Lunch at Artisan Boulangerie Co.

I heard the raves about Artisan Boulangerie's croissants a while back, but have not had the chance to taste it till now - an appointment with a long-time business associate / friend brought me to Great World City and I thought I could finally put the compliments to the test.

Artisan Boulangerie Co has several outlets in Singapore. I visited the one at 1 Kim Seng Promenade, #01-23 Great World City, Singapore 237994 (the number for this branch is 6887 4062). The bakery cafe offers a friendly setting with contemporary design, and hospitable service.

It is a neighborhood bakery led by award-winning French chef / baker Eran Mayer, offering scores of decadent fresh bakes from pastries to morning goodies to breads. They use the finest ingredients and artisanal techniques to ensure that the delectable pastries are fresh and taste good daily. Look at the array of tarts, crumbles and other pastries on display - they look mouthwatering, don't they?

The assortment of colorful eclairs were tempting too. Artisan Boulangerie Co offers generous samples, hence I helped myself to a piece of Cassis Eclair (SGD$4.50) - sweet and taut with a little hint of sour overture - I had been contemplating ordering it but found it a tad too sweet for my liking (odd that I used to have very sweet tooth!)

The tantalizing range of quiches and sandwiches beckon warmly as well, making it harder for me to come to a final decision, as everyone looked sumptuous.

And this variety of of danishes, croissants and other baked goods just simply make me swoon - I have never been faced with this tough a choice trying to decide between ordering their breakfast sets or a couple of different pastries to try.

In the end, I settled for their French Breakfast Set (SGD$12.90) and I added Smoked Salmon (SGD$6.00) to make it more complete. The French Breakfast Set comprises of a pastry of choice (I chose croissant, duh), a hot beverage and an orange juice. I felt a little cheated because the croissant costs only SGD$2.90 on its own, so did that mean I paid SGD$10.00 for my drinks?

Anyway, petty grudges aside, I did enjoy my crispy sandwich that succumbed easily to the touch of the knife - it was flaky, very tasty with a sweet aroma and simply divine.

The Smoked Salmon was smooth and had a very springy fresh kind of texture, so it was good to the mouth, teeth and tongue albeit being slightly too salty. I had been enjoying it until I still finding many tiny pieces of white fish bones within the smoked salmon itself, negating my overall salmon-eating experience. It was rather gross to be finding tiny bits of fish bones within the fish meat, really.

Nonetheless, I managed to complete my meal in a rather enjoyable fashion (just try to ignore the bone bits) and washing it down with lovely English Breakfast tea and supposedly fresh orange juice. The meal cost me SGD$18.50. I would like to come back to try their other pastries on display.