Review: Esquina

For me, Esquina has all the ingredients for a fabulous evening - small venue, no reservations, tapas, open kitchen, great vibe, and of course, fabulous food.  Turn up, get lucky, get eating.  And lucky I was!  - lucky enough to be taken there for our eight year anniversary!

I first read about Esquina a month or two before I actually made it through the door.  It's surprising that I made it at all, given the detractors: some terrible on line reviews about the food and comments such as "you'll never get a table", "don't bother for dinner unless you want to wait two hours", "make sure you go before 7pm or after 8.30pm".

I ignored all the food comments (I prefer to make my own mind up on that score, thank you), but did heed the advice on arrival time.  Despite battling my way through every red traffic light along Victoria/New Bridge (a battle, even on my bike), we made it there just before 7pm, and I'm glad we did.  Not only did we have the best seats in the house right in front of the plating area, but by 7.15pm there wasn't a spare stool in sight.

Proof that at least one person reads my blog
- previous hints about flowers were noted - 

The atmosphere at Esquina is very cool.  Almost everyone sits bar-side, along the length of the open kitchen.  And when I say open, I mean open.  None of this glass-fronted business you find elsewhere - Esquina allows you to truly be in the kitchen.  You can hear the chef directing (and occasionally berating) his troops, you can smell the precisely weighed basil being ripped up for the sorbet, you can see your own dishes created right in front of you, and  you might even chat to Andrew Walsh (executive chef), if you're really lucky and the kitchen is temporarily quiet.

View to the left, view to the right

Best seats in the house - slap bang in the middle of the bar (above) and right in front of the plating station (below)

Plating begins with squid ink aioli

So what did we have?  We started with an aperitif (beer for Sander, bubbles for me) with marinated olives - surprisingly sweet, but not overly so.  The grilled asparagus with slow cooked egg special was delicious - rich, with a touch of smoke from the bacon and lentil dressing.  The seafood mixed grill special was fantastic, and I'm going to have to experiment with creating my own romesco sauce aioli (dangerously good).  I don't usually pick the pork belly, but how can you turn down a description that reads "confit pork belly, chorizo, white beans, paprika skin"?  

My only slight disappointment was that our ham croquetas came half way through the rest of our meal when we would have preferred them at the beginning with the olives.  Honestly, this was probably our fault for being over eager and ordering too much in one go, instead of dish by dish.

Despite being superbly full, as we finished our wine watching dish after dish of delicious desserts coming out, our will power was beginning to waver.  We were finally pushed over the 'sweet treat' edge when two tiny cones of berry (?) sorbet were passed to us, and with our best intentions in tatters, we ordered the pistachio cake to share - absolutely no regrets.

Asparagus special

The end asparagus result

Seafood mixed grill for two - squid, prawns, scallop, snapper and stingray

So, the verdict?   Dinner for two - yes! For three - if you can get the corner?  For more - probably not, if you want to have a conversation.  Oh, and skip afternoon tea - you're going to need all the tummy capacity you can manage.  Enjoy!


Details:

16 Jiak Chuan Road
Singapore 089267
info@esquina.com.sg
Tel: +65 222 1616

Mondays to Fridays:
12 Noon to 3 pm, 6pm to 11pm

Saturdays:
6pm to 11pm

Closed on Sundays