Tapas gets the superstar treatment
Few tapas bars anywhere in the world come with the superstar credentials of Esquina, a whitewashed shophouse on the corner of Chinatown’s Jiak Chuan Road. It’s the latest venture from boutique hotel maestro Loh Lik Peng, who has had success with restaurants Jing at One Fullerton and Cocotte at Wanderlust. He has teamed up with British chef Jason Atherton, who is gaining such a reputation that he’s becoming known less as Gordon Ramsay’s protégé and more as the Michelinstarred chef behind restaurants such as London’s Pollen Street Social (winner of Best New Fine Dining Restaurant in Time Out London’s 2011 Eating Awards) and Shanghai’s Table No. 1 (awarded five stars by Time Out Shanghai).
Casual dining is Atherton’s signature, and the backbone of this narrow space is a long, bar-style counter that sits 12. The decor is rustic Havana meets industrial-chic, with worn tiled floors, a stainless-steel counter, and a host of curios ranging from Jules Verne submarine-esque bronze lamps to the Industrial Age tractor-seat stools at the bar. The music flits from old blues to indie-electronica à la Peter Bjorn and John, yet it somehow works.
The concise placemat menu, augmented by a counter of daily fish and seafood specials, is overseen by executive chef Andrew Walsh, a former Pollen Street Social sous-chef. The food is an interesting interplay of classic and playful. There’s a nicely textured but unseasoned Spanish classic omelette ($14), or a gooey-good slow-cooked egg with bravas tomato sauce, potatoes and crispy jamón ibérico ($16). Classic desserts like a firm Santiago tart ($13) are offset by the black olive Esquina sorbet ($12.50), which tastes like it sounds – that’s one dish we won’t be having again.
The highlights include a pull-apart ox cheek oloroso ($21.50), which is braised in sherry for eight hours and served with creamy mash, capers, crispy bacon and bone-marrow crumbs to form an exquisite combination of texture and taste. Even better was a bone-marrow special served in the bone with pieces of escargot.
A lot of the dishes combine creative juxtapositions of flavour. The ‘rock pool at low tide’ taste of the oysters ($10 for two) is injected with a subtly tangy Vietnamese fish sauce; the gorgeous, yielding tuna tartare with avocado and sesame dressing ($18) is shot through with wasabi; and bouncy scallops are served with a citrus salsa ($18.50). The only real disappointments are the aforementioned black olive sorbet and a meagre, unexciting confit rabbit and seafood paella ($21.50) in a ragù-like sauce.
The wine list is chosen well, with some good sherries ($12-$18). There’s also a range of Spanish beers, from Mahou and Sagres to Estrella Damm ($9-$12) – along with, fittingly, the limited-edition Estrella Inedit ($42) part-created by Atherton’s former mentor, Ferran Adrià of elBulli fame.
For hungry diners who might want to try four dishes, Esquina’s not cheap, and the service can be slow at times – if far from rude, an observation one commenter posted on our website. Overall, it’s a good concept well executed – casual fine-dining is taking over in cities like London and New York, and Esquina is a shining example of a trend we hope to see more of here too. Toby Skinner
Transport
Nearby Stations: Outram Park
Bus Lines: 61, 166, 197
Telephone 6222 1616
Main courses from $5.00 to $23.00
Open Mon-Fri noon-3pm, 6-11pm
Sat 6pm-11pm
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Had an excellent lunch at Esquina today. My wife and I sat at the counter and enjoyed the Ham Croquetas, Burger sliders (ridiculously good), the salad and some oysters followed by Chocolate Mousse (not on the menu), Santiago Tart desserts and an espresso.
First off, the comments on this page re the wait staff completely baffle me- there were constantly two helpers who would immediately jump to attention were we to even look in their direction.
Similarly, it should be noted how friendly the chef is- we had several questions for him and he was more than forthcoming about how he prepares the food (even mentioning the delivery schedule).
There was clearly also an enormous amount of love put into the food preparation- this was great to watch and one of my favorite things about the lunch- definitely sit at the counter if there's a spot.
Lastly, my wife and I are orginally from NYC and also lived in Switzerland for several years (and have been in Spore since 2007), and this was without a doubt the best foreign-food dining experience I've had in Spore (nothing beats the local food) and one of the more enjoyable mid-week lunches I've ever had.
The restaurant itself reminds me of a Lower East Side NYC joint and the neighborhood is a nice break from the blandness of the CBD. Looking forward to heading back for dinner and lots of wine... definitely a place that deserves your business.
Posted on Thu 15 Mar 2012 14:28:43
We ordered olives, oysters, pork foie gras burger (very very small portion) and fries. For 9$ they served shoe string fries. Oysters with Vietnamese sauce were not too bad. The rest so-so. Wines are over priced!
Posted on Wed 14 Mar 2012 03:23:16
It has the feel of an intimate Madrid tapas bar, narrow and busy... Turn your head one way and your face to face with a swinging leg of jamon, turn the other and your head is probably out the door...
But beyond the charm, Equina offers overly complicated recipes in under sized dishes at a price premium of 30-40% above its competitors.
For now I'd give this place a miss and hit Sabio for a more generous and authentic feel and where you won't need to take a second mortgage to buy that second bottle of wine!
Posted on Sat 18 Feb 2012 10:33:41
Perhaps they worked on the service level after these previous comments because we had the most attentive service that one could find in Singapore.
Also it's strange that one of the above reviews complains about the fries because the menu says it's fries, not potato bravas.
We tried 5 dishes (one was a mistake but they gave it to us anyway) -- all fabulous! Especially delightful was the scallop ceviche which was accompanied by thin slices of radish and slightly mustardy and light citrus source. Loverly place overall!
Posted on Wed 15 Feb 2012 09:51:12
As in much of Singapore, service was expectantly slow etc, but the food was pretty good. The "Specials" dishes were extremely good. On the other hand the regular tapas were average. The Patatas Bravas were actually French Fries, which is a disgrace; the tortilla was literally omelette; and no bread was served with the tapas (strange). Net net...almost there...
Posted on Mon 06 Feb 2012 13:05:14
on the basis of the Time Out review we went to Esquina last night and whilst we were impressed with the food, we came away disappointed due to the sub-par level of service.
Despite arriving early we were unable to find space inside so sat at one of the outside tables. We were informed that we could not have food served outside so moved back inside only to later find the same waiter serving food to another outside table.
As we'd somehow been missed off the list (despite having spent $100 on drinks and having spoken to the waiting staff a few times) we then had wait over an hour before we were finally seated (1 hr 20 mins after arriving). Some groups managed to get food served where they stood but I guess we somehow didn't qualify for that privilege.
We ate the scallop ceviche and tuna tartare which were great, lamb chops and iberico burgers which were fantastic and slow cooked egg and ham crocettas which were well, a bit meh. Desert was the crema catalan which was superb and almost worth the pain in getting to this stage. Almost.
My big compaint is that each time we tried to order anything be it a drink at the bar or food when finally seated, we had to go through an interminable process of trying to catch one of the waiters' attention and then actually getting what we asked for. Our drinks were finally poured long after the first course had arrived and only after asking repeatedly. This is a big no-no as the Missus certainly does not appreciate not having a drink.
It seemed to me that the two waiting staff on duty just weren't sufficient in number for the level of business and in any case neither was particularly competent either.
Posted on Sat 14 Jan 2012 09:13:26