Review: Le Steak Singapore, Central Branch

I visited Le Steak by Chef Amri at Mackenzie Road for the first time recently. The restaurant is very accessible, being very close to exit A of Little India station. It's the corner restaurant at the shophouses in the picture below.

Le Steak by Chef Amri at Mackenzie Road is literally across the road from exit A of Little India MRT station.

We called to reserve, and because it was for breaking fast, we were asked to turn up by 6.30pm, 6.45pm at the latest. It wasn't really clear why diners had to be so early as sunset was at 7.15pm that evening - perhaps the restaurant wanted to have all orders taken and everyone served early. 

It was full house on a Friday, and we pre-ordered our meals from the Ramadan set menu, which offers a choice of soup or salad for the starter, followed by a choice of main - prime steer (PS) ribeye steak, lamb ribs or barramundi - and a dessert of the day. The meal costs S$28 nett, with orange juice or a soft drink an extra S$2. Dates had already been placed on the table and the drinks and starters arrived well before 7.15pm.

I ordered 'salad' which turned out to be a creamy pasta salad rather than leaves. It had chewy bits that simulated bacon, and was quite tasty but not a large portion. Everyone else had a yellow soup which came with a slice of baguette.

My salad.

The main actually took quite a while to arrive, roughly 20 minutes after the salad had been eaten, even though this had been pre-ordered. All four of us were served within half an hour of the starter course being cleared. The couple next to us waited an hour for their mains though.

Our steaks were quite large but the salad and potato weren't as more-ish. My medium steak verged on the medium rare and was flavourful and tender. There was more fat than I would have liked but I someone else would probably have enjoyed those bits.

The main. A tender ribeye steak, medium, with brown sauce, salad and mashed potato.

Dessert was an small portion of pandan-flavoured kueh lapis, which was quite nice. I thought they could have been a little more generous with the coulis as there definitely isn't enough for the entire slice of cake. On the other hand, kueh lapis is not usually eaten with any sauce at all so the coulis was actually a bonus. There were several desserts served, with some getting a rainbow lapis cake, and others something else in ramekins.

Pandan kueh lapis, garnished with a strawberry quarter and strawberry coulis. There is a smattering of icing sugar.

We ended up paying S$30.50 per person, including a drink each plus a round of water later on - the water cost S$0.50 per person, though this was not mentioned when we asked for it. 

Ambience-wise, be prepared for humidity as the aircon did not seem to be very strong. The fans were going at full blast but with no walls it felt like we were sitting out in the open.

Service was a little slow as there were very few wait staff (I think three) given the number of diners in the restaurant. While our plates were cleared quite promptly, it was more difficult to catch anyone's attention for additional requests. We ended up going to the cashier to pay rather than ask for the cheque as it looked like everyone would be too busy to entertain us.

Le Steak Singapore positions itself as the only halal steak place in Singapore. The meal is reasonably priced and it is a valuable addition to the halal restaurant scene. The food is definitely value for money given the price, though big eaters might have to order something else on the side. Service would probably be quite pleasant when the restaurant isn't as crowded.

Interested?

Le Steak Singapore is at 19/21/23 Mackenzie Road, Singapore 228678. Reservations are required during Ramadhan for iftar, from 6.30pm to 8pm. Call +65 6238 0609 (hotline open at 3pm). 

View the Ramadhan menu on Facebook.

Read the Suroor Asia blog post on Le Steak's other Ramadhan offers.

Hashtags: #lesteak, #lesteaksingapore