16 Jiak Chuan Road, Singapore
Tel: +65 6222 1616
Showing posts with label Spanish Restaurants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spanish Restaurants. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Review: Esquina Tapas Bar
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Review: Santi
I have been surprisingly busy as I prepare to start a new job, and as such I've been prevented from blogging about one of the more enjoyable meals I had in 2011.
Much has been written about all the celebrity chefs who have set up shop in Marina Bay Sands, and of course the untimely death of Santi Santamaria made instant headlines, but it was not till fairly late in the year that I finally had a chance to have a meal in Santi. Tapas are served at the bar (go figure), and if the high bar chairs are not to your liking, there is a row of low seats next to the glass walls which are only slightly less uncomfortable. The front of house is rather dimly lit, too, so most of the photos are not fantastic; until I had the bright idea of holding the plates up to what little light there was.
There are some cuisines for which it is extremely difficult to find a good restaurant, and Spanish food (tapas in particular) tends to be one of them, as evidenced by my rather ambivalent reviews of the various Spanish tapas bars I've tried. Given Santi's reputation, however, I was fairly optimistic of finally having credible tapas.
A small morsel of roasted zucchini and mushrooms on lightly baked bread was just what was needed to whet the appetite.
Like any tapas bar worth its salt, Santi offers food in both tapa and racione portions, with prices of the latter roughly twice the former (although in some cases they were considerably more). I love gazpacho, and at $4 for a tapa and $8 for a racion, Santi's Gazpacho Andaluz was very affordable, and quite delectable: fresh and spritely without being sour, sweet and rich without being cloying, and with a slight savoriness hinting that the tomatoes had been roasted to concentrate their flavours.
Santi offers two kinds of ham - Iberic Lomo and Iberic Ham "Joselito" - but I didn't really want to pay $60 for the "Joselito", and $10 for the lomo by comparison didn't seem so bad. While there was certainly nothing wrong with the thinly-sliced ham and the toasty croute that it lay atop, I did think that it was probably one of the more overpriced tapas on the menu.
Manchego cheese, I feel, is superbly underrated, and Santi serves up wicked cubes of manchego drizzled with an unctuous oil to accentuate the delicate, slightly astringent pungency of the sheep's milk. Eating this reminded me of my college days, when I would buy wedges of manchego from the market to eat with seedless green grapes as my weekly indulgence; it's quite disturbing to think I haven't had this delicious cheese since then.
Soon, it was on to the hot tapas, and I had originally ordered a tapa portion of prawns "al ajillo", only to discover to my dismay that for $8, all you get is two prawns. The racione portion isn't much better; you get six or seven prawns for $30. The prawns are given a marvellous heat from the garlic and the chillis, though the garlic could be somewhat overpowering for some, and the amount of oil used was, I thought, more generous than the number of prawns in it.
The mushroom "revuelto" had a lovely creamy texture, with the eggs clearly having been slowly cooked to ensure that they were not over-scrambled, but all said and done, this was essentially scrambled eggs with mushrooms which, at $8, was probably not the best bargain in the house.
A dish of forest mushrooms and asparagus, however, was a much more sensible order (and, incidentally, no longer seems to be on the menu), as it's not something you're likely to prepare at home. Earthy, juicy mushrooms and the distinctive, slightly ferric asparagus, lightly seasoned with salt flakes, are impossible to resist.
My favourite tapa, however, was definitely the octopus "a la plancha". Supple and yielding, the grilled octopus had a wonderful char that imbued it with an extraordinary smokey flavour, and a large dollop of salmorejo, or tomato cream, gave it an extra fillip of sweetness. At $6, this was the dish that offered the best returns.
Although part of the fun of ordering tapas is not knowing for sure which you'll like the best, that can also be a significant downside, especially in Singapore, where tapas are not exactly cheap. Another problem is that tapas tend not to be that substantial, leaving you hungry even after you've had a few orders. Consequently, croquettas are almost always indispensable, and Santi's version features a rich bechamel filling, and after a few of these, you should be feeling pretty full, so I suggest only eating them towards the end of the meal.
