My Little Spanish Place

We liked the idea of a little spanish place in the area. So we went to try this on the night of the crazy traffic jam caused by the crane which hit the overhead pedestrian bridge. Fortunately it started to move as we left home and after the always difficult part of finding a lot in this area, we proceeded to the restaurant.

We walked in and waited. And waited. And waited. No one attended to us and the others who had also walked in a minute later. In the end, i spotted my reservation as my name was on a table and sat ourselves and asked the waiter for menus. The waiter was oblivious to the fact that we had seated ourselves! Not a promising start.

For appetizers we had the cold cuts and cheese and the squid fried in its own ink. The cold cuts were good quality but the price is too high for the small pieces that were served. The squid was interesting but i thought it would come simmered in olive oil but instead was deep fried so not something i would order again.

The paella was wholesome, with very pleasant and tasty prawns. I only wish there was more of those slices of sausage/salami that they put on top. It was a decent paella, not the best i have tried, but decent.

Service was patchy which ticks me off. So many restaurants in Singapore have patchy service. Is it embedded in our culture?!

Overall, a nice addition to the places to eat in the area, but they really need to work on the service, and the owners should make more effort at walking around and entertaining and talking to the guests. One of the lady partners stood behind the bar most of the time and never ventured out even though i feel she knows her staff were not running up to par. On pricing, i guess their rent might be high, but they should tweak it down a notch for a neighborhood place.

I have desired to eat paella for the longest time since my first taste of it at Ma Masion years ago at Bugis Junction. When I read in the papers that My Little Spanish Place specialized with 3 types of paella, I thought I had found THE place to eat.

 

A couple of us girls decided to skip the usual buffet outings to try out someplace new. My Little Spanish Place is located next to Coronation Plaza in a shophouse that has been beautifully decorated inside with warm hues of orange and leather seats. The ambience is definitely a winner. You almost calm down immediately from the grind of the work week  by taking in the décor of the restaurant. As it is quite a small restaurant, it’s advisable to make reservations.

 

We were informed that the paella which we picked – The Chef’s special would take about 20 minutes to prepare, and were thus advised to order tapas. We ordered the mushroom with prawn and cheese, the orange olive salad, and the squid ink calamari. The mushroom tapas was excellently done, with the mushrooms retaining its juiciness. The squid ink calamari was something special, different from the fried calamari you get at regular western restaurants. It was lightly fried, and coated with squid ink. Something totally difficult to take a picture off! The disappointment was the orange olive salad. These days I have a thing about ordering salads in restaurants, as I know I can prepare them just as well at home. This dish consisted probably of 1 orange, and a bunch of olives. And it was already $6!

 

The paella finally came. The rice was quite well cooked, not too salty. It was topped off with sausage and prawns, which make the taste balance out. As compared to my experience at  Ma Masion, this paella dish was almost too healthy, as I did not see loads of butter in it. Well, all in all the 3 of us shared the paella meant for 2 persons, and we were quite full at the end of the meal. Was I impressed? No. Nothing fantastic that would cause me to fantasize weeks on. So it was one of the places that I would come and try it for once, just for the experience, and simply move on to somewhere else. I suppose for those staying around Bukit Timah, visiting this cozy, homely Spanish Place would be more of a common occurrence.

Step into the restaurant and u feel like u would be transported to Milan. You can choose to dine al fresco or indoors but with the Singapore weather and Commando mosquitoes, we chose the later. 

It was packed on a Friday night. There was a crowd of older adults have a merry time celebrating a birthday. They were a little too boisterous for my liking, but the tai tais provided much conversational topics :P

Thankfully my friend made a reservation for 8pm because it was packed to the brim. Walking to out seats was a big squeeze as the chairs and tables were so packed, there was not much maneuvering space. I seriously thank the owner for his/her honesty when naming the restaurant because it was indeed tiny.

On the bright side (even though lighting and the wall paper made the place dim and hard to take pics), it did make the place cozy! The walls were decorated with cartoon pictures of bullfights and shelves were lined with wine bottles.

