Lunch was never this much fun before monthly-rotating specials at Lunch Hour at Claudine.
Set in a 1930s colonial chapel, French neo-brasserie Claudine by award-winning chef-patron Julien Royer celebrates a distinct ode to French heritage. The menu strikes a balance between quintessential French classics and Royer’s personal recipes, with a fondness for locality and contemporary approachability.
In true Julien Royer style (having spent more than a decade living and working in Asia), the star-studded chef is synonymous with authentically transposing the focal tenets of his French upbringing and culinary principles (respect for seasonality and terroir) to his creations, while always infusing them with a contemporary sense of place.
And that is exactly what diners can expect at Lunch Hour at the 72-seater Claudine, as the specially curated menu celebrates the vibrant, fresh flavours of a summer in the south of France. “Even if the day is still young, make lunch count with a touch of joie de vivre and plenty of good food,” says Royer.
Create your own lunch experience by choosing a duo ($62++ per person) or trio ($78++ per person) of plates from a selection of three starters, three mains and three desserts that are available either exclusively on the Lunch Hour menu only or on the à la carte menu. Menu choices rotate monthly, each executed by executive chef Julien Mercier and chef de cuisine Loïc Portalier.
Highlights from the current lunch menu include starters such as the slow-roasted Heirloom Beetroot Salad (available for Lunch Hour and à la carte) that is paired with fresh cheese seasoned with hazelnut oil and served with a red beet purée seasoned with sherry vinegar. Nasturtium oil adds a peppery nuance to the dish, completed with a garnish of Nasturtium leaves, walnuts, honey and streusel for crunch and texture.
Likewise, the Hokkaido Scallop Ceviche (available exclusively for Lunch Hour) features fresh Hokkaido scallops and cubed mangoes cured in leche de tigre, and paired with a fresh green papaya salad with celery, red onions, fresh herbs and red chilli.
For mains, popular choices include the Grilled Maguro Tuna (exclusively available for Lunch Hour), showcasing grilled yellowfin tuna marinated in a spiced oil infused with dried shio kombu, coriander seeds and fennel seeds. The tuna is served with braised fennel and homemade escabeche with white balsamic.
Equally moreish is the Brown Mushroom & Morels Ravioli (available for Lunch Hour and à la carte), presenting ravioli stuffed with a hearty mixture of brown and morel mushrooms, parmesan, pine nuts and spinach. The ravioli is then glazed in parsley and garlic purée, and served with parmesan mushroom cream, and a mushroom and aged sherry vinegar Camargo foam.
Dessert selections by pastry chef Jeanette Ow include the reinvented version of classic Pêche Melba (exclusively available for Lunch Hour). Fresh yellow peaches from Corsica are compressed in a lemon verbena syrup and served with fresh sliced peach, golden almond crumble and vanilla ice cream, all atop a vibrant lemon verbena sauce.
Also really beautiful is the aptly titled Exotic Gourmandise (available for Lunch Hour and à la carte). The dessert showcases a meringue disc crowning housemade passionfruit sorbet, Opalys (valrhona white chocolate) mousse, fresh pomelo and citrus caviar, before being drizzled over with a vibrant coriander sauce.
The current Lunch Hour menu will last till 30 September before the new rotation starts. From 5 October, lunch will be available from Wednesday to Saturdays (Lunch Hour and a compressed à la carte menu will be served Wednesday to Friday and a full à la carte menu will be available on Saturdays).