At some point I was getting a little bored of tapas, so I decided to order some of the main courses found at the bottom of the tapas menu. One of the more intriguing (which now no longer seems to appear on the menu) was some roasted pork ribs, which look really phenomenal in the photo, but they took something like half an hour to arrive, and when they did, they were rather tiny; hardly what I would call a main course, and barely enough to share (which was the whole point of the dish). Given that they weren't that cheap either, it's far more advisable to pass on the pork rack, and order the next main course instead.
Our final dish was a tender, quite possibly sous vide, chicken breast (also apparently no longer on the menu), glazed with a fine, almost syrupy sauce. Although a main course, this didn't cost much more than the tapas, and is highly recommended should it ever make its way back onto the dinner menu.
Santi undoubtedly serves up the best tapas in Singapore, but you should certainly expect to pay for it. This can be mitigated if you stay away from the more expensive items, and stick to those that are really worth it (e.g. gazpacho, manchego, octopus, chicken), and stay away from the fixed price tapas menu, which offers you a fixed number of tapas and a drink. Skip the drink and use the money to order a la carte, and before long you'll be planning your next trip to Andalusia.
Santi
10 Bayfront Avenue #L2-03, Casino Level 2,
Marina Bay SandsTel: +65 6688 8501
Website
Much has been written about all the celebrity chefs who have set up shop in Marina Bay Sands, and of course the untimely death of Santi Santamaria made instant headlines, but it was not till fairly late in the year that I finally had a chance to have a meal in Santi. Tapas are served at the bar (go figure), and if the high bar chairs are not to your liking, there is a row of low seats next to the glass walls which are only slightly less uncomfortable. The front of house is rather dimly lit, too, so most of the photos are not fantastic; until I had the bright idea of holding the plates up to what little light there was.
There are some cuisines for which it is extremely difficult to find a good restaurant, and Spanish food (tapas in particular) tends to be one of them, as evidenced by my rather ambivalent reviews of the various Spanish tapas bars I've tried. Given Santi's reputation, however, I was fairly optimistic of finally having credible tapas.
A small morsel of roasted zucchini and mushrooms on lightly baked bread was just what was needed to whet the appetite.
Like any tapas bar worth its salt, Santi offers food in both tapa and racione portions, with prices of the latter roughly twice the former (although in some cases they were considerably more). I love gazpacho, and at $4 for a tapa and $8 for a racion, Santi's Gazpacho Andaluz was very affordable, and quite delectable: fresh and spritely without being sour, sweet and rich without being cloying, and with a slight savoriness hinting that the tomatoes had been roasted to concentrate their flavours.
Santi offers two kinds of ham - Iberic Lomo and Iberic Ham "Joselito" - but I didn't really want to pay $60 for the "Joselito", and $10 for the lomo by comparison didn't seem so bad. While there was certainly nothing wrong with the thinly-sliced ham and the toasty croute that it lay atop, I did think that it was probably one of the more overpriced tapas on the menu.
Manchego cheese, I feel, is superbly underrated, and Santi serves up wicked cubes of manchego drizzled with an unctuous oil to accentuate the delicate, slightly astringent pungency of the sheep's milk. Eating this reminded me of my college days, when I would buy wedges of manchego from the market to eat with seedless green grapes as my weekly indulgence; it's quite disturbing to think I haven't had this delicious cheese since then.
Soon, it was on to the hot tapas, and I had originally ordered a tapa portion of prawns "al ajillo", only to discover to my dismay that for $8, all you get is two prawns. The racione portion isn't much better; you get six or seven prawns for $30. The prawns are given a marvellous heat from the garlic and the chillis, though the garlic could be somewhat overpowering for some, and the amount of oil used was, I thought, more generous than the number of prawns in it.
The mushroom "revuelto" had a lovely creamy texture, with the eggs clearly having been slowly cooked to ensure that they were not over-scrambled, but all said and done, this was essentially scrambled eggs with mushrooms which, at $8, was probably not the best bargain in the house.