The waiters were very courteous and did not push us to make orders as we waited for our friends to arrive. 

Started out with a red wine sangria. Refreshing but nothing special. Could not really taste the red white nor the fruitiness in the red wine. Wonder if the fruits took away too much flavor from the wine.

 We ordered 2 tapas – Albondigas (Meatballs) and the mini hamburgers. The meatballs were simple. Nothing fancy and my bf was disappointed with the portions because he expected it to be bigger. We waited a while for the hamburgers but when the wait got a little too long, we enquired about it and they told us that they ran out of it. Hmm… could have told us before we asked them.

We ordered the large homestyle paella with seafood, chicken and sausage. The rice was fragrant from the saffron and the prawns were very tasty. The sausage was interesting – remined me of Chinese sausage. Chicken was a bit on the dry side. The portion was substantial because 4 hungry people could not finish it. Even though it was two couples – the two girls can eat. It really did remind me of Chinese claypot rice.

 

Desserts

My BF ordered the fried milk. It was 4 rolls of dough and cream. Not bad. Something special but not something incredible.

The Churros were crispy and yummy. I ordered the original as I wanted to appreciate the cinnamon in its own glory. Also wanted to pair it with a nice cup of cuppaccino. My friend ordered hers with chocolate that came in a separate cup. The cup of melted chocolate was big enough for us all to dip our churros with lots still remaining.

All in all, the meal was satisfying as we sanked into the leather seats and chatted till the day got latter. Nice place to chill out for dinner. Expected more from the food but it is always good to have little or “poco” expectations of from a “poco” place! J

Our reservation on a Friday night was made for 730 pm but we got there early at about 645pm in the end as the first arrivals. We were shown to a table next to the door but requested to move to the table next to it so that we could sit right next to each other instead of facing each other. The seating in the restaurant is extremely cozy and if you're lucky like us, you would be able to get plush cushioned seating.

A spanish lady took our order, which consisted of the Tortilla de patatas (potato omelette), garlic prawns, squid fried in its ink and seafood paella. The menu indicated that the tortilla de patatas is typically served cold but diners could inform the server if they wanted it hot. When we asked for it to be served hot, the lady hesistated and said that it was already cooked, so.. As she didn't finish her sentence, I took it to mean that she did not encourage it being served hot. However, she was really pleasant and polite and we therefore didn't mind trying the dish cold, even though hubby and I recalled that when we had the same dish in Spain, it was served warm. The lady also informed us that the paella would take 40 min to prepare, which I suppose is a necessary warning given the number of reviews it has received about waiting time. We assured her that we were fine with the wait.

The restaurant was pleasantly quiet until more diners arrived. We subsequently realised that there was a private party of more than 20 people held that night in the restaurant. Although it was rather noisy, it did not really bother us as we were in the corner furthest away from the group; also we were sitting next to each other so we could hear our voices over the noise. Plus it's always interesting to people watch! However, we observed that the noise and the crowd (sometimes standing and milling around) appeared to bother some, especially those sitting closer to the group. Seating is not very spacious in the restaurant and the noise can annoy in the relatively small space.

Anyway, back to the food. The tortilla arrived first - the dish consisted of 2 fat slices of omelette filled with layers of potato slices, with a side of aioli sauce. The sauce went well with the omelette and the pototo slices were soft but not mushy. The next dish to be served was the garlic prawns which was disappointing. The prawns were shrunken, didn't look or taste fresh and the fragrant garlic and olive oil gravy did not save the dish. As hubby said, we could have done the same dish at home, and better at that. The last tapas was the squid fried in its own ink, essentially calamari in ink batter which we enjoyed - the squid was sliced rather thinly, the batter was crisp but did not actually taste very different from normal calamari despite the squid ink.  

