When Catalunya opened July last year, the media and aficionados alike went wild - it had El Bulli written all over it. How can it not? Spearheaded by Executive Chef Alain Devahive Tolosa and restaurant manager Pol Porelló, they would have at least 20 years of experience between them working at El Bulli.
When you hear "El Bulli", immediately molecular gastronomy comes to mind. If that's what you're expecting when dining at Catalunya, you'll be utterly disappointed. Perhaps you'll find a dish or 2 worthy of being on El Bulli's menu (deconstructed tortilla and spherical olives), but Catalunya isn't about a molecular gastronomy dining experience. Instead, it serves contemporary Catalunian cuisine, putting an exquisite twist to very traditional Spanish dishes.
Catalunya is housed in a glass-encased dome - the newly built Fullerton Pavilion which floats on top of the Marina Bay waters. 360 degrees view all around, absolutely stunning indeed. I've always imagined the perfect proposal to be set in a place like this - high glass windows, overlooking the waters. There's a place in Cottesloe Beach, Perth which is exactly like this. Here's to wishful thinking (;
So a very good friend of mine had his birthday earlier this year and we decided to check this place out. I called 3 days earlier only to find that dinner was fully booked and the earliest availability was at 8.30pm. Seemed fine for us since we were used to eating that late, plus we were a bit too excited to pass out on it! I also mentioned that we were celebrating a birthday and they were very kind to let me know that they will have a surprise cake all ready for the night!
Gorgeous views from the bar
And so the day came. We arrived at 8.15pm, only to be told that our seats weren't ready. No problem at all, did I mention that they have a gorgeous bar where you could have tapas and drinks by their award-winning bartender? We decided to just wait though - drinks and tapas would have spoilt our appetite for dinner! 8.30pm came. 8.45pm. 9pm. I think I was slightly irritated, only because from where we were seating, we could clearly see an empty table. I understand that it might have been booked for someone else, but clearly they have not shown up yet. It was only at 9.40pm we got our table - a whole hour later than what we were down for! We weren't offered any drinks or anything - just water and being told that our table would be ready for us "soon".
Views from our table
Croquetas De Jamon ($15)
Chorizo Y Estrellados ($18)
The birthday boy was craving chorizos so we had to order this. Not granting the birthday boy's wishes would be very wrong (; This was simply, sliced chorizo and scrambled eggs on a bed of roasted potatoes. As mediocre and easy as it sounds, this was perfect. The roast potatoes were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, seasoned very well; the eggs were so creamy and rich and the chorizos were very good, they had a nice spice without being too salty. I loved how each component was seasoned perfectly yet when you have it all together it wasn't too salty and went so well together.
Grilled aubergine under miso springkle ($12)
To be honest I have no idea what a springkle is, neither could I find it on Google. Yet I don't think a restaurant of this scale and class would have allowed a typo on their menu. This seemed almost toe Japanese (think nasu dengaku) to be on the menu but perhaps I'm just oblivious to Spanish cuisine. Couldn't really fault this dish - eggplant and miso is a matchmake in heaven. The eggplant was grilled really well resulting in a very soft and sweet flesh and the miso offset that with it's salty umami-ness.
Catalunya tartar ($20)
At first glance this would look like an ordinary steak tartar with dish washing liquid bubbles. For the uninitiated, this would also taste like beef. Not sure which hat the chef pulled the rabbit out from but this was mind-blowing. This dish consists of only tomatoes, but Chef Alain has managed to change the texture so that it feels like beef, and then fluff up the soul of the tomatoes so what comes out is the foam. I wish there was another word to describe this, but tasty would be my choice. Comes with little servings of toasted bread in very cute silverware - in the shape of flip flops!
Suckling pig tapa ($22)
Now, if you go to Catalunya in a group of 3 or more, make sure you order their suckling pig - so soft and tender that it cuts with a plate, yet the skin is so crispy it literally shatters. But what do you do when there's only 2 of you? Order the tapas sized portion! You know how sometimes, when you least expect it, you bite into something and then this sense of joy and warmth overcomes you...it so rarely happens that when it does, you literally feel like you could be happy dying there and then. Well, this was it. It was so succulent and fork tender, the crackling was really crisp and then as if it wasn't flavourful enough, they had a full-bodied reduction to go with it.
I've never really had pork like that before. It's like all the fat melted into the meat so you don't really see the fat at all. What you're left with is really sticky goodness, all gelatinous and broken down but still has that bite to it. Totally unlike pulled pork which can get all stringy and dry - this was amazing. It was also served with a lemon pith emulsion which helped cut through the fat.
Chocolate in different textures ($16)
I think the boy was still a little spellbound by the Choconuts we had at Jaan, so he jumped at this the moment he saw it on the menu. I would have had the Torrija with smoked milk ice-cream just because it was something different, but who am I to stop the birthday boy? We weren't blown away by this dish though, it was good, but not amazing.
Surprise birthday cake
The cake (on the house), was a lovely gesture. He was pleasantly surprised, so that was good (:
I was secretly glad that the food made up for the somewhat lacklustre service. The hiccup before dinner was a bad start and it was hard getting the attention of the servers throughout the night. I'm not usually one to complain about waters not being refilled or plates not being cleared but for a place like Catalunya, I expected better service. Don't get me wrong though, the servers were very pleasant when they were around, none of that "I hate my job I don't wanna be here" look.
Would I return? Just maybe. I really really wanted to love Catalunya. The food was great, and the facade and ambience just takes your breath away. But with the little hiccups and all, I wouldn't hurry to return. Not with all the new restaurants and places opening up in Singapore now. Perhaps I went on a bad night..perhaps one day I'll return to give it another chance. There are other items on their menu which I really want to try...
The Fullerton Pavilion, 82 Collyer Quay
+65 65340188 (General Enquiries), +65 65340886 (Reservations)