A dish of forest mushrooms and asparagus, however, was a much more sensible order (and, incidentally, no longer seems to be on the menu), as it's not something you're likely to prepare at home. Earthy, juicy mushrooms and the distinctive, slightly ferric asparagus, lightly seasoned with salt flakes, are impossible to resist.
My favourite tapa, however, was definitely the octopus "a la plancha". Supple and yielding, the grilled octopus had a wonderful char that imbued it with an extraordinary smokey flavour, and a large dollop of salmorejo, or tomato cream, gave it an extra fillip of sweetness. At $6, this was the dish that offered the best returns.
Although part of the fun of ordering tapas is not knowing for sure which you'll like the best, that can also be a significant downside, especially in Singapore, where tapas are not exactly cheap. Another problem is that tapas tend not to be that substantial, leaving you hungry even after you've had a few orders. Consequently, croquettas are almost always indispensable, and Santi's version features a rich bechamel filling, and after a few of these, you should be feeling pretty full, so I suggest only eating them towards the end of the meal.
At some point I was getting a little bored of tapas, so I decided to order some of the main courses found at the bottom of the tapas menu. One of the more intriguing (which now no longer seems to appear on the menu) was some roasted pork ribs, which look really phenomenal in the photo, but they took something like half an hour to arrive, and when they did, they were rather tiny; hardly what I would call a main course, and barely enough to share (which was the whole point of the dish). Given that they weren't that cheap either, it's far more advisable to pass on the pork rack, and order the next main course instead.
Our final dish was a tender, quite possibly sous vide, chicken breast (also apparently no longer on the menu), glazed with a fine, almost syrupy sauce. Although a main course, this didn't cost much more than the tapas, and is highly recommended should it ever make its way back onto the dinner menu.
Santi undoubtedly serves up the best tapas in Singapore, but you should certainly expect to pay for it. This can be mitigated if you stay away from the more expensive items, and stick to those that are really worth it (e.g. gazpacho, manchego, octopus, chicken), and stay away from the fixed price tapas menu, which offers you a fixed number of tapas and a drink. Skip the drink and use the money to order a la carte, and before long you'll be planning your next trip to Andalusia.
Santi
10 Bayfront Avenue #L2-03, Casino Level 2,
Marina Bay SandsTel: +65 6688 8501
Website
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Review: Sol Tasca
I was reading one of the foodie interviews in the papers the other day, and the interviewee commented that there was still a lack of good food from (amongst other regions) Indochina in this country.
To that I would add that there is a severe lack of good Spanish food, although to be fair My Little Spanish Place was not really bad - merely imperfect.
It was with some curiosity and interest, therefore, that I learned that two new Spanish restaurants have opened recently: Sol Tasca at the Fullerton Waterboat House, and Sabio at Duxton Hill. As Sol Tasca was closer, and since Groupon was offering a discount, I made a reservation and sat back to wait.
Well, that's not strictly true. I was early, so I decided to examine the restaurant and take more photos while the light was still good. As can be seen, the address of the restaurant at the Fullerton Waterboat House is not entirely accurate: it is not actually in the Waterboat House; rather, it is under it. To be more precise, it is under the bridge, which means that it can be quite warm, as the air is somewhat still, unless you are seated in an exposed area by the bridge, with a fan to improve air circulation. Perhaps to make up for the less than ideal location, Sol Tasca offers what it calls "the longest happy hour in town", and a live band from Wednesdays to Saturdays (who are actually quite good).
Sadly, however, the food, while tolerable, was not at all memorable. The patatas bravas, for instance, were little cubes of potatoes that looked like they had not been sufficiently fried, and the spicy tomato sauce that covered them looked, at best, poorly prepared, and at worst, manufactured.