The paella came after a 40 min wait as promised, and we were quite surprised to see that it was rather dry as the paella we had in Spain and even in other restaurants in Singapore tend to be moist. It was slightly disappointing as the paella wasn't fragrant (possibly not enough saffron?) but we still enjoyed it. As hubby put it, it felt like we were eating spanish claypot rice, and he polished off all the cripsy burnt bits at the bottom and side of the pan.

We were trying to decide whether we should go somewhere else for dessert when the Spanish lady approached us with the dessert menu. I spotted the Fried Milk on the menu, and encouraged hubby to try it as it has been described in other reviews as something akin to milk custard. Hubby took up my suggestion and I picked the churros (without the chocolate) for myself. Downside was we waited about 25 min for our dessert. Desserts, as it turned out, wasn't impressive. The Fried Milk consisted of 4 fried "nuggets" of white gooey clumps with an impressive mountain of whipped cream. Hubby said that the Fried Milk was an acquired taste and actually didn't taste much of milk. The churros were a tad hard and not at all like those I have had in Spain. Felt that more cinnamon powder should have been sprinkled on the churros. Plus neither dessert was hot, which probably meant that they were sitting in the kitchen for a while prior to them being served. 

However, the earnest service and the cozy setting made up for the misses, so it was an enjoyable meall all in all.

My Little Spanish Place was selected after reading through Lianhe Zhaobao one weekend on a special review about Spanish food.  It is located in a shop house along Bukit Timah Road. 

The menu is pretty unique as it began with a brief introduction about the owner and his partner.  It is divided into various selections like Tapas (little dishes), Raciones (bigger portions of tapas dishes), soups, salads, paellas (rice cooked in a pan) & dessert.

We choose three items: Gambas al Ajillo (Garlic Prawns),  Calamare Fritos en Su Tinta (Black Ink Squid) and Paella de Marisco (Seafood Paella)

The garlic prawns are meaty mix with a decent amount of garlic and olive oil.  This is a winning dish to start with.  The black ink squid is just as tasty.  It does not look fanciful probably due to the black ink but the squid is well battered with a thin and crispy layer of flour.  The Seafood paella was served only half an hour later.  It comes with a satisfying amount of Seafood like prawns, mussels and squid in a pan but the rice is a little too moist.  I would prefer the rice to be done with an al dente texture and some burnt rice stuck on the pan.

The restaurant ambience is nice and cosy designed with an authentic wooden touch.  The only setback is the waiting time.  Some patience is needed before your stomach is filled.

It was a stormy rainy drenching Sunday afternoon (yes it was that heavy). Had just picked up some wines from LaBenaton just a few doors away when we decided to check out this place for dinner.

From the menu Forward, seems like this family is from Castilla Y León. As we arrived before 6-6:30pm, the kitchen was still preparing for dinner tapas. Hence there was a limited range to choose from. We decided to start with a wooden slab topped with various cold cuts. Amazingly good.. followed with the meat balls delightful and chic peas... a must try.

Crossing into the dinner hour, with the finger bites tasting so good, we stayed on to order the Paella seafood & chicken. After about a 30min wait it came. Nice portions but could have been more flavourful. Wondering if it's the style or not fully infused into the rice grains. One of my own personal gauges for a good paella is looking out for the crunchy burnt rice bits stuck on the pan.

Read/heard once, a good paella needs to be prepared in a large pan, maybe one as large to hold 16pax.

This 45 minutes 30 bucks paella thing; doesn't the HK Food bars have it as baked rice?  We ordered the rice pan first thing, even before the sangrias, so we could have a relatively smooth dinner.  Still with the patatas out in 5 seconds after the order and the pinchos another 5 after that, you have to really like your dinner companion to avoid drumming the table with your fingers as you wait.  It is kind of like space time continuum manner of the Vietnamese drip coffees which go on forever.  For the audience, we are talking about a nation of acronym loving short stuttered people who truncate sentences into clipped parade ground barking order. "NO Stock!"

