Lunch @ Bistro du Vin

We had lunch at the newly opened Bistro du Vin today. This is part of the Les Amis Group. It is quite surprising to a number of my friends that I hardly step into any of the Les Amis restaurants. I don’t know why but I guess it may be because the prices are of the higher end and the wines are so expensive. It feels like I am not getting the money well spent.
The place was quite empty when we stepped in. I guessed it was still early. The place is quite dark for a bistro especially if you get a table inside towards the wine storage area. As more people stepped in for lunch, the place became very noisy. Too noisy for my liking.
I must say that the place is well decorated. Has to be as it was reported that they spent S$500,000 on the deco.
I was quite disappointed with the food. I think my two eating buddies were equally disappointed even though they did not openly say so. For starter, Andrew and I had onion soup and Alain ordered soupe de poisson (fish soup). Don’t know about Alain’s fish soup but Andrew and I agreed that the onion soup was a bit too salty. There was not much onion slices in it and I loved my onion soup with lots of onions.
We had a cold cut platter and a Marcos Iberico de Bellato platter to share. Both were so-so. I guess I may be very critical as I been to France and Italy to eat these. The weather and the storage may have affected the quality of these hams.
I had the braised beef, Andrew had duck confit and Alain, a fish dish. The braised beef was salty and I had to ask the waiter for one too many slices of bread to go together with the braised beef.
The saving grace was the bottle of great wine that Alain brought along. It was a 1990 Paul Jaboule Aine Hermitage La Chapelle Hermitage. Corkage was $50; which in my opinion is way too high for a bistro; be it part of the Les Amis group. No other group was drinking wine despite it being closed to a full house.
A write up of the 1990 Paul Jaboule Aine Hermitage La Chapelle Hermitage is as below by Wine Spectator.
We finished up ordering 3 double espressos and were given single expressos. Don’t think we are going back soon.

Spotlight On: Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle 1989 vs. 1990
The 96-point 1989 is selling for 51 percent less than the 97-point 1990
Nick Suarez
Posted: Wednesday, April 08, 2009
The Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle is the crown jewel of the family-owned and -operated Paul Jaboulet Aîné winery. The wine has set records for Rhône wines at auction: A case of the heralded 1961 brought in $252,000 in a 2007 sale.
The auction results of the 1989 (96 points, $55 release price, $168 current auction price) and 1990 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle (97 points, $60, $343) make for an interesting comparison. In the Northern Rhône, the 1990 vintage is considered superior to the 1989, but Jaboulet made quality Hermitage La Chapelle in both years. Nevertheless, the track records for these bottlings at auction are quite different: The 1989 is currently trading for 51 percent less than the 1990.