The next tapa (incidentally, there seems to be some disagreement over whether the singular of "tapas" is "tapa" or "tapas") was sauteed mushrooms with balsamic vinaigrette. Now, I love mushrooms, and there was nothing actually wrong with these, but the problem with this tapa, as well as most of the other dishes, was that it simply did not taste Spanish. Unlike the tapas from My Little Spanish Place, there was no hint of that hearty earthiness that characterises Andalucian cuisine, with its liberal use of garlics, peppers, olive oil and sherry. The mushrooms, although certainly palatable, were, to put it bluntly, boring.
The sauteed chicken with garlic and chilli continued the disappointing trend. Some of the chicken pieces looked like they were not fully cooked, and those that were tasted no different from ordinary cooked chicken.
The beef balls in sherry tomato sauce, at least, stood out, for they boasted a robust flavour that was quite unusual, and they were bathed in a rich, full-bodied sauce. Their irregular shapes also advertised that they had been hand-made, which is, of course, only proper.
Finally, then, was the main event: seafood paella. As you can see, the lighting by this time was rather poor, but you can just about make out the mussels, peppers and prawns. When the paella first arrived, I thought it was decidedly small, but after some digging, it turned out that the paella dish was much deeper than I had thought. Unfortunately, more was not necessarily better; the paella seemed to me a rather insipid helping of stodgy rice and questionable seafood.
Sol Tasca is a nice place to come after work, where you can chill out to a jug of sangria and the soothing strains of "Oye Como Va", but for good Spanish food, go to Spain.
Sol Tasca
#01-04 The Fullerton Waterboat House
Tel: +65 6533 8913
Closed Mondays
To that I would add that there is a severe lack of good Spanish food, although to be fair My Little Spanish Place was not really bad - merely imperfect.
It was with some curiosity and interest, therefore, that I learned that two new Spanish restaurants have opened recently: Sol Tasca at the Fullerton Waterboat House, and Sabio at Duxton Hill. As Sol Tasca was closer, and since Groupon was offering a discount, I made a reservation and sat back to wait.
Well, that's not strictly true. I was early, so I decided to examine the restaurant and take more photos while the light was still good. As can be seen, the address of the restaurant at the Fullerton Waterboat House is not entirely accurate: it is not actually in the Waterboat House; rather, it is under it. To be more precise, it is under the bridge, which means that it can be quite warm, as the air is somewhat still, unless you are seated in an exposed area by the bridge, with a fan to improve air circulation. Perhaps to make up for the less than ideal location, Sol Tasca offers what it calls "the longest happy hour in town", and a live band from Wednesdays to Saturdays (who are actually quite good).
Sadly, however, the food, while tolerable, was not at all memorable. The patatas bravas, for instance, were little cubes of potatoes that looked like they had not been sufficiently fried, and the spicy tomato sauce that covered them looked, at best, poorly prepared, and at worst, manufactured.
The next tapa (incidentally, there seems to be some disagreement over whether the singular of "tapas" is "tapa" or "tapas") was sauteed mushrooms with balsamic vinaigrette. Now, I love mushrooms, and there was nothing actually wrong with these, but the problem with this tapa, as well as most of the other dishes, was that it simply did not taste Spanish. Unlike the tapas from My Little Spanish Place, there was no hint of that hearty earthiness that characterises Andalucian cuisine, with its liberal use of garlics, peppers, olive oil and sherry. The mushrooms, although certainly palatable, were, to put it bluntly, boring.
The sauteed chicken with garlic and chilli continued the disappointing trend. Some of the chicken pieces looked like they were not fully cooked, and those that were tasted no different from ordinary cooked chicken.
The beef balls in sherry tomato sauce, at least, stood out, for they boasted a robust flavour that was quite unusual, and they were bathed in a rich, full-bodied sauce. Their irregular shapes also advertised that they had been hand-made, which is, of course, only proper.
Finally, then, was the main event: seafood paella. As you can see, the lighting by this time was rather poor, but you can just about make out the mussels, peppers and prawns. When the paella first arrived, I thought it was decidedly small, but after some digging, it turned out that the paella dish was much deeper than I had thought. Unfortunately, more was not necessarily better; the paella seemed to me a rather insipid helping of stodgy rice and questionable seafood.
