gem– a mini-​fine dining without sacrificing service and price.

Quality food at affordable prices. Professional staff who makes the dining experience a plus. Don’t be fooled by the casual lay-​out of the restaurant because the food is definitely premium.
Kudos to the team behind Saveur.

Im pretty much a fan of the saveur chain. This particular location is not very crowded and slightly more upscale to match the mall it’s attached. Is this better for a date? It’s quieter and not crowded at all. But it’s a restaurant attached to a mall… ewww. Anyway, the food was nice. The egg confit was scrape the bowl worthy. Pork belly has nice flavors throughout. The salmon was a Wellington actually which I never had. Hmm I think I prefer beef this way but still nice. I wished that this place wasn’t so cold. I don’t like to rush to eat.

Their description is premium French dining, the food and atmosphere definitely fits the bill.
Food is served on a platter and wooden bowls.
The spicy pumpkin soup is yummy and a nice start to the roasted chicken breast.
Tender and presented well, the forest mushrooms is pretty unique. I was half hoping the crispy chicken skin served with it is a bit more salty but the other half of me settles for the «healthier» excuse.

A haiku–
didn’t know what to
eat on Sunday afternoon
for Fat Cow was closed
A well-​known Singapore food blogger had proclaimed that this was one of the top 5 restaurants in Singapore this year — big shoes to fill considering that we’re home to some of the worlds’ best places like Andre and Iggy’s. I was a bit doubtful, considering that I’ve dined at the original Saveur restaurant and the second in the family, Concetto, and while these restaurants offered decent quality at reasonable prices, they were nowhere near top 50 standards, needless to say top 5.
I really like what the F&B group behind Saveur Art has been trying to do– bring restaurant-​level French food to the masses by making it affordable. However, I’ve since realised that while their prices appear reasonable on the menu, the food portions are correspondingly decreased. You cannot have everything. Nevertheless, I appreciate the effort.
The décor of this place was… interesting. Almost schizophrenic. At the sides of the restaurant it looks very French bistro-​esque, with dark orange seats, artwork and elegant lighting. But in the middle you have very pedestrian-​looking black booth seats with a hanging lamp that looks like the offspring of a chandelier and a disco ball. Pardon my plebian taste if this is untrue but it really looked like it came from somewhere like Taobao– was quite tacky.
The menu looked interesting and sounded very fancy (but turned out to be nothing too special). I decided to be a bit more adventurous this time, and refrained from ordering my usual, the duck confit.
Chestnut & Toasts — chestnut soup surrounding chive cream and pieces of chestnuts, served with a warm brioche. Possibly one of the most un-​photogenic dishes I have ever seen, but taste is king, so… It tasted ok, quite delicious but felt a bit watered down. I would have preferred my soup to be less runny and stronger-​tasting.
Egg Confit & Truffle — came in a wooden bowl, there was a very good mashed potato, ?semi-​poached eggs and lots of FOAM.
Slow-​cooked Cod in Olive — a very nicely-​cooked piece of cod with??? chili sauce??? and paprika foam. Fish was good (in terms of texture, taste was a bit lacking) but thought that the condiments didn’t really do much to enhance it.
Buttermilk-​poached Chicken — a very well-​cooked piece of chicken breast and thigh (tender and soft, tasted great) covered with MORE FOAM. WHAT’S WITH ALL THESE FOAM OMG.
(I’ve never understood the value of foam, other than to shock and amaze for perhaps the first 5 seconds, after which you realise that it just gives you a very unsatistfying taste of whatever it’s supposed to emulate)
Chocolate & Pistachio — best dish out of all we ordered. A small (think 4 cm diameter but warm chocolate cake which went very well with the accompanying pistachio ice cream.
Vanilla Parfait — was hoping that this would be similar to the awesome dessert that I had at 2am dessert bar… alas. The lavender meringue hardly tasted of lavender, and was too airy (read: disintegrated as I was trying to scoop it up) for my liking.
Food portions were generous, and at the end of the meal, I was not hungry… but I did not feel satisfied. The texture of the dishes presented were mostly acceptable, but each dish (apart from the chocolate) seemed to just lack… something. It felt rather incomplete. To quote my dining buddy with a penchant for 1-​liners: «FILLING BUT NO FEELING».
For $ 37 for 3 courses (including an amuse-​bouche), this was good value-​for-​money, although if cost isn’t that much of an issue, I’d recommend going to somewhere better.
3.5 stars, really.