There is one Spanish restaurant in Chijmes that does better on the Sangria, Paella front, but the truth is, after visiting several in SIngapore, I think the Spanish do not travel well.  They do travel, but not very well.  Just look to the 18th century for clues.  The concept of tapas is lovely, but not exclusive, the Japanese izakaya, the English pub grub, all of them are meant to help wash down the alcohol you would imbibe in rather large quantities for the style of dining.  Which is just as well for this place, you have to have your beer googles on to keep smiling at your date while you wait, and to get past the forlorn burnt orange on the wall.
The one thing they do well, they do a lot of.  You wouldn't miss the roasted bell peppers.  It is on everything, even on plates not advertised with.

bf was craving spanish and found this place. just opened - 2.5 weeks.

tapas - we ordered the black ink calamari and grilled peppers. both were very good. we wanted to try more tapas, but decided to save space for the paella.

paella - they got our order wrong and served us the veggie paella instead of the house special. thought it was a tad boring. i say stick to the tapas. but then, i think i\'m not much of a paella fan.

dessert - churros con chocolate and fried milk. fried milk was interesting! chocolate was very thick and bittersweet. exactly how i like it. we scraped out the bowl. churros was a tad hard. have given feedback and hope they\'ll improve.

sangria - good sangria.

they got our order wrong, but the service staff was ernest and food didn\'t take too long to come. i\'ll put the mess-ups down to teething problems and will be back for more tapas!

No, I am not singing a variation of "Michael Learns To Rock" but explaining my experience at My Little Spanish Place after twittering about it last night. So here are the details...

I was originally looking forward to going to Cellar Door last week but found that it had been replaced by this new outlet. So I thought I would go check it out on this Sunday night. Walking in, I was impressed by the decor. It was nice and the warm lighting settings made it ideal to bring a date. With such a nice setting combined with a reasonable price point, it makes an ideal set-up to lure more obnoxious loud-talking local diners, which became quickly evident soon after I sat down.

Once seated, I ordered a glass of Red Wine Sangria ($10.50) which was really refreshing. I then decided to have a Seafood and Chicken Paella but while waiting for it to be prepared, had some appetisers to fill my date's stomach as she was really hungry.

We started with the Tortilla de Patata con Aioli ($6). One look and I could tell that the Spanish omelette was intricately prepared. However, it was also obvious that the food has been around for awhile. Tasted fine anyways and the aioli sauce was really good, one of the better ones I have ever had.

Next I tried the Albondigas ($10.50). The three large beef balls had a fatty after-finish, quite similar tasting to what I could get at a zi-char stall.

And now the paella. Oh hang on, I never got to that. My dining partner literally saw the paella walk past me onto the next table of diners who came later than me. I found out later that there was a service mess-up and that my food will come in ten minutes. I was not convinced that a dish which they told me would take 40 minutes to make could be done in such a short time.

In most cases, I would not have mind the wait but my partner was really hungry and it would not have made sense to order more appetisers and then not be able to finish the main course eventually. What disgusted me was that there was absolutely no service recovery. They could have offered some bread, some light bites while we were waiting for the paella to arrive. Unfortunately, the only recovery I had was to convince my date that a mickee dees cheese burger was not a bad option for dinner. I wished that I could scrap off the 10% service charge that I paid, but I did not want to make a scene and left in a puff. 

This brand new home style Spanish restaurant is quite a hidden find. A warm & friendly interior with a few tables outside. Spanish music was playing which added to the nice atmosphere.

we weren't that hungry so just ordered a few tapas for a light dinner. We had the meatballs, potatas bravas, coquette, mini burgers, chickpeas & chorizo. Price were between $4-9 each, serving 2-3 persons (tapas style). All were lovely and tasted great - my favourite being the meatballs that were served in gravy insted of tomato sauce. The coquettes were very goey & tasty and the sauce on the potatas bravas was quite nice. Only complaint was the chickpea  chorizo was a little dry but a squeeze of lemon juice helped out. Also, I would not order the burgers again - these were obviously on the menu for children and were unmemorable.

A great find & I can't wait to go back to try their paella and the main dishes sounded tasty & interesting!