Sol Tasca is a nice place to come after work, where you can chill out to a jug of sangria and the soothing strains of "Oye Como Va", but for good Spanish food, go to Spain.
Sol Tasca
#01-04 The Fullerton Waterboat House
Tel: +65 6533 8913
Closed Mondays
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Review: My Little Spanish Place
For some strange reason, Spanish restaurants in Singapore don't seem to have a very long life expectancy. Perhaps related to that fact, Spanish restaurants in Singapore don't seem to be very good. The last one I went to, Bodega Y Tapas at Orchard Hotel, was not particularly good, and I've heard the Tapas Tree in Clarke Quay isn't great either.
So we decided to go try the new burger shack set up by Island Creamery, only to discover, while looking for a parking lot, a quaint little place along Bukit Timah called "My Little Spanish Place". We ambled over to take a look, and after some confusion with whether or not the restaurant was fully booked, secured a table for dinner at the month-old restaurant.
Barely a few weeks old, the restaurant was nonetheless almost completely full on a Saturday evening (we took the last available table), though that's partly due to the fact that it's very small. Helming the kitchen is a Spanish lady, while a young Spanish man I assume is her son takes care of the front of house, together with what appear to be a Singaporean couple. Ochre walls evoke an Andalucian feel, as if you've stepped into a Spanish hearth.
I was hoping to find that the tapas here would be affordably priced, but I suppose that was a little too optimistic given the location. Tapas range from below $10 to the twenties, with most falling in the teens, while the prices of the paellas start from $34 and increase with the size of the paella (e.g. for 2 or 4 or 8 to share). Still, price is relative, and depending on the serving size of each helping of tapas, the prices might not be that bad.
The tortilla de patatas was stated on the menu to be "Spain's national dish", and is really a sort of potato omelette. I'm not entirely sure whether this is meant to be served warm or cold, but the one I had was just barely luke warm, which may be off-putting to some diners. The aioli that accompanied the tortilla was rather good, however, with a silky sweetness that enriched the tortilla, though some lemon juice would have added balance.
One of the pinchos we ordered consisted of skewers of baked mushrooms, topped with minced garlic and shrimp, on a bed of toasted bread. The bread was excellent, as were the mushrooms (which were bursting with juice and olive oil), but the garlic was not sufficiently cooked, resulting in a very pungent and bitter sensation when the whole thing was consumed.
Next up was pinchos moruno, or skewers of grilled pork and green bell peppers. Sadly, some of the pork cubes were undercooked and still slightly pink, otherwise this would have been quite tasty, especially for the carnivore, as the pork had taken on a smokey char that accentuated its meatiness and gave it a texture not unlike beef.
The house paella was filled with traditional ingredients like prawns, chicken, squid and peas, and featured the essential crispy layer of fried rice at the bottom of the pan, but I felt that too much oil had been used, leading to a rather greasy mouthfeel rather than that of smooth, glossy, saffron-scented rice grains complemented by a generous medley of ingredients.
Unfortunately, they were out of churros con chocolate, but there was an intriguing reference to leche fritta or "fried milk" on the dessert menu. My curiosity piqued, I asked the Singaporean waitress what exactly "fried milk" was, hoping for some enlightenment as to the mode of preparation or at least a more evocative description which would enable me to have a better idea of what it was I was thinking of ordering. I was rather annoyed when the answer I received was, "er, it's like...uhm, I guess it's... fried milk." Quite apart from being totally unhelpful, that response suggests I am incapable of reading. In any event, she finally conceded that it was a sort of milk custard that was deep-fried, which, as it turned out, was exactly what it was. The texture of the custard was very soft, curdy and pillowy, while it'd been coated in rice flour, making it taste rather like rice krispies. Since both milk and rice are rather bland, some sweetened whipped cream was provided to make things a little more interesting.
