Antoinette is a Parisian pâtisserie and salon du thé by Chef Pang Kok Keong, who is one of Singapore’s best pastry chefs.
Sugar Daddy Group – which currently includes Antoinette and Pique Nique – is Chef Pang’s first business venture after a career of working for different hotels and Les Amis group’s Canele restaurants.
I was over the moon to hear about Antoinette Patisserie. Needless to say, I was very excited to try all the desserts. My first visit was a media tasting session and we had the chance to try quite a few dishes.
Since then, I’ve been there on numerous occasions as a regular customer, and ordered various items on the menu. My goal was, or still is, to try all the cakes by Chef Pang.
Cakes make me happy. I want to eat cakes.
Antoinette currently has three outlets at Penhas Road (near Lavender MRT), Mandarin Gallery and Scarlet Hotel. While the French tea salon at Mandarin Gallery has a great location, it is much smaller than Penhas Road.
I’d definitely recommend going to Penhas Road instead of Mandarin Gallery as the latter does not allow reservations and there is always a queue during peak hours.
If I could only choose one cake, I would definitely go for Antoinette ($9).
Even up till now, I could still remember my first encounter with it. The Chocolate Earl Grey cake caught my attention with its glossy surface; I could almost hear it calling out to me.
I took a fork and tapped it lightly, unsure of how soft or hard it would be. My fork easily went through the milk chocolate mousse infused with earl grey tea cake. The only words to describe it? Luxurious, chic, and heavenly.
I will go so far as to say that my hunt for the best cake in Singapore ended with the Antoinette chocolate earl grey cake. It is rock-my-socks-off good!
If the Antoinette cake was divine, the Saint Honore L’amour ($8.5) – made up of choux pastry, rose petal cream, and strawberry compote on an almond tart – would be the perfect representative of love and romance.
Another interesting option is the Chocolieux ($9.5). When the staff brought it to our table, we thought that we were having ice cream as it was molded into the shape like a magnum. How wrong we were.
It was actually a dessert (I find it difficult to call it a cake) made up of dark chocolate cream, hazelnut nougatine, dark chocolate biscuit and almond chocolate.
On my fourth (or fifth time) there, we tried Strawberry Shortcake ($8) and Café Caramel ($8).
The Café Caramel ($8) – an almond tart composing of caramel a la fleur de sel, genoise cafe, and coffee mousse – was well executed, but nothing special.
To be honest, I was a little unsure about the Strawberry Shortcake as I didn’t have a good impression of the one Chef Pang made at Canele Patisserie. It was actually not too bad. I’d include it in my list of best Strawberry Cakes in Singapore, but it is not my favourite.
I marvelled at the Religiuese of Caramel with fleur de sel ($8) when it arrived at the table. It was so beautiful! I found it to be a little too sweet, so you might want to order this to share.
Among the cakes at Antoinette Patisserie, I also had the Exotique ($8.5) – mousse exotique with coconut cremeux and poached pineapple; Pudding Maple ($6.5) – maple flan with caramel, in a cup; and Strawberry Baba ($8) – baba pastry, citrus rum syrup and vanilla crème Chantilly.
If you prefer savoury food, you must try their Chicken Burger, which is one of the better burgers that I’ve had. Besides desserts, Antoinette also has All Day breakfast ($9 – 20) such as Eggs Florentine, Baked Omelette; French Toast ($10.5), Crepes ($15 – 20) and Pancakes ($10 – 15); entrees ($10.5 – 23) like Salad and Foie Gras Terrine; and main courses ($16.5 – 38) which include options like Bouef Bourguignon and Gnocchi Carbonara.
Antoinette, without a doubt, is my favourite patisserie in Singapore. But then again, I am a big fan of Chef Pang, so I’m definitely biased. Don’t take my word for it, go there and try the cakes for yourself. Service can be very patchy depending on the time you are there, but really, who cares so long we can have good cakes.
The French patisserie is a great place for a quiet afternoon high tea. If I lived near the Lavender area, I could imagine myself dropping by the Parisian tea salon every other day.
Singapore Food Blog Review
Antoinette Patisserie Tea Salon
30 Penhas Road
Tel: +65 6293 3121
333A Orchard Road
#02-33/34 Mandarin Gallery
Tel: +65 6836 9527
33 Erskine Road
#01-02/03 Scarlet Hotel
For more recommendations, read my list of best dessert places in Singapore.
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ooo. I wanna visit this place when i’m back!
My girlfriend loves sweets. Now I already have an idea where to take her when she flies in for Christmas. Much thanks for giving the heads up on the best restaurants in Singapore!
My sis said the interior and design looks VERY much like Laduree, except that in the latter’s case it has got a pastel green main color theme.
If they could make such good food, it would’ve been better for them to adopt a more original design, perhaps.
I had tea at the mandarin gallery branch today and the price for the seafood gratin was too dear for a plate of seafood albeit fresh but measly. We are talking about four of each from mussels, scallops and prawns covered and baked in gratin (cream/ cheese bits) and a lovely toasted baguette slice with olive oil for $26. I enjoyed it but the price? Hmm. Just thought it was something to be highlighted. The burgers would be of MUCH better value.
And hey, I had prive! but disappointed with my food choices. sigh.
@brenda I guess they can be slightly more generous with the ingredients. But yeah the burger is really good!
Did you go to Prive cafe or restaurant? The meats from their Josper grill menu are really good!
Can’t wait to go back to Antoinette and try out the other desserts. Did you try their Mont Blanc?
jolylovesfood.wordpress.com
Tried the food at their Penhas outlet,
boy was I pleased
Tried the crepes at the mandarin gallery outlet and they taste horrible.
I just went to the Mandarin Gallery branch and I felt that the staff was very intrusive. They kept interrupting the conversation between me and my friends AFTER we had ordered. One of the staff also said that we had to pay an additional 30 dollars because their high tea set (which is NOT a buffet) was for two people and we had three people (we had already ordered an additional drink and explained to them that two people could not possibly finish the entire set). She also kept insisting that we could only order from the high tea menu instead of ala carte, which made us very confused. But we let this matter go because we didn’t want to cause a scene and really wanted to try the food. However, when the food arrived, it was not fresh at all. The danish pastries were obviously stale and hard while the tiny seafood gratin was bland. The rest of the pastries were nowhere near fantastic and were far too similar in taste to fully appreciate their individual flavors. But to be objective, their hot chocolate drink was very well made – thick and warm.
I must say that after reading about your positive review on Antoinette, we left there very disappointed and our whole afternoon was entirely spoiled by bad service and mediocre food. I sincerely hope that their management will take notice of this drastic drop in standard and do something about it, as of the current moment, none of us are inclined to return to the place.
Not French & Not Good!
As a general rule I can find something positive to say about every dining experience in Singapore, ANTOINETTE (Mandarin Gallery) is the exception. A recent visit to this eatery was a true disappointment. Our meal began with luke warm cups of watered down “hot” chocolate that resembled the real thing in color only. Further, while our orders–French Onion soup, Nordic Crepe with Smoked salmon, and French Toast– arrived promptly, we quickly wished they had not come at all. The French Onion soup, with strange cheese hat and vinegary broth, could not have tasted worse had it come from a can. Three spoons was more then enough of this soggy bread ladened mess. The Nordic crepe, which we returned to kitchen after one bite, contained salmon which tasted as though it had gone off earlier in the week. The crepe was as crispy as a taco shell, and bore no similarity to a real crepe. Interestingly, the staff charged us full price, over our objections, for this item because we had tasted it, as if there was some other way to know that it was bad. The French Toast, while eatable at least, was only passable. Needless to say, we left our food largely untouched, and went in search of good food elsewhere. Luckily, in Singapore you don’t have to go far.
Bottom line: Whether you are looking for French food or just food in general ANTOINETTE is NOT the place to go.
Went to the Mandarin Gallery branch today, it isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. Maybe it’s just SGeans who have ridiculously high standards?
Hoping to bring my date out again to where the food and dessert are just as good. at the same price, of course. Any suggestion, people?