My Little Spanish place serves up generally competent and authentic Spanish tapas cuisine, however, almost every dish was marred by a slight imperfection, which I hope is only because the restaurant is so new that they've not had time to iron out all the kinks yet. Prices are not exactly low, which is another reason to ensure the food is up to scratch: while there may not be many other Spanish restaurants around, I'd rather eat a burger than unsatisfactory tapas.
My Little Spanish Place
619 Bukit Timah Road
Tel: +65 646 32810
Email
Website
So we decided to go try the new burger shack set up by Island Creamery, only to discover, while looking for a parking lot, a quaint little place along Bukit Timah called "My Little Spanish Place". We ambled over to take a look, and after some confusion with whether or not the restaurant was fully booked, secured a table for dinner at the month-old restaurant.
Barely a few weeks old, the restaurant was nonetheless almost completely full on a Saturday evening (we took the last available table), though that's partly due to the fact that it's very small. Helming the kitchen is a Spanish lady, while a young Spanish man I assume is her son takes care of the front of house, together with what appear to be a Singaporean couple. Ochre walls evoke an Andalucian feel, as if you've stepped into a Spanish hearth.
I was hoping to find that the tapas here would be affordably priced, but I suppose that was a little too optimistic given the location. Tapas range from below $10 to the twenties, with most falling in the teens, while the prices of the paellas start from $34 and increase with the size of the paella (e.g. for 2 or 4 or 8 to share). Still, price is relative, and depending on the serving size of each helping of tapas, the prices might not be that bad.
The tortilla de patatas was stated on the menu to be "Spain's national dish", and is really a sort of potato omelette. I'm not entirely sure whether this is meant to be served warm or cold, but the one I had was just barely luke warm, which may be off-putting to some diners. The aioli that accompanied the tortilla was rather good, however, with a silky sweetness that enriched the tortilla, though some lemon juice would have added balance.
One of the pinchos we ordered consisted of skewers of baked mushrooms, topped with minced garlic and shrimp, on a bed of toasted bread. The bread was excellent, as were the mushrooms (which were bursting with juice and olive oil), but the garlic was not sufficiently cooked, resulting in a very pungent and bitter sensation when the whole thing was consumed.
Next up was pinchos moruno, or skewers of grilled pork and green bell peppers. Sadly, some of the pork cubes were undercooked and still slightly pink, otherwise this would have been quite tasty, especially for the carnivore, as the pork had taken on a smokey char that accentuated its meatiness and gave it a texture not unlike beef.
The house paella was filled with traditional ingredients like prawns, chicken, squid and peas, and featured the essential crispy layer of fried rice at the bottom of the pan, but I felt that too much oil had been used, leading to a rather greasy mouthfeel rather than that of smooth, glossy, saffron-scented rice grains complemented by a generous medley of ingredients.
Unfortunately, they were out of churros con chocolate, but there was an intriguing reference to leche fritta or "fried milk" on the dessert menu. My curiosity piqued, I asked the Singaporean waitress what exactly "fried milk" was, hoping for some enlightenment as to the mode of preparation or at least a more evocative description which would enable me to have a better idea of what it was I was thinking of ordering. I was rather annoyed when the answer I received was, "er, it's like...uhm, I guess it's... fried milk." Quite apart from being totally unhelpful, that response suggests I am incapable of reading. In any event, she finally conceded that it was a sort of milk custard that was deep-fried, which, as it turned out, was exactly what it was. The texture of the custard was very soft, curdy and pillowy, while it'd been coated in rice flour, making it taste rather like rice krispies. Since both milk and rice are rather bland, some sweetened whipped cream was provided to make things a little more interesting.
My Little Spanish place serves up generally competent and authentic Spanish tapas cuisine, however, almost every dish was marred by a slight imperfection, which I hope is only because the restaurant is so new that they've not had time to iron out all the kinks yet. Prices are not exactly low, which is another reason to ensure the food is up to scratch: while there may not be many other Spanish restaurants around, I'd rather eat a burger than unsatisfactory tapas.
My Little Spanish Place
619 Bukit Timah Road
Tel: +65 646 32810